The debate about the effectiveness of the liberal arts curriculum is centuries old, but recent financial and social pressures have placed the survival of the liberal arts in the United States at even greater risk. Using Kimball's (1995) notion of the oratorical and philosophical traditions of liberal education, this article first identifies the critical importance of balancing breadth and depth in the curriculum before honing in on breadth as being in particular danger in the current climate. After analyzing the major threats to breadth in American higher education, the article looks overseas to find a new case for the value of breadth in the curriculum. It focuses on Hong Kong's university system, where a large-scale, multiyear project is underway to graft a fourth year of general education onto a three-year model of discipline- or profession-specific training. The resulting contrast between American institutions discarding curricular breadth while foreign universities rediscover it is telling. This topic has particular relevance for Christian colleges and universities as they seek the holistic development of their students.
Copyright of Christian Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15363759.2015.973344

This study investigated students' interpretation of diagrams representing the human circulatory system. We conducted an interview study with three students aged 14–15 (Year 10) who were studying biology in a Hong Kong school. During the interviews, students were asked to interpret diagrams and relationships between diagrams that represented aspects of the circulatory system. All diagrams used in the interviews had been used by their teacher when teaching the topic. Students' interpretations were expressed by their verbal response and their drawing. Dual coding theory was used to interpret students' responses. There was evidence that one student relied on verbal recall as a strategy in interpreting diagrams. It was found that students might have relied unduly on similarities in spatial features, rather than on deeper meanings represented by conventions, of diagrams when they associated diagrams that represented different aspects of the circulatory system. A pattern of students' understanding of structure–behaviour–function relationship of the biological system was observed. This study suggests the importance of a consistent diagrammatic and verbal representation in communicating scientific ideas. Implications for teaching practice that facilitates learning with diagrams and address students' undue focus on spatial features of diagrams are discussed.
Copyright of International Journal of Science Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2014.969359

For the past few decades, cultural studies scholars and critical educators in such contexts as North America, Australia and the UK have called upon their fellow scholars to cross disciplinary borders in framing and addressing educational issues. Inter-disciplinary work as such would recognize cultural studies as bodies of knowledges and approaches to be applied in new educational settings. It would also acknowledge the need for more and better studies of schooling in order to reflect on the problematics of the sites in their specific historical and institutional contexts. This paper discusses my earlier work that investigated a pedagogical issue of project learning in the Hong Kong senior secondary school subject Liberal Studies as a case of doing cultural studies and education between the disciplinary borders of the two fields. The paper examines the interdisciplinary conceptual-analytical framework of drama and the performative I adopted to understand the complex nature of project learning as a mode of learning. It ends by reflecting on the spaces such an interdisciplinary analytical framing might open for cultural studies' interventions into the schooling system.
Copyright of Cultural Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2014.900099

The Curriculum Development Council of the Education Department of Hong Kong takes the role to prepare official curriculum for the schools in Hong Kong. On the part of art education, it seldom mentions the impact of Museum visits on the study of art. Since the official art curriculum is a guide for Art teachers in Hong Kong to prepare their taught curriculum, they often overlook art museum as a supportive resources center for the teaching of art. In 1985 the NAEA published the goals for quality art education, which are among the basic skills addressed in virtually all art museum program planning. Art museums serve as resources for teachers in the schools, the setting of art museum provided a sound physical resource, whereas the docent service, lectures and seminars, and workshops on different themes are very effective human resources in the teaching of art. Referring to local situation, the Hong Kong Museum of Art plays similar role in the field of art education in Hong Kong. The education section of the museum conducts talks, seminars, and workshops on different themes. Docent service is also provided. The museum serves both as sites for field trips and extension services. But it is scarcely considered as a teaching resources / support for the art teachers in Hong Kong. The idea of this paper is to study the use of the Hong Kong Museum of Arts by Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary school art teachers of Hong Kong. First, it provides a background on the art education in Hong Kong. Second, it describes the research findings of the use of the Hong Kong Museum of Arts by the kindergarten, primary and secondary school art teachers of Hong Kong. Third, collected data is interpreted and discussed. Finally, recommendation is made for the improvement of art education in Hong Kong.