This is an exploratory study of junior secondary school students' views of geography in Hong Kong. Twelve Secondary 1 and Secondary 3 students from six schools were interviewed to reveal what they think geography is. It is found that the impact of the school geography curriculum on students' views of the subject was evidenced in students' responses to the question, 'What is geography?'. Students generally held a narrow view of geography and viewed the subject in terms of terminology, topical areas and content covered in geography lessons and what they did in geography classes, such as going on field trips and map reading. Compared with S1 students, S3 students viewed geography as a subject of a wider scope and in their responses they mentioned more topical areas and more geographical issues. However, very few students held the view that geography is a study of spatial patterns. This suggests that teachers may need to strengthen the teaching of key geographical concepts.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382040308667533]

One of the major innovations in the recent wave of education reform in Hong Kong is the target-oriented curriculum. An interesting feature of this new curriculum initiative was its amoebic characteristics - changing shape and focus in its course of development. It was reshaped from an assessment system for accountability purposes to a centrally developed curriculum initiative for improving teaching and learning, and finally to a school-based curriculum development. In this paper, this course of development and the reasons behind it will be described and analysed. The study suggests that the two-tier educational policy and implementation system in Hong Kong is a major cause leading to such a phenomenon. If this system were not improved, the possibility of achieving real changes at the school and classroom level would be low.
[Copyright of Journal of Education Policy is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0268093032000145890]