This exploratory study describes how 2 classes of secondary 6 commerce students in Hong Kong have used a web-based collaborative tool, Knowledge Community (KC) to build a project called “Writing up a Business Plan” collaboratively. Using a number of 2-level scaffolds, students participated in the forum discussion to build business plan. The entire process unfolds how students, facilitated by scaffolds and teachers, brainstorm business idea and mission, decide on the type of product, plan production line and eventually formulate a business plan. The sample consisted of 41 students and 2 facilitators. Students’ participation in KC was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The strategies, suggestions and the feasibility of adopting KC for projects in schools will also be shared, along with the implications and key learning points of this project. Copyright © 2004 全球華人計算機教育應用學會.

A global trend towards formulation of curriculum has emerged over the past decade. The concepts of project approach have aroused growing attention, and many literatures have indicated its benefits to children. It is believed that to achieve these potential benefits of project learning, teachers needed to formulate a curriculum that follows the interests of children, to design appropriate activities, to build a good relationship with children and help them in the process of learning. The study revealed that teachers were positive towards the impact of project learning on children's experience but fell back to a traditional way of implementing curriculum.
[Copyright © Routledge].

After the handover, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government implemented drastic and enormous curriculum reforms, including project learning as one of the four key tasks. Over 80% of Hong Kong primary and secondary schools have adopted project learning as a curriculum task, which signifies the importance of teacher’s role and attitude in curriculum implementation. Yet the pressures on teachers and schools to achieve this result should not be underestimated. In this paper, the concept of “soft” and “hard” policy will be introduced as a means of analyzing the issues facing teachers in implementing the education reforms. “Soft” policy is characterized by persuasion, benchmarking and best practice exemplars. “Hard” policy on the other hand is explicitly embedded in legislation and budgetary allocations. This article will analyse the characteristics of project learning as a “soft” curriculum policy. It possesses features such as being practical, adaptable to context, emphasizing teaching processes, capable of being led from the classroom and is characterized by flexibility. Great emphasis is placed on conferences, seminars, sharing exemplars to promote and encourage teachers to work on this reform. On the other hand, however, the government uses “hard” means to monitor school compliance with the reforms. Thus, school self evaluation and external school evaluation are used to assess the extent to which schools are implementing curriculum innovations such as project learning. There are thus twin pressures on teachers and schools caused by the use of both “hard” and “soft” policy instruments.

西方研究教育改革及教師發展的文獻，主張從教師個人發展的角度，思考教師在改變教學範式過程中如何建立個人的意義，才能為教師在增進知識與發展能力方面帶來真正的轉變。專題研習為香港教改短期發展(2000-05)其中一項關鍵項目，旨在通過嶄新的學習與教學策略，發展學生的共通能力。本文探討職前教師推行專題研習的實際經驗，闡述他們在個人成長及工作意義方面的發現，藉此突顯教師在推行專題研集過程中所得的實踐經驗，不但是個人的深刻體會，更是教師累積知識及提昇能力的基礎。
In light of existing literature on education reform and teacher development, this paper sees teacher development as self understanding rather than merely as knowledge and skills development. Based on the interviews with pre-service secondary schoolteachers, this paper examines how their experiences as project learning tutors echo the recurrent themes of survival and discovery on the early stage of teacher development. It argues that teacher experience and self understanding is the foundation for further pursuit of knowledge and skills development.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

香港新高中課程改革的「通識教育科」，注重「專題研習」的學習。由於有別於本土的傳統教學，「專題研習」可供老師參考的課程實施經驗不多，尤其學生對自主學習的體會。本文嘗試從學習者的角度，透視「專題研習」在實際的學校環境中，出現怎麼樣的「通識教育科」教學和學習的特點。透過分析小組同學的訪談內容，我們發現學生能夠了解和適應「專題研習」的學習要求及肯定其中的學習經歷和價值，他們同時深感憂慮新的學習，嚴重受考試導向的教育現實所牽引。
Liberal Studies has given a due weight to project learning in Hong Kong's New Senior Secondary curriculum reform. Different from mainstream teaching in the past, teachers have little practical experience on project learning in their curriculum implementation, particularly on students' independent learning. This paper is an attempt which examines for characteristics of project learning in Liberal Studies in the local school context from students' perspectives. An analysis on the focused group interview with students has found that they can grasp the main points and cope with the new learning needs of project learning. While they recognize the values of this new learning mode, they are deeply worried that the examination-driven educational reality has greatly affected their study through project learning.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]