Since the reunion of Hong Kong and china in 1997, Hong Kong has changed its national anthem, education and language policy accordingly. This sovereignty transfer has manifestly brought changes at every aspect of local society, which undoubtedly reflects on the content and design of school curricula. As Putonghua, i.e. The official language in mainland china, has been taught in schools for sixteen years as an important measure to enhance the appreciation and understanding of Chinese cultural heritage and to endorse national identity, Putonghua songs ranging from the Chinese folk songs and the national anthem, to the popular song, Chinghuatze (written by the Taiwanese singer songwriter, Jay Chou), have become an indispensable music learning experience for many Hong Kong students. Integrating Putonghua songs into the general music curricula is part of the education and language policy in Hong Kong schools, how to construct and deliver an innovative and feasible Putonghua music curriculum to be enjoyed by music educators and learners becomes a major challenge and necessary undertaking. This project investigated the phenomenon of the learning and teaching of Putonghua songs in Hong Kong schools since the change of sovereignty in 1997. the principal investigator intended to study the current perception and impact of using Putonghua songs as part of the music curricula in facilitating the understanding and appreciation of Chinese cultural traditions by surveying 400 undergraduate and postgraduate music students (i.e. Potential future music educators in Hong Kong) followed by semi-guided interview sessions with some of those subjects. The perception and viewpoints of future music educators towards Putonghua songs were carefully examined and discussed in order to understand the challenges of the learning and teaching of Putonghua songs in the context of enhancing Chinese cultural exposure, values education and national identity in light of post-colonisation in current Hong

Since the reunion of Hong Kong and China in 1997, Hong Kong has changed its national anthem from god save the queen to march of the volunteers. Such political transform has manifestly aggravated significant changes in society, which undoubtedly influence the content and design of school curriculum (Curriculum Development Council, 2002). As Putonghua (i.e. The official language of mainland China) has been taught in Hong Kong schools as language and education policy for seventeen years, measurable outcomes and impact on music curriculum would be an important measure to strengthen national identity (Brand & Ho, 1999). However, Cantonese remains to be the most widely used language in hung Kong (Leung & Lee, 2006). As indicated by previous research (Law, 1997), the current phenomena of the learning and teaching of Putonghua music curriculum and its effectiveness in terms of execution is unclear and inconclusive. Hence, there is a great need to investigate Putonghua songs in the context of education, history, culture, politics, and sociology. This project aims to study student teachers’ perception (as future music teachers) towards the learning and teaching of Putonghua songs in view of enhancing nationalisation, Chinese cultural heritage and values education during post colonial period. The preliminary findings will be discussed based on the context of neocolonization in Hong Kong, i.e. Music teachers’ awareness and resistance towards Putonghua songs and national anthem, how such political, cultural, social and educational shift change the development and delivery of local music curriculum, national identity and national education, multiculturalism, and academic research.

Information Technology (IT) has been infiltrating in every aspects of life, revolutionizing different modes of life, and making it inevitable to be incorporated in education. With a vision that it will help to change the future of mankind for good, policies have been set up by governments, institutions including schools to encourage, support, and monitor the applications of it. Viewing the escalating development of mobile technology and the fascination it has in attracting almost everyone to own a computer, a smart phone, and social networking device such as the whatsapp, face book, it is unimaginable to do without this technology in education. The modes of teaching and learning in music education, with its long history of association with different kinds of technology/instruments again have significantly found to be facilitated by the new digital technology. This study explicates how the technology policy in education has been implemented by the new generation pre-service music teachers who have been widely submerged in the sea of the ever changing technology. A total of 40 music lessons delivered by 20 pre-service music teachers, 10 each from hong kong and nanjing are to be observed. An observation form with closed-ended and opened-ended questions related to how the teaching practices of these pre-service teachers have incorporated technologies in their lessons is designed to collect data for analysis. The kinds of technologies used and the effectiveness in facilitating learning are examined. The practices are triangulated with the technology policy of government, regions, and schools in connection to identify issues confronting pre-service music teachers. The aspects which excel in the application of technology by pre-service music teaching practice recognized to include domains in music creating, listening, and performance, as well as assessment would be discussed. The increase in the use of music e-books in primary schools provided by publishers, the incorporation

It has been a decade since the implementation of Hong Kong's policy of inclusion, that mainstream schools should admit students with special educational needs (SEN). This study reports on music teachers' experiences of teaching SEN students in inclusive music classrooms. Data were derived from a qualitative multiple case study comprising10 government-funded primary school music teachers. These music teachers lack knowledge of ways to support the musical development of pupils with SEN and reported learned helplessness and effective exclusion of SEN students. The major barrier to effective inclusive music teaching evidenced is the absence of in-service training in inclusive music education.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2015.1044509]

Seeking to address a gap in the literature, this article reports the development of an instrument to measure Hong Kong primary school music teachers' concerns about inclusive music education. To do so, a 25-item music teachers' Concern of Inclusive Music Teaching (CIMT) scale was constructed and administered to 317 primary schools music teachers in Hong Kong, data from whom indicate that the CIMT scale comprises six concern factors ? 'learning support', 'learning difficulties', 'learning needs', 'resource', 'training' and 'curriculum design and assessment'. Although these data results do not support either Parsons and Fuller's (1974) three-factor model or hierarchical three-factor-related model, they do support a discrepancy noted elsewhere (Kazelskis and Reeves 1987; Schipull, Reeves, and Kazelskis 1995; Boz 2008; Borich 2013) that may reflect the impact of teaching context.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2015.1049259]

The objective of the study is to investigate various factors affecting the effectiveness of a music program at secondary school in Hong Kong. Two secondary schools are involved in the investigation. The principals, the music teachers, and the students are being interviewed separately with different sets of questions. In-depth questions concerning the rationale are being considered. The data collected are analyzed and findings of the key factors affecting the effectiveness of a music program include the leadership of the principal, the vision and involvement of the music teacher, as well as the management skill of both the principal and music teacher involved in complicated situations. It is, therefore, concluded that education of the principal and music teacher, which forms the two key factors effecting the effectiveness of a music program, should include also studies in management and leadership courses in addition to their own professional training. Furthermore, team work, availability of extra facilities, collaboration among colleagues of different subject areas, and many other interrelated elements are also essential factors for a successful music program.

Music curriculum reform in Hong Kong has been formally implemented since September 2006. Under such circumstances music teachers are to develop their school-based music curricula with regard to their specific teaching contexts. Generic skills are positive attitude and value should be developed by all Key Learning Areas including Arts and Music. This study expands on recent case study research which found four attributes of teacher quality in music teaching at a secondary school in Hong Kong (Leung & Wong, 2005). It aims to examine how music teachers in different types of Hong Kong schools implemented curriculum reform from September 2006. It focuses on the attributes of good practice in music teaching and learning in secondary schools, particularly the relationships between contextual factors, teacher quality, teaching strategies and learning outcomes. Three samples of different kinds of schools, namely, government schools, aided schools and direct-subsidy schools were invited to participate in this multiple-case study in which classroom observation and semi-structured interviews with teachers and students were conducted. Different contexts, teacher and student characteristics and their interrelationship are to be analyzed. The findings of this study will contribute to the quality of music education by revealing successful approaches to the design and implementation of school-based music curriculum, the attributes of teacher quality and student responses to learning under the reform changes.

Creative dance is one type of art forms, which is an international language for young children’s expression and exploration in their experienced world. However, creative dance has not been accepted in the Hong Kong official curriculum Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (The Curriculum Development Council, 2006). It is recommended that appropriate time allocation for half-day and full-day music activities are 45-60 and 60-105 mins respectively; only for Physical Fitness / Music / Arts activities. In fact, creative dance is the integral curriculum to enhance young children’s holistic development. The aims of this paper are three-fold. First, it examines the constraints on the development of preschool creative dance in Hong Kong. Secondly, it introduces an innovative Creative Dance Framework for early childhood curriculum in aesthetic education. Thirdly, it recommends the possible strategies on the development of creative dance in Hong Kong. The five major constraints include: Curriculum Guide, School Curriculum Policy, Curriculum and Resources, Professional Support, Teacher Education.