The aim of the paper is to discuss the thinking process of a preschool teacher's knowledge of child development and the concept of creativity in designing art activities. The design of an art curriculum will reflect the adults' knowledge of child development (Morgan, 1995). Child development knowledge is very important in designing art activities for promoting children's creativity. The design of curriculum will depend on teacher's training, teaching experience, observation skills, concept of their theories of creativity and child development and the ability to reflect (Ngan 2006). Schon (1987) suggested 'theories-in-use' 'reflection-on-action', which indicate the importance of the teacher's thinking. A qualitative methodology was applied in a study of a typical preschool in Hong Kong. A semi-structured interview was conducted. Video-tape recordings of the classroom teaching was used as a stimulated recall of the activities to find out the rationale, focus of the activities and the reflection of the teacher. The findings indicate that the teacher needs to develop her observation skills in order to be more sensitive to children's needs. Finally her knowledge of creativity and children development are very important.

In recent years there are increasing global interests and concerns in interdisciplinary and integrative learning across various subjects. Locally in Hong Kong, the concept of integrated learning of the arts subjects is at its blooming stage. Since 2001, the Department of Creative Arts in the HKIEd has implemented programme modules and explorative research projects on "Integrative arts learning and teaching" for students in the pre-service and in-service teacher-education programmes. A constructivist approach (Sunal, 2000) is adopted in the design of the modules in which students are exposed to the experiences of integrative learning of visual art, music, dance and drama activities. The module implementation data and project research findings have shown some facts that students successfully constructed meaning through the authentic experiences they involved and were able to integrate ideas and skills being learned. However, we are still facing a lot of constraints that are to be resolved, especially in the curriculum planning and implementation in the local school settings. The presentation will discuss on exemplars of our module implementation and explorative projects in schools; and analyze the strength, weaknesses and constraints of implementing integrated learning of the arts subjects in Hong Kong.

Language in its broad sense refers to a message system communicated from one to another. It is not uncommon for teachers to teach with a specific kind of language to pupils, which creates unequal relations of power, particularly between teachers and pupils in classroom context. In turn, language itself becomes a discourse including the ways teachers speak during PE lessons. This study investigates the language used by two student teachers in PE lessons during field experience in a primary school in Hong Kong. The PE lessons conducted by the participants were video taped and analysed in the aspects of context, teaching process, and most of all, the language used during the lessons. Results indicate that the participants used language to teach and control pupils learning and discipline consciously and unconsciously. As student teachers, their teaching behaviour and performance were much influenced by the school traditions, such as routine training. However, through languages during the process of teaching, they exercised power and control over their pupils on thinking and ways of problem solving. Hidden curriculum such as sexism also existed unconsciously as another discourse in the lessons.

There is a growing consensus that schools and practising teachers can, in collaboration and/or in partnership with higher education institutions, make valuable contributions to initial and continuous teacher development, specifically when teachers can see how their efforts result in improved student learning and achievement. Learning Study, a Hong Kong version of the Japanese Lesson Study, was developed and used as a tool in a three-year project (2000 - 2003) for improving teaching and learning. Learning Study, which is built on a school-university partnership model, and is grounded in a theoretical framework of variation (Marton & Booth, 1997), was found to be powerful for teachers' professional development. In four years' time, Learning Study has spread from two primary schools to over a hundred primary and secondary schools, and over a hundred Learning Studies had been developed. Learning Study was also used in mentoring to facilitate the forming of a "learning community", to supplement the one to one mentor-mentee model, where the professional growth of all teachers involved was enhanced. In this symposium, we will illustrate how learning communities can be facilitated through engaging teachers in action research cycles of Learning Studies, in which teachers are empowered to learn from their students, from each other and from research as well.

This paper analyses and reports on the action processes of a Hong Kong secondary school adopting a multidisciplinary, project approach. It is written from an observer's perspective exploring the initiation, the nature, the learning activities and the assessment tasks of the student projects, teacher development programmes as well as the technical aspects of implementation. The author has observed how practitioners problematised and reconstructed habitual practices in a cyclical mode where they 'plan-act-observe-reflect' on their daily professional experience and developed practical knowledge. The yearlong processes depict key elements of an action research (Kemmis, 1988; Elliot, 2003). It is found that teachers' tacit knowledge had a significant impact on early identification of problems and suggesting solutions to ensure the smooth running of the curriculum. The learning logs and verbal presentations provided evidences that students had a sense of achievement wherever there were independent learning and decision-making. Both teachers and students reported team spirit, student-teacher rapport, and reflected enhanced self-efficacy. This matches what Katz and Chard (2000) describe as the '(cultivation) of the life of the young child's mind', which means not only knowledge and skills, but also social, emotional, moral, aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities. This paper also illustrates other multifaceted benefits to the school. Conscious of the impact of action research and the contributions of teachers' tacit knowledge in professional practice, the author argues that it is time for university academics or experienced researchers to help teachers publicize the 'tacit' to enrich the knowledge base for teaching and learning.

The purpose of the study is to identify the rationales and notions for music education in Hong Kong and China. This study investigates the practice of music education in Hong Kong and China under the impacts of Westernisation and colonization particularly since the late 19th century. It also highlights the features of music education, and current issues in education in Hong Kong and China with regard to the two recently issued music curricula. The curricula reveal various resemblances and differences in the design of the music curricula, which bring to light recommendations that could be shared among other countries.

Classroom management is recognized as an essential component of effective teaching. However, there is little information about how physical education student teachers manage their class during their practicum. The purpose of the study was to describe the class management practices of Hong Kong physical education student teachers. Twenty local primary pre-service student teachers were videotaped teaching two ball games lessons in the allocated schools during their final practicum. Each videotaped lesson was coded using the Physical Education Teacher Assessment Instrument (PETAI). Quantitative data generated by the PETAI indicated that the pre-service group spent similiar percentages of time in overall class management to other studies. Three pre-service student teachers were randomly selected to participate in the second phase of the study. Students were observed teaching two ball games lessons and were invited to take part in two pre-lesson interviews and two post-lesson stimulated recall sessions. Qualitative data were collected through lesson observations and interviews. Constant comparison and analytic induction were used to organize and categorize the data. Results showed that there were common managing behaviours and strategies exhibited by the pre-service student teachers during teaching. Pedagogical setting for learning and organization were the identical managing behaviours observed, whilst the preventive management, equipment management, and interactive management were the common class managing strategies identified. Findings of the present study hold implications for the preparation of physical education teachers.