This paper details how a successful school event, the Teen Entrepreneurs Competition, creates an authentic learning environment and builds up a win-win mechanism for enterprise education and business teacher education in the context of Hong Kong. The detail of this competition, including the rationale behind it, its features, organisation, timeframe, level of participation, outcome, benefits, and some ideas for future development are clearly outlined.
[Copyright © 2005 managementjournals.com Limited.]

Under the impetus of the Hong Kong education reform, curriculum development has brought a whole new range of perspectives with an emphasis on "Learning to Learn". Schools are encouraged to formulate their own curriculum development plan according to their individual situation and readiness. (Curriculum Development Council, 2001a). This School-Based Science Curriculum Development (SBSCD) project was established to echo the need for professional guidance and support in this area, with a focus in science education. The SBSCD project is one of the initiatives under the Hong Kong Schools Around the World (HKSAW) project funded by the Quality Education Fund. The benefits of mobilizing the resources from the Schools Around the World project in the SBSCD project is explained in the paper. This project, with a participation of seven schools, was designed for one academic term and has adopted an interactive approach embedded within three main phases: planning, implementation and evaluation. The aim of this short-term project is to reveal a naturalistic model of SBSCD that may lead the participating schools to realize their future science curriculum directions. Instruments were developed to obtain data on the school's existing situation as relevant to the SBSCD implementation, to investigate factors affecting the interaction between the schools and the HKSAW Curriculum Development Team, and to find out teachers' awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of their own teaching after the SBSCD. This paper serves as a preliminary report of this case study. Therefore, its main purpose is not to report on empirical findings, but rather to define the factors for the above study areas and to provide an initial reference on the process of implementation for school practitioners.
[Copyright © 2002 HKIEd APFSLT.]

Creativity as a generic skill identified in the key learning areas of the school curriculum has received unprecedented attention. Many schools in the Chinese regions, particularly in Hong Kong, have attempted to implement creativity education in the classrooms. This paper reviews the many interpretations of creativity and differentiates between the notion of creativity, creative thinking and creative ideas in the school context. Six different examples of school practice in fostering creativity will be discussed and issues arising from these practices will be highlighted. Future prospects for creativity education and ways in which creativity can be developed by teachers and students are also examined.
[Copyright © 2004 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This paper presents a teaching/learning model that utilizes information technology to facilitate critical thinking and collaboration skills in two physical education modules, Adapted Physical Education (28 students), and Motor Learning (27 students), taught at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The aim of the project was to examine whether three types of asynchronous online activities embedded within the Blackboard Learning Management System enhanced student learning. The effectiveness of these activities was assessed through the number of online interactions, a survey, and selected interviews. Results showed greater online interactions than face-to-face interactions (ranging from 37 to 132 interactions per topic), improved ability to integrate theory with practical settings, and high level of student satisfaction with the online mode of delivery. The study indicated that the creation of alternative learning spaces in the Blackboard Learning Management System is an effective platform to enhance learning through interactive student-centered learning activities beyond the physical education classroom.
[Copyright © 2008 ACESS, Asian Council of Exercise & Sports Science.]

This paper examines the field of art education for young children in Hong Kong with a focus on the curriculum policy. A number of researchers have found that effects of cultures on the conceptions and understanding of art education for young children and its values are significant in their process of formation (e.g., Duncum, 2000, 2002; Freedman, 2000; Gardner, 2004; Green, 2000; Piscitelli, 1999; Piscitelli, Renshaw, Dunn & Hawke, 2004; Schirrmacher, 2001; Wright, 1991, 1997, 2003). This paper has applied the framework of the three orientations from Efland (1990), i.e. expressionism, reconstructionism and scientific rationalism in the analysis of Hong Kong curriculum policy documents and found that contradictions in terms of principles and practices are embedded. It is argued that these hidden but value-loaded assumptions about theories and practices in early childhood education and art education should be made explicit both in the formation of the policies and their implementation in schools if success is expected.
[Copyright © 2009 HKIEd APFSLT.]

This paper reports on the assessment of readiness and receptivity of school principals, English panel chairpersons and English teachers for the implementation of the new senior secondary curriculum (NSSC) in English Key Learning Area (KLA) in Hong Kong. Recent research ahs probed into the dilemmas and challenges faced by school administrators and frontline teachers when facing curriculum change. Such challenges exist in the management of change, the teachers’ readiness for change, and in problems with collaboration among the stakeholders. Drawing on these research findings the analysis of this paper focuses on whether such problems are also re-occurring in the implementation of change in the NSSC, and if so, considers how they can be resolved. Using qualitative research procedures four key questions were addressed: how far the school personnel understood the changes in the NSSC; the extent to which they felt they could implement the new curriculum; which factors encouraged/constrained implementation; and the possible effects of change on schools. The findings showed that schools with students of high or medium ability seemed to be more positive in terms of perceptions and receptivity at the initial stage of change, while schools dominated by cohorts of medium or low academic ability students appeared to be resistant to the shift in pedagogic arrangements. Yet all the school principals interviewed expressed their unreserved agreement with the spirit of the new curriculum.
[Copyright © 2009 The Asian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.]