The paper focuses on the analysis of a curriculum plan of art practitioners in Hong Kong to generate perspective of how art education can be best serve the needs and interest of the current century. Different ideas of art education have made implications to art teaching in its content and delivery. Wolcott (1997) conceptualizes art teaching by referring to the evolvement of art in culture and history. The modernist school believed that art was the vehicle for subjective expression and, like the essentialist, valued that aesthetic quality that lies in art marking itself. More specifically the modernist school concentrated on the formal qualities of art and considered aesthetic experience as an end itself (Eaton, 1998; Fehr, 1994). This is where the traditional art education based to best cultivate the artistic literacy if a person. Alternatively, the post modernists art education is characterized by pluralism in style and expression. Art is considered as a means of discourse, contemplating politics, society, religion, or culture. Its content is critiques of both culture and society (Lloyd, 1997). The latter approach always creates ambiguity in implementation, and is not popular in Hong Kong schools. Based on the post modernist ideas, a curriculum plan is discussed and evaluated and a framework of developing a post modernist art curriculum is suggested with implications drawn to how the new idea is well suited to the globalized and information society of the twenty first century.

Approaches to teaching art were studied through interviews with 18 art teachers at secondary schools in Hong Kong. Grounded analysis revealed that the approaches to teaching fitted into a four category model with category labels: instructional, discipline inquiry, social interactive, and personal. The categories were defined and described by six dimensional features: aim; content; role of teacher; role of student; teaching methods; and assessment orientation. The four categories of approaches to teaching could be placed under a higher-order spectrum between subject- and student-centred pole This article reports the findings of a study of art teachers’ approaches to teaching art. Before the findings are illustrated, it is necessary to deal with how the term approach to teaching is operationalised and how it relates to other constructs, such as conceptions and beliefs about teaching.

By conducting in-depth interviews with new teachers who are about to become full-time teachers and then reinterviewing them two years later, the author of this article presents how beginning teachers think and feel about teaching and describes the challenges they face as beginning teachers in the context of Hong Kong. The stories of the teachers, as revealed by the interviews, suggest that changing educational ideals, school leaders' management style, and workload issues are some of the important challenges faced by beginning teachers. A short review of work on effective school research and school leadership suggests how school leaders can create an environment that is conducive to teachers' professional development.
[Copyright © University of Chicago Press].

The New Senior Secondary Education (NSSC) curriculum will launch in 2009 under the new 334 academic structure of secondary school education in Hong Kong. The NSSC is intended to eliminate the backwash effect of public examinations and for the re-planning of human capital for the future of Hong Kong (EDB, 2005a; SAR, 1997, 2000). On the other hand, education of Hong Kong has been criticized as elitist, and Hong Kong culture was described as “survival, affluence and deliverance” (Chan, 1993). Very often, a curriculum reform proposal may not be carried out as it is intended because of the predominant values of a society that resists the reform ideas. The NSSC policy portrays an interesting curriculum decision making process which allows school the flexibility in the subject selections and the allocation of study time on various study components in the curriculum framework. According to a recent report (EDB, 2005B), the visions and goals of the NSSC were well supported by different stakeholders; however, reservations were also expressed on the proposed details of implementation on many aspects. Taken this as an inquiry point, this study attempts to understand how teachers think about the NSSC, and to further explore the overriding values behind the views of teachers on the intended curriculum blueprint. Interview data of 14 senior school teachers were collected. The findings suggested that teachers’ receptiveness to NSS were driven by predominant values on achievement and success, elitist model of curriculum conceptions, concern of school prestige, and teachers’ self interest. An interesting them emerged from the ideas on education. When they were asked about questions on the implementation level, teachers tended to shift to a utilitarian perspective that deviates from their own mission but assimilates with the employers’ expectations and fulfills their self interest. Implications are drawn on the role of government on curriculum policy making and implementation to ensure

This chapter, which outlines the roles of teachers in the twenty-first century, will help readers develop a personal orientation towards teacher development and lead them to understand the professional capacity of teachers in these challenging times. The chapter focuses on professional teachers in East Asia, particularly in countries with a confucian culture, such as Hong Kong. After completing this chapter, readers will be able to: •recognize the role of teachers in the contemporary classroom; •appreciate reflective practice as an important process in the professionalization of teachers; •comprehend various reflective practices that support teacher development; •understand the concept of a teacher as a researcher; •appreciate the techniques involved in conducting action research; •understand teacher development as an important ongoing process in the professionalization of teachers; and •develop a clear orientation towards teacher development.

As expectation on academic success is high from parents in Asian societies (Chen & Stevenson, 1989; White, 1993), moving towards inclusive practices in schools received great challenges. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study attempts to study the affective and social outcomes of students in a mainstream primary school in Hong Kong. The sample was 410 elementary students across Grade 3 to Grade 6 level. At the first stage, the academic self concept, teacher-student relationship, social integration, and negative affect were studied by the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes(APASO) (EMB, 2001). The second stage was interview with school teachers. The sample was studied according to class allocation system with which streaming was used and respective curriculum policy was applied. The findings show that the SEN (N=14) showed no significant difference from the typically developing students. However, students who were allocated in the upper bottom class who were not SEN, as well as the low academic achievers studied in the normal classes, shown to have poorer social and affective outcomes. These students revealed anxiety and tension in their academic study. The 21 low academic achievers who studied a normal curriculum in a normal class setting were identified as trouble makers who created disciplinary problems. The study informs that curriculum tailoring and small class setting (<10) worked well on students with a disability. Recommendations were made on what the school can do to assist students in their school life on both the academic study and psychological well-being.

Approaches to teaching art were studied through interviews with 18 art teachers at secondary schools in Hong Kong. Grounded analysis revealed that the approaches to teaching fitted into a four category model with category labels: instructional, discipline inquiry, social interactive, and personal. The categories were defined and described by six dimensional features: aim; content; role of teacher; role of student; teaching methods; and assessment orientation. The four categories of approaches to teaching could be placed under a higher-order spectrum between subject-and student-centred poles.

This paper reports the experimentation of constructivist teaching in an in-service teacher education program for training curriculum leaders of primary schools. The following features were identified as to guide the delivery based on constructivism: sequence and continuity; part-to-whole connectedness; individual and group based activities, contextualization, authenticity; and application. Data was gathered from questionnaire and interview; it was further triangulated by student evaluation feedback of the program. The result has brought about development of teachers on various domains including professional, intellectual, collegial, social and emotional. The learning process triggers a spectrum of cognitive functioning on learners. The study ends up with a model of constructivist learning that can guide curriculum development of educational programs; it also addresses some problems about learning.

The “Active-Classroom” project aims to establish a platform for professional exchange among teachers on skills and strategies that helps to achieve an active classroom, by the use of WebQuest. In the “Active-Classroom”, different learning strategies are arranged as an advanced organizer for learners to navigate. The model of learning provided by the Active Classroom is known as WebQuest. WebQuest aims to involve learners in a meaningful task that results in knowledge acquisition and higher order thinking (Dodge, 1997). It has a well-defined structure that is similar to a lesson plan (Stein, 1998). The WebQuests in the Active-Classroom website provide links to essential electronic resources to motivate learners’ investigation on specific teaching strategies. Another outstanding feature is that all the materials in the Active-Classroom are result of collaborative effort of teacher educators and school teachers, through experimentation of various skills at different period. In this paper, the researchers will report how the Active Classroom has come into shape with its first attempt on questioning skill, during Dec 2004 to May 2005. There are three primary schools participating in studying this skill component. The project demonstrates the functions of the questioning skill WebQuest: (a) focuses learners on a tangible and easy navigated resource; (b) opens up possibility of getting feedback from distant audience via an embedded e-mail form. The Active Classroom has just been launched at this stage and positive influence on teacher professional networking and student learning is perceived. It implicates that online learning on instructional strategies should be promoted as it is a substantial support to education reform.

A method for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning is through encouraging academics to engage in action research projects into some aspect of their teaching which is of interest or problematic for them. Action research is promoted as a means for committed teachers to bridge the gap between their theories and practices, and now it has becoming a required skill of frontline teachers in schools in Hong Kong. However, groups of teachers being sold to the concept, are fresh to such idea and method, and their day to day practice has confined themselves to the more practical and technical management of teaching in schools. This paper explores the use of a case illustration approach for teaching action research on 33 in-service primary school teachers, the application of constructivist theories of learning underpins this approach will be addressed and the result will be discussed while significance of the findings will be highlighted in the light of preparing curriculum leaders to promote change in schools.