自2009年開始，香港高中課程進行大規模的改革，所有適齡的中學生，須接受六年免費的中學教育，在初中至高中期間，無需經歷任何公開考試，直至完成中六，才接受一次中學文憑考試，以作為升學或就業的依據。在這改革背景之下，香港的高中課程和教學須面對有史以來最重要的改革和挑戰。在課程路向方面，新高中課程從以往的菁英主義走向普及主義；在教學路向方面，它須走向多元化的教學方向，才能處理新高中課程會出現的學生個別差異的問題。面對這種種的挑戰，究竟學校政策制定者對新高中課程所持的觀點，與官方課程是否相同，抑或有異？在他們工作的學校環境中，建構新課程時又有何決定？本研究以香港新高中課程改革為背景，以實徵研究為本，探討香港中學的政策制定者對新高中課程的觀點和決定，問題有三：一、香港的學校政策制定者對新高中課程持哪些觀點？二、學校政策制定者在學校課程的建構方面有何決定？三、哪些因素影響學校政策制定者的決定？
[Copyright © 2012 高等教育文化事業有限公司.]

With a view to achieving quality school education (QES) with all its concomitant benefits, the Education Commission published a Consultation Document on the subject in November 1996. Public views were sought thereafter for two months and the final report is expected to come out in the near future. Generally speaking, the public found the recommendations contained in the Document positive and forward-looking. We strongly back the Commission's brave initiative in attempting to improving school education in Hong Kong. Of the various areas in which recommendations for improvement were made, we would like to focus our discussion on three of them, namely, the relationship between SMI and the development of quality school education, the requirements for schools to be economically efficient and quality assurance inspections. Through studying these three areas in greater detail, we hope that we will be in a better position to suggest some of the prerequisites for quality school education and ways to make schools more accountable to the general public.

In recent years, there has been a general outcry about the decline in the quality of school education in Hong Kong. The Education Commission has in its Report No.7 expressed its concern on the quality in school education. The Commission noticed that there are constraints of the present school system on the promotion of quality education. It recommends to inculcate a quality culture in the school system; to provide a practical framework for key players in the school system to achieve the aims of education in an effective, efficient and accountable manner; to establish a mechanism for quality assurance; and to provide incentives for performance. At the very centre of the Education Commission's recommendations is the introduction of a market culture into the Hong Kong Education System. The creation of a language of "output", "performance indicators", "valued-added" and "measurable product" has constituted the curriculum as an entity to be "delivered" and the parents and pupils as the "consumers" of educational products. These, according to Grace (1995), are discourse in Markets in Education and part of the "commodification process" that brings the market forces into education. This paper will briefly review some of the recent educational reforms in Hong Kong, and will discuss the wider issues concerning the appropriateness and impacts of the application of the market model to school education. A model of the education market place adapted from Ball (1990) will be used as a basis for analysing the recent market-oriented educational reforms in Hong Kong.

This paper presents an overview of mathematics education in Hong Kong and the education reform it is experiencing. The original mathematics curricula had been successful in certain ways (as demonstrated by the achievements of Hong Kong students who placed fourth in TIMSS); however, there were also negative aspects. The revision in both primary and secondary mathematics education aims to shift the emphasis to the development of thinking abilities and positive attitudes of students towards learning the subject. Mathematics is expected to provide a basis for making investigations as well as a tool for analyzing data, representing findings, and formulating theories. Teachers are encouraged to adopt a student-centered, activity-based, and hands-on approach to organize students' learning, and to make use of concrete examples from everyday life whenever possible. Student learning is expected to progress from concrete to abstract, and calculators and computers are expected to be used to facilitate student learning. Some implications of these approaches are also discussed.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the use of performance indicators in higher education for quality assessment and assurance in the UK, the USA, Australia, and other European countries. This is due to an increased emphasis on accountability of the higher education institutions to stake holders, and the continuing desire of all involved in higher education to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This article describes the developmental stage of an indicator system for an in-service "refresher" training course at a teacher education institution in Hong Kong. The article examines the role of performance indicators as a means of quality assurance in in-service teacher education and training at the course level. It also outlines key performance indicators and associated data collection methods for the evaluation of programme quality. In this article, it will be argued that monitoring change through in-service teacher education and training is likely to be a long process of continuous evolution or development.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]