Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the complex, intricate relationships between the central (intended) curriculum, teachers’ perceived curriculums, and the enacted/assessed curriculum in classroom contexts. To do this, the authors have used Hong Kong’s new core senior-secondary liberal studies (LS) curriculum as a case study, with a special focus on its key pedagogical component – inquiry teaching/learning. Design/methodology/approach: This study’s objects are two teachers (from two local schools), each with a LS teacher’s education. Documentary analysis, lesson observation, and focus interviews were used to triangulate data for interpretation and analysis. Findings: The findings illuminate: how LS teachers’ perceptions of inquiry teaching/learning relate to and align with the advocacy embodied in the intended curriculum, the relationships between teachers’ perceptions and practices of inquiry learning and teaching, and how this aspect of the intended curriculum reform can be made more relevant to the classroom context. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the under-researched area of curriculum gaps and (mis)alignments in Hong Kong’s LS curriculum reform.
[Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited.]

There are increasing commitments from the education sector to cultivate our next generation with a life-long and forward-looking concern for the environment, preparing them to make well-informed, reasoned and practical decisions, and to take actions leading to the creation of a sustainable environment. In 2005, the United Nations declared the year as the start of the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”, where “sustainable development” is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This has become the guiding principle of environmental education focusing on the three major aspects of awareness, attitudes and actions. Through enhancing our students’ awareness of environmental issues and cultivating their positive attitudes towards conservation work, it is believed that they will be more willing to take environmental friendly actions. In response, guidelines have been issued to schools in Hong Kong urging energy saving and waste reduction. Current work on Education For Sustainability (EFS) includes elements of sustainable development infused into the curricula of various subjects at different levels of schooling, from kindergarten to secondary. In addition, a whole range of programmes related to the promotion of sustainable development have been organized. However, at a recent symposium on plastic waste management attended by educators, policy makers, personnel from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and scientists, there were discussions that in spite of these programmes aiming to help our students better understand the interactions between human activities and the natural environment as well as the environmental problems they face locally and globally, our next generation cannot contribute much to alleviating these problems in their daily lives. This presentation will share the existing challenges and opportunities of EFS on plastic waste

Short-term study abroad programs have been increasingly emphasized in expanding university curricula since the beginning of the 21st Century. This chapter aims to understand students' perceptions of short-term study abroad programs in the context of Hong Kong Higher Education (HE). Its objectives are to examine students' perceived benefits, concerns and the issues facing them when deciding on their participation in these programs. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, a case study was conducted in the eight universities of Hong Kong. Results show that the students strongly believed that the greatest benefits of taking part in these programs included enhancing their personal growth and intercultural development. The significance of this chapter is to contribute new knowledge to the understanding of students' perceptions and values of outbound short-term study abroad in an Asian/Chinese context.
[Copyright © 2016, IGI Global.]

「小學統整課程示例計劃」是由香港教育學院資助進行的特殊計劃，目標在於推動香港小學統整課程的發展。該計劃透過參與的六所學校推行小一至小六共六套的統整課程，獲取寶貴的實踐經驗以作交流及推廣，旨在提供一個可行方案的初稿，供香港的學校按照本身的校本條件，參考課程內容作出修訂調動或增潤，並自行發展合適的校本課程。上述計劃邀請所有曾參與學習六套統整課程的三百二十九位小一至小三的學生及二百七十二位小四至小六的學生填寫問卷。本文透過問卷調查的結果探討香港小學生對課程統整的見解，並以下列三個重點 作出討論、分析和建議：（一)學生的學習態度、(二)學生的學習策略及（三〉學生的學習表現。

This paper argues that the planned introduction of visual literacy into the New Secondary School Curriculum can play a crucial role in enabling students to think critically and creatively in Hong Kong's highly visual landscape. As Hong Kong's educational system remains entrenched in long-established and conventional pedagogies, the primacy given to the written word is in sharp contrast with the pragmatic roles that visual images play in students' day-to-day life. Hong Kong is well-known for its extremely high level of Internet / broadband penetration and media saturation, yet visual literacy is still in a state of infancy in Hong Kong. Therefore, from a curricular standpoint, as Hong Kong society relies to a greater degree than ever before on visual communication strategies, it is vital that visual literacy be integrated as part of the new curriculum under the current educational reforms. As contemporary Hong Kong culture becomes increasingly dependent on the visual environment, developing visual literacy to enhance students' learning can be an important step in the future towards a more successful implementation and development of the New Secondary School Curriculum.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge]

香港幼兒課程與教學發展，由早期欠監管、不合乎幼兒的年齡與需要，漸改變至近年較貼合幼兒全人發展，這實有賴香港政府在不同時期的推動及業界多年來的努力。港英政府統治的一百年間，幼教機構一直是由教會、社圑及私人開辦，港英政府採取少干預政策，對早期幼教的承擔及所投放的資源實是有限。1891年歐德理(Eitel) 在其撰寫的香港教育年報(The Annual Report on Education in Hong Kong for the year 1891 )提議開辦幼兒教育，而當時倫敦殖民地辦公室的回應是：「幼兒教育是奢侈的」，由此可見一斑(Sweeting，1990，頁264)。20世紀60年代以後，因為香港社會經濟轉型，加上精英教育的開始，希望子女提早接受教育的父母日增，幼稚園和托兒所數目不斷增加，但無論在幼兒課程、教學及照顧上，政府仍沒有嚴謹監管。隨着世界幼教發展趨勢，80年代開始，政府對幼教提出政策建議，為幼兒課程發展的方向打下基礎。1997年香港政府推出新一輪教育改革，核心重點是幫助學生透過「終身學習」達至「全人發展」。幼教的方向及其重要性在21世紀的教育改革藍圖中重新被肯定及定位，提倡幼兒課程應是愉快及多姿多彩的，內容要切合幼兒的身心成長及需要(教育統籌委員會，2000)。為了提升幼教質素，特區政府在2016年施政報吿終於宣佈由2017/18學年起正式落實免費幼稚園教育政策。那麼，在頻仍的改革聲中，香港幼兒課程及教學由殖民地社會到回歸後有甚麼蜕變？發展過程中又面對甚麼問題？政府如何推動香港幼兒課程？日後有怎樣的發展趨勢？以上的問題將會在本章內加以討論。

Preschool teachers are an important element of high-quality, developmentally and multiculturally appropriate early childhood programmes. 7.5% of the total 160,000 children enrolled in Hong Kong kindergartens are ethnic-minority students and they are neglected in the Hong Kong education system until 2008. This study investigated the perceptions of teaching competency in multicultural classrooms held by 347 teachers at 22 kindergartens in Hong Kong. The study aims at (a) using Confirmatory Factor Analysis to validate the factor structure of the multicultural meaching competency scale (MTCS) among preschool teachers, (b) assessing the model difference of MTCS between teachers with and without multicultural training, and (c) informing the practice of multicultural teaching in early childhood education. The results indicated that a tripartite model in which the MTCS assessed skills, knowledge, and relationships obtained a statistical fit to a Hong Kong preschool sample, as in earlier research on a primary school sample in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]