This paper describes the outcome of a collaboration project, a science school-based curriculum development proje between the Hong Kong Institute of Education and five primary schools. The project was an attempt to address thre problems perceived by the teachers concerning primary science teaching including, lack of subject knowledge, lacki resources and feeling of insufficiency in facilitating pupils' learning. In addressing these problems, the project tea devised a number of strategies for the teaching of science based on a constructivist view of learning and supported teachers through a school-based curriculum development model. Strategies used include: designing a series of teachir packages to lessen the burden of teaching in terms of time and resources constraints; and organizing school-bas workshops to facilitate professional discussion and reflection on teaching practices. This paper describes the variourj phases of the school-based curriculum development project including the planning, implementation and evaluation of I project. The effectiveness of the project in terms of professional interaction and application of the teaching kit examined by analyzing the interview responses. The findings of the project provide evidence that there were improvements in the learning and teaching of science in primary classrooms. Finally, drawing on the findings, the paper introduces ways of improving the project and future directions of research.

Values education is important in the General Studies curriculum of Hong Kong. Emphasis has been placed on pupils' affective development including strengthening elements related to making good use of resources and environmental conservation. Teachers are presumed to be able to transform subject disciplinary knowledge into forms that are comprehensible to their pupils. In dealing with values-based topics in the General Studies curriculum, however, teachers often assume that their ways of seeing the content is the same as those of their pupils and tend to prescribe what pupils should or should not do without developing with them a clear rationale. In Learning Study, teacher professional learning is closely interwoven with pupil learning. It uses an action research methodology which is grounded in the Theory of Variation. This paper presents a Learning Study of six General Studies teachers who worked together to develop a series of research lessons on "Saving electricity" at Primary 3 level in Hong Kong. A particular focus will be placed on examining teachers' professional development through engaging in professional dialogue and working in cycles in their research lessons to improve teaching and learning in dealing with this value-based topic.

In Hong Kong, gender studies are a keenly researched area in the higher education sector. It is also our observation that many academics and teaching professionals have shown interest and growing concerns in gender issues. The anomaly is that while gender is palpably felt in classroom routines, why and how it matters rarely features in educational discourses at school level. We believe a comprehensive review of the existing literature in gender and education is needed for understanding the current phenomenon and identifying future research directions. In addition, such an exercise will also inform techniques and strategies in incorporating gender into teaching practice, the experimentation of which can be developed into gender-sensitive pedagogies. This can be considered as a form of action research that addresses the kind of gender issues that confront teaching professionals and advises how gender can be approached in subject-based teaching and learning and also professional training. Taken together, we intend to report the initial findings from a comprehensive and critical review of the current literature on gender education, and exemplars of conducting and promoting gender education identified in some specific areas; and recommend directions and ideas for research on conducting and promoting gender education at the school level.

Bringing a coach or coaches into a school to provide support is not entirely a new idea in Hong Kong. In local schools there is increased emphasis on coaching – a process whereby teacher trainers provide instructional support, professional development opportunities, feedback, and materials to classroom teachers – as a means to improve instruction and strengthen the competence of teachers. This paper reports on a pilot study which involved two academic staff from the Hong Kong Institute of Education and teachers of English in a local primary school to work together to enable teacher professional development. The paper reports a sub-set of the findings of a study which aims at identifying a coaching model for English teachers' professional development, and at developing a school-based language teaching curriculum development framework pilot school using a school-based language teaching curriculum development framework piloted in earlier research projects by the investigators. Data were collected through pre-, while- and post-questionnaire surveys, focus groups interviews, and lesson observations. The findings echo earlier research that modeling instruction in individual classrooms, rather than just the provision of group-focused activities, is most likely to result in modifications in instructional practices. It is also argued that in addition to teachers' exposure to new teaching materials, continuous joint professional discourse between coaches and teachers about how to use the materials would also lead to changes in teachers' instructional goals and practices. Implications for incorporating the use of coaches into school improvement plans for optimum results will also be discussed.

Citizenship education has become a much emphasized area in the curriculum in many countries at the turn of the century. There was the experimentation of different modes of citizenship education. This study compared the perception of two groups of student teachers who had experienced different modes of citizenship education since childhood. There were interviews from 1997 to 2000 of two groups of student teachers each numbered about 45. One was from a teacher education institute in Hong Kong and the other was from a teacher education institute in South China. In the Hong Kong case, the qualitative data was triangulated with quantitative survey data collected annually from 1997 to 1999 of samples numbered about 270. Findings revealed that in spite of the different modes of citizenship education , student teachers agreed that the school was an important agent in influencing their conception of citizenship. However, the relative impact of the school depended on a number of random factors like the type of ethos of the school and the type of teachers students happened to be exposed to. Moreover, there existed other socializing agents that either played more important or equal important roles in shaping conception of citizenship. Implication on curriculum development and modes of citizenship education were discussed.

This colloquium addresses the issue of the effectiveness of content teaching and learning through English in Hong Kong secondary schools in the context of the current moves to change the eligibility of schools to adopt English as their medium of instruction. It brings together some recent classroom-based research and development on teaching and learning through English in Hong Kong secondary schools in order to promote debate as to how this can be improved. Cummins will present an overview of the value of integrating second language and content learning. Kong and Hoare will focus on the use of English by teachers and students in the local English medium classrooms, based on data drawn from two studies on teacher explanations and student writing. Man will discuss some adaption issues of Secondary 1 English medium students switching from Chinese medium primary schools and will examine some support measures for their content learning. Walker will report on some of the difficulties students face using English for content learning in S4 and the role of an enrichment programme in supporting them. The colloquium will include an extended time for discussion on ways forward in English medium teaching and learning.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the results of two case studies conducted in two Hong Kong primary schools where there are a large number of Newly Arrived Children (NAC) from China. In the last twenty years or so researchers in many countries have paid more attention to multicultural education as the number of immigrant children in schools in these countries has risen. Though in Hong Kong the NAC are also Chinese, their background and culture is quite different from that of local children. Focusing on the aspect of citizenship education, the researcher will undertake qualitative studies to examine the strategies adopted by these schools and the problems encountered. It is hoped that the research will help to foster the understanding of various aspects of citizenship education in these schools.