It is expected that heading towards year 2000, using Information Technology and effectively implemented Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) in Hong Kong will become very hot issues in information era. This paper aims to examine the role change of primary school subject coordinators and how teachers face the curriculum change and instruction innovation. A questionnaire has been administered to the random sample school coordinators, followed by an interview of a selected sample. It is hoped that the results will have some implication to teacher education programs, and will enhance the "Teacher Changing Capacity" in our rapidly changing society.

In the current curriculum reform of Hong Kong, the Curriculum Development Council (2002) recommends that teachers make use of co-operative learning to cater for their students' individual differences. A common feature of co-operative learning is that students help each other to learn in small groups towards a common goal (Cohen, 1994; Johnson & Johnson, 1999). For such kind of co-operative learning, the success of members of a group is interdependent to one another (Kagan, 1994; Slavin, 1995). The concept of co-operative learning is radically different from competitive learning in which a student's success builds on the failure of others. This paper aims to investigate the factors influencing teachers when they consider using co-operative learning in their classrooms. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of teachers (n = 179) from five primary schools conveniently chosen. Descriptive statistical analysis as well as factor analysis was performed on the data collected. The results suggested that the respondents agreed, to different extent, to all the twenty items of constraints as listed in the questionnaire. Four categories of factors that influenced teachers' decision to use co-operative learning were extracted. They represented the school and system levels, teachers' conceptions of teaching, pupils' ability and discipline, and classroom level. The study concluded that, in view of the various constraints, it would be difficult for teachers to implement co-operative learning to meet the curriculum re-structuring. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made.

Cooperative learning is a powerful teaching strategy which exploits the diversified abilities of students to increase their own and each other’s cognitive and social performance, yet it has not been popularly adopted by teachers in Hong Kong basic education. The aim of the paper is to present an overview of cooperative learning in Hong Kong and suggest ways to enhance its development towards becoming a common part of the repertoires of Hong Kong teachers. The paper begins with a review of the government education documents related to basic education, local literature on cooperative learning including books and journal articles, and projects on cooperative learning funded by the Quality Education Fund. Then, some programmes of the largest teacher education provider in Hong Kong are scrutinised to assess whether student teachers are adequately prepared for employing cooperative learning in their teaching in schools, followed by a scrutiny of some in-service teacher professional development courses offered by the Education Bureau and the teacher education institution. Next, the paper moves to discuss the constraining factors affecting the use of cooperative learning in the basic education sectors. Finally, recommendations are made to enhance the development of cooperative learning in the local context of current education reform and the education policy on class size. It is hoped that the paper can assist educators and policy makers from elsewhere in contemplating how to promote cooperative learning in their own countries. The audience is encouraged to engage in partner talk as well as dialogue with the paper presenter.

The emphasis of learning to learn in curriculum reform has signaled to teachers to adopt student-centered strategies of teaching and different modes of assessment. Cooperative learning, as an innovative instructional strategy, and portfolio assessment, as an alternative assessment, are increasingly being used in Hong Kong classrooms. The change from listening to teachers teach and answering examination questions to taking the initiative to learn and demonstrating competence with self-selected evidence is a great challenge to the students. This paper first discusses the various constraints and difficulties of using cooperative learning and portfolio assessment that Hong Kong teachers and students are encountering, such as the large class size, using social skills in group discussion, writing reflective statements, choosing evidence for inclusion in portfolios, grading portfolios and conducting self and peer assessment. Then examples are drawn from schools of small classes to investigate how the teachers attempt to tackle the problems and difficulties in implementing cooperative learning and portfolio assessment in their schools. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for successful use of portfolio assessment.

The Sub-committee on Review of School Education, Board of Education has identified in their Report, March 1997, four major areas of concern in the implementation of compulsory education in Hong Kong. Effectiveness of learning in the classroom is one of them. The Sub-committee considers school culture/ethos a factor which is essential in enhancing teacher quality, and recommends that teachers should be encouraged to work in collaboration in planning and development of work in school. The present paper which describes the experience of a group of teacher educators working collaboratively in designing and implementing their curriculum on a module for the student teachers aims to explore the feasibility of the Sub-committee's recommendation in the tertiary setting. It is hoped that teachers in the primary and secondary schools can also share this experience and will be better equipped to carry out the recommendation of the Sub-committee.

OBL with its merits and demerits is now being practiced in the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIED) as well as other local tertiary institutes. Some demonize it as a "controller" type of mechanism that focuses on the effectiveness and accountability issue of programme and practice in higher education. Others support it as saying that it builds on the assumption that all learners call learn and succeed (Schwartz (1994). The approach can help give learning clear directions and serve as a basis for determining what learning has taken place. Also as teacher educators, we can use this information only at the end of a course but also during a course to improve further teaching and learning. Nevertheless, the process for creating outcomes at different levels needs to be collaborative and open. Ideally speaking it needs to involve a broad range of stakeholders. In the reality world, whether such opportunity or mechanism could exist is of critical importance. In this paper, the case concerns the implementation of an OBL programme that is developed form top down and in a post hoc manner in the Institute. From our student questionnaires and interview findings, we found great discrepancy between teaching team's and student's preference for and expectation in the CILOs and the assessment modes. These inevitably lead us to think of some philosophical and pedagogical issues like "How to decide what is most important to learn for students? By our professional judgment? Through students' voices? How to resolve the divide?' Some solutions and other issues are also presented for stimulating academic dialogue.

This paper investigates the implementation of outcome-based learning (OBL) in a core course entitled Enhancing Teaching in Small Classes of the Professional Development Course for Small Class Teaching in Primary Schools and makes recommendation based on an effective OBL implementation. The course is introduced to in-service primary teachers as a response to the policy on small class teaching which has come to effect in Hong Kong primary schools since 2000. Originally designed in a non-OBL Format to meet the needs of the local primary teachers, the course objectives and contents are prepared with reference to the relevant literatures, overseas as well as local studies on small class teaching. The course has then been revised according to the principles of OBL and then offered to the in-service primary teachers. Near the completion of the course, data were collected from the teachers using questionnaires and individual interviews. . It was found that the teachers were highly motivated to learn and they agreed that the course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) could enrich their knowledge and skills of a professional teacher, and the teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks could help them to achieve the CILOs. The result suggests that learners' needs are significant to the effective implementation of OBL.

Since the launching of outcome-based learning (OBL) in higher education in Hong Kong, institutional reforms are evident and have aroused various concerns of the stakeholders. The major elements of OBL identified as tile intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessments are assumed to be the areas of change in the curriculum contest. This paper reports the findings of the implementation in teacher education courses. Through the implementation f OBL in the courses of curriculum and teaching, it was found that various factors have contributed to the degree of success in the actual implementation. Although the OBL implementation is at its beginning stage, its rationale and value needs to be recognized by both the teachers and students.