The purpose of the chapter is to review the past and present situation of teaching musicianship in Hong Kong schools as a background, identify a number of current issues, and propose a number of paradigm shifts that seem to be taking place in Hong Kong at the turn of this new century. In doing so, the chapter not only provides a general historical overview of how Hong Kong school music has traditionally been taught with implications for present practice, but, more importantly, attempts to draw implications on the development of musicianship skills that need to be considered by present day teachers and educational planners alike.
[Copyright © 2003 the author.]

A fundamental objective of Hong Kong in the 21st century is a vision of itself as an international cultural metropolis. This sits within a wider culture of change initiated by the comprehensive educational reforms launched in 2000, all aimed at preparing the future workforce for the challenges of the new millennium by encouraging students to take the learning initiative while simultaneously nurturing in them the ability to think and create. At the same time Hong Kong, at both an educational and at a wider, societal level, is a high-stakes, results-based environment generated by a culture of assessment. It is within this context that the article uses Music (through its traditional espousal of cultural values) as a "barometer" of the present climate to report the findings of a survey of Hong Kong secondary students in an attempt to gauge, and consequently articulate, the place of this particular subject within the curriculum. The subsequent confirmation that the cultural aims of the HKSAR are at odds with a mindset which is essentially commercial at heart reveals more than a simple mismatch in 2 terms of drivers: the wider implication that, in real terms, little has effectively changed in the past decade is a finding which clearly has important repercussions. Hinting that a "back to basics" tripartite process of rethinking, reevaluation and reorientation may well be required in order to help ensure that Hong Kong successfully realizes its ongoing policy goals, the article concludes with some suggestions of its own for the various relevant stakeholders.
[Copyright © The Hong Kong Institute of Education].

Mentoring has long been recognized as an effective approach in the professional development of teachers since it combines career advancement and psychosocial development (Kram, 1988). While a body of mentoring research in music education focusing on professional development exists (Benson, 2008; Conway, 2008; Haack, 2006), there is little evidence that the benefits arising from the process have been recognized or acted upon at the governmental level. Through the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative pre-, present- and post-case study data from a three-year school-based mentoring program in Hong Kong, this paper examines how the effective delivery of the music curriculum in early childhood education can be enhanced by the implementation of mentoring in helping to ensure the long-term professional development of its participants. The findings indicate the inadequate amount of training and preparation for kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong to adequately deliver a multifaceted music curriculum, and the mentor could fulfill the role of a music specialist. As a reference source for those considering the implementation of similar programs within their kindergarten settings, the findings can have applications across different subject areas, providing a practical perspective on the implications for sustained delivery as it pertains to novice and veteran teachers alike. To this end, a number of considerations as they relate to the research objectives – along with practical recommendations for the various stakeholders involved within early childhood education – are also discussed.
[Copyright © 2010 HKIEd APFSLT.]

The most updated ICT in education policies in Hong Kong music curriculum are the music curriculum guide and the music curriculum and assessment guide implemented in 2006 and 2009 for primary and secondary school. Both curriculum guides emphasis the importance of the role of technology in the music curriculum. This paper focuses on the music software design from the perspective of Hong Kong music teachers’ pedagogical considerations. Most music software used by teachers today in their teaching is originally designed for professional or commercial usage, and little pedagogical considerations have been taken. While technology is gradually and increasingly integrated into music education, the absence of pedagogical considerations in the software design is an emerging problem. In order to understand the music teachers’ needs and expectations from music software, the purpose of this study was to investigate the most useful and desired features of commonly used music software from the perspective of music teachers’ pedagogical concerns. A simple questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were conducted with 15 purposefully chosen primary or secondary school music teachers in Hong Kong. Those teachers were chosen to included both primary and secondary schools, and both mainstream local curriculum and international baccalaureate (IB) program. Teachers recently graduated were particularly chosen as they have experienced the most recent pre-service music teacher training which incorporated the considerations of ICT in education. Results show that music notation software is the most popular software used for music teaching, followed by audio editing software and mobile apps. Choice of particular music software brand is up to the availability and personal preference from the music teachers. The main use of music software by teachers is for preparing teaching materials. Software mostly used during the music classes is mobile apps for the purpose of demonstration. Some of the desired

Driven by the forces requiring rapid innovation in competitive world markets, today's knowledge economy is enabled by ICT's capacity to search, filter, store, transmit, encapsulate, process, and manipulate information. Workers of a knowledge economy are expected to possess ICT literacy: the ability to use technology to develop 21st century content knowledge and skills. This new kind of literacy is considered a key '21st century skill', together with global awareness, civic engagement, financial, economic and business literacy, and learning skills that encompass problem solving, critical thinking, and self-directional skills (Partnership for 21st century Skills, 2005, p.15). 21st century schools are seen to play a critical role in producing a workforce that is highly educated and skilled to support a country's economy. This recognition of education as a key contributor to the economy has led school curricula in many countries to mandate ICT as a central component, with teachers being increasingly expected to infuse ICT into the teaching and learning processes. This paper examines some of the major developments and strategies related to ICT in the education reform of three countries where the author has worked professionally. Lessons will be drawn from their experiences in enhancing music education curriculum reform for a technology-infused future.