In Hong Kong, many school principals have outsourced their extra-curricular activities to reduce the workload of teachers and provide more activity options for students. This article reports on a qualitative study aimed at examining the views of a group of 16 teaching professionals from ten primary schools in Hong Kong on the effectiveness of, as well as the major concerns about, outsourcing extra-curricular activities. The findings indicate that three themes emerged from the data regarding the effectiveness of outsourcing extracurricular activities to external organisations: (1) reducing teachers' workload and cost saving; (2) enhancing the expertise of teachers; and (3) catering for the needs of both parents and students. On the other hand, the major concerns about outsourcing activities were: (1) increasing administrative duties; (2) quality of the activities; (3) linking activities to school curricula; and (4) student discipline. It is recommended that school, government and parent representatives be involved in the monitoring of delivering outsourcing activities.
[Copyright © 2015 Education Pub.]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the progress of the curriculum reform in Hong Kong in the implementation phase from 2001-2006, with the agreement and support of heads and teachers on the reform. Design/methodology/approach – Survey questionnaires and focus group interviews were used to collect data from various stakeholders. A stratified random sampling method was employed to select 150 primary schools and 120 secondary schools to participate in the study. Findings – It is found that with the agreement and support of school heads and teachers, there is good progress in the reform items on teaching and learning. Findings of this paper also suggest that teachers who agreed with the reform items made changes with their practices in terms of learning and teaching strategies, catering to learner diversity, assessment for learning, developing students' language proficiency, cross-curricula learning, playing multiple teachers' roles and preparation for the new senior secondary curriculum. This study thus supports most findings from the change literature with its empirical data that educational changes and innovations with the agreement and support of school heads and teachers tend to have a greater chance of succeeding. Originality/value – The paper contributes by examining to what extent findings and views established in change literature elsewhere can be justified and enriched with the case of Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.]

A total of 575 students from the Associate Degree Foundation Program and the Associate Degree Program participated in this study. The two purposes of this study were to use the time series between/within experimental design to examine whether participation in co-curricular activities could (1) enhance student learning effectiveness and (2) have positive effects on the academic performance of self-funded sub-degree students in Hong Kong. It was found that participation in cocurricular activities could not enhance student learning effectiveness. Associate degree students were too preoccupied by the need to attain good academic results in the first 2-3 terms of study. Rather, this study suggests that student learning effectiveness is affected by the time factor. High learning effectiveness was observed in the middle of the academic year but relatively low learning effectiveness at the end of the year.
[Copyright © 2011 International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The journal web site is located at: http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/]

Drawing on the theoretical and analytical tools from the sociology of education, in particular the work of Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton, the paper explores the tensions within curriculum reform discourses and how these tensions play out in different global contexts. The analysis focuses on two curriculum reform policies -- Hong Kong and South Africa. On the surface the policies appear to be addressing a similar problem of inadequate schooling systems and proposing a similar solution, the restructuring of the undergraduate degree from three to four years. Drawing on the principles of temporality and specialization from Legitimation Code Theory, the analysis shows that the underlying logic for these reforms is very different. A comparison of these different logics provides insight into the highly contested space of curriculum reform and the implications for addressing inequality.
[Copyright of Teaching in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1023287]

This paper aims to identify the perceptions of the current curriculum innovation in Hong Kong: Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) by two groups of teachers: the pre-service and in-service teachers. It examines the issues regarding the context, concept and practice of TOC. Focusing on the perceptions of two groups of teachers, it attempts to clarify some issues related to the implementation of TOC and the improvement of teacher education course. When important changes take place in Hong Kong after 1997, a high priority of concern should focus on education.. It is very important that TOC should meet the needs of students and the society.

The concept of hidden curriculum has been interpreted in various perspectives and the diversity of its functions, patterns and definitions has also cried for a more consensual platform for discussion. It has been linked with values acquisition, socialization, and maintenance of class structures (Vallance, 1991, Anyon, 1981; Bowles & Gintis, 1976), the social structure of the classroom (Dreeban, 1967), the moral dimension (Kohlberg, 1970), hegemony (Apple, 1975) and the social stratification of class, race, and gender (Apple, 1982; Aronowitz & Giroux,1985; Giroux & Purpel, 1983; Oakes, 1985; Weiss, 1988). In this study, hidden curriculum is defined as 'those practices and outcomes of schooling which, while not explicit in curriculum guides or school policy, nevertheless seem to be a regular and effective part of the school experience' (Vallance, 1991, p.40). It involves the cognitive, physical and social environment of a school (Gordon, 1982). Bloom(1972) maintains that the hidden curriculum 'is in many respects likely to be more effective than the manifest curriculum' because hidden curriculum is 'so pervasive and consistent over the many yeas in which our students attend school. Its lessons are experienced daily and learned firmly...' (p.343) and also its transmission is unconscious, thus making the students less likely to resist its influence. Also the outcomes of a hidden curriculum can either be intended or unintended. This study aims to study the functions, patterns and efficacy of the hidden curriculum as perceived by the students and teachers in a primary school in Tai Po. The research was carried out mainly through a two-week attachment scheme initiated by the Hong Kong Institute of Education in which the researcher was arranged to get first hand experience of primary school teaching in the case school. Some follow-up interviews and observation were made within the month after the two-week attachment finished. The findings from the fieldwork has inevitably turned

In Hong Kong, curriculum is centrally developed and teachers are expected to implement it as designed (Morris P., 1995; Nicholson A.Y.W., 1988, 1993). During the process of curriculum change, professional development plays a significant part to engender desired changes. These professional development efforts are top-down and mainly in the forms of centrally organized activities such as seminars and workshops for teachers (Cooke B.L, 1996). With a few teachers and educators involved during the development process and limited efforts to disseminate the curriculum initiatives, teachers are often left to implement the curriculum with little understanding of the rationale of these changes. Successful implementation, therefore, is left with individual teachers. Continuous professional development has been recognized as the key to school improvement (Rudduck J., 1991). It was even suggested that the extent to which professional development activities succeeded was the extent to which change succeeded (Fullan M., 1992). A whole range of activities has been identified (Huberman M, 1995). They might be individual teacher-centered, school-based or system-wide. However, traditional in- service training and staff development have been shown to be inadequate and"... network can provide fresh ways of thinking about teacher learning" (Lieberman A. & McLaughlin M.W., 1992, p.673) This paper proposes the concept of a cross-school teacher network, and shares the experience of the development of a teacher network in Hong Kong. Such network attempts to provide opportunities for practising teachers and school heads to share their concerns and their ways to deal with imposed curriculum changes. It is an ongoing process involving decisions about details of implementation, which aims to facilitate change. This is also based on the belief that teaching in Hong Kong suffers from the lack of opportunity to share as individuals, and particularly interact' with other teachers to reflect, to discuss