Education in Hong Kong is currently facing the great challenge of reformation in the new century. Music, being a school subject for more than four decades in Hong Kong, provides one of the aesthetic experiences to all pupils in primary and junior secondary schools, which has been recognized as one of the core elements in an all-round education system. However, there is a lack of research studies that investigate how musicianship should be nurtured in general music classes in Hong Kong. Teaching strategies in music classes were ignored yet practical and important for teacher preparation. This paper reports the findings of a case study in which a number of successful music teaching strategies in a primary school were revealed. Through a semi-structured interview with the music teacher of the school, participant observation of 24 music lessons in two weeks, and an analysis of the video recordings of the class teaching, this study aimed to identify the successful teaching strategies employed in the classroom. Findings include four identified strategies that employed by the music teacher: 1) performing with aural training, 2) sound before notation, 3) repeats with slight variations, and 4) positive reinforcement.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Research reinforces the importance of experiential activities in exerting a positive influence on pre-service teachers' attitudes toward musical genres and cultures. This paper presents a case study that demonstrates the effects of active musical participation in one indigenous Chinese music genre, the Xianshi music, on pre-service teacher's understanding and attitude toward Chinese music. In this study, the pre-service teacher, whom the researcher will call Helen, was one of the pre-service teachers from a three-year longitudinal study of 14 pre-service teachers and the researcher studied at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (1998-2001). In year 1 of the study, Helen's initial exposure to Xianshi music was through formal lectures. Pre and post reflective comments were used to investigate her understanding and acceptance of Xianshi music and Chinese music. During year 2 and 3, Helen had first hand experience on music making in Xianshi music by participating in the HKIEd's Xianshi music ensemble. Three structured interviews were conducted to determine the effects of her participation in the Xianshi music ensemble on her views about Xianshi music and Chinese music. Results show that through continuing exposure of a first hand experience in Xianshi music, Helen was able to think critically and developed a more sophisticated understanding and appreciation of Xianshi music and Chinese music. Implications for Chinese music education will be discussed in the paper.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Teaching duty assignment is an important aspect of human resource management in a secondary school. This problem is currently solved by human planners. A prototype of an Intelligent Decision Support System for Teaching Duty Assignments (TDAS) has been successfully constructed and validated. The assignment aims to incur minimum dissatisfaction to teachers by distributing workload evenly among teachers. The automation of such a planning activity can reduce the pressure on a planner that are induced from the anxiety of teachers of being manipulated by the human planner. This system is the first of its kind in Hong Kong secondary schools. The algorithms have been tested on a set of real life data of a secondary school. The result was compared with its counterpart which was produced manually by the school principal with favourable comments that the computer result was usable.

Music teachers in Hong Kong schools are required to pay more attention to various forms of Chinese music after the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. This new emphasis gave rise to an additional dimension in the music curriculum as well as many teaching problems. For instance, teaching materials on Chinese music are found to be inadequate. Teachers of Chinese music needed more musical experience and training. Teaching methods of proven effectiveness in this area are also in short supply. And then there is the problem of over learning, as students are provided with considerable amount of information on both Western and Chinese music. A study was undertaken to develop an effective strategy to teach traditional Chinese music in the context of Hong Kong secondary schools. Experiments were designed to test three identified variables that are likely to affect the results of classroom teaching. The variables are: 1. teaching sequence, 2. proportion between information and direct music experience, and 3. degree of framing. However, the findings of the experiments are inconclusive. As a demonstration of the approaches to this study, the experiment involving two different teaching sequences is described in this paper.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This paper discusses the transmission of traditional culture in schools from the perspectives of curriculum design and teaching approach. It focuses on the establishment of a Chinese music curriculum model, the content of which is a part of a larger study concerning the role of Chinese music in secondary school education in Hong Kong. The study employed a two-prong survey approach by utilizing a questionnaire and a list of pre-set interview questions in order that the data collected could complement and supplement each other. The questionnaire survey was conducted among 426 secondary school music teachers with a return rate of 51.5% while the interviews were conducted among 26 professionals from the cultural sector in Hong Kong. As a part of the results of this study, a curriculum model was established, which underpins a comprehensive approach in the teaching of Chinese music encompassing various issues in education associated with the problem of the selection of teaching contents and teaching approaches, especially in regard to traditional culture.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Computer-based technology, a relatively recent innovation, has taken an important place in both teacher education and in school education. In music teacher education programs, since computer-based music technology has been included in Hong Kong, it is the concern of music teacher educators to know how well their student teachers are implementing what they have learnt, and whether what they have learnt are practical. This paper reports on an investigation of the perception of a class of music student teachers on the curriculum of a computer-based music technology course, the self evaluation of their standard after taking the course and how well they have applied the technology to their music teaching and learning. The data has been collected through a questionnaire administered to the students at the end of a music technology course and then a phone interview of these students when they were teaching in schools. The analysis of the data revealed situations encountered by these music teachers. Recommendations are made regarding further development of the computer-based music technology curriculum in the music teacher education programs.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Choral singing has become one of the major cultural and artistic activities in Hong Kong primary schools. It is also the extension of the classroom singing experience and served as a platform for students to nurture their singing skills, enhancing musicianship and facilitating artistic experience through choral performance. In view of the tight rehearsal arrangement, conductors are required to manage the rehearsal efficiently and effectively. In order to achieve the musical tasks and objectives being put forward within each choral rehearsal, the teaching and learning effectiveness are crucial within the process. The current paper looks at four elite choirs and their conductors focusing on their conducting and rehearsal behaviors in relation to successful and effective rehearsal performance. Besides, this study also investigates the modes of communication utilized by the choral directors within the rehearsal structure, including conductor’s task presentation, ensemble interaction and conductor’s feedback. The unique contribution of this paper to music education research is that it takes both the experimenter’s perceptions, those of the conductors and the choristers into account and triangulates these data in a detailed analysis. Certainly, such investigation could contribute valuable information on the teaching and learning effectiveness within the choral performance preparation process.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The aims of the recent arts education reform is to build on the strengths of existing practices, to allow greater autonomy for schools to fully develop their school-based arts curriculum and to provide space for more new art forms for students to pursue their preferences in the arts. This paper investigates the effects of the ‘Arts-in-Education’ project (2001-2002), piloted in two secondary schools in Hong Kong, on the school curriculum and student learning. Results of the case study where the artist worked collaboratively with the schoolteachers during formal and informal hours on a musical production revealed that special timetabling arrangements could greatly facilitate a successful model. Other factors contributing to effective student learning included the commitment and dedication of the artist, a strong artist/school partnership, common goals, sufficient funding and full support from the school management and parents. Qualitative data, collected from lesson observation, interviews, focus group meeting and project documents had revealed successful ingredients for the across-the-arts and the interdisciplinary approaches, while pressing issues also emerged, to which educators need to pay special attention when responding to arts education reform.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]