In Hong Kong, except for Art and Craft and Physical Education, official approved school textbooks for pupils and handbooks for teachers are widely used in primary schools. When Art and craft primary teachers in Hong Kong plan for their lessons, they can only follow the official curriculum prepared by the Curriculum Development Council of the Education Department of Hong Kong. Thus, the official curriculum plays a very important role in guiding the primary Art and Craft teachers in planning their taught curriculum. In the first part of this chapter, a brief historical account on the introduction of art education in Hong Kong is given. Then, the chapter examines the developmental trend of the aims of the planned Hong Kong Primary Schools Art and Craft Curriculum from the 1950s to the 1990s. Finally, it discusses both the external and internal factors that influence the art education in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Social education in the primary education arena of Hong Kong has taken many forms. This chapter traces the development of Social Studies in the formal curriculum of local primary schools from the 1960s to the 1990s. It critically analyzes the foci of change as stated in the curriculum documents. Based on these official documents, the relationship between the curriculum intent and pedagogy advocated is discussed with reference to the current literature. Learning activities suggested in the syllabi of various decades are compared on a continuum of teaching-learning strategies and evaluated against stated learning targets. Their implications on teaching styles are discussed. Criteria for selecting activities are recommended for readers' reference. This chapter ends with recommendations for further investigation. It is hopeful that the chapter will become a useful reference for investigations on social education in primary schools in terms of curriculum and pedagogy advocated for effective learning.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Comprehensive studies on the Hong Kong primary science curriculum are rare. This study is to fill the knowledge gap by examining the science curricula for all primary grade levels from the 1960s to 1990s in Hong Kong. Critical features related to the most important aspects of the intended curriculum are identified and compared, thereby identifying the trends of primary science curriculum development in local context. It is found that the area of learning related to science and technology will become indispensable in the new educational innovation.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

One of the roles of music teacher education is to produce music teachers with proficiencies in delivering music education at different educational levels. The impact of the development of IT in education in Hong Kong has been tremendous. The Hong Kong Education Department and the teacher education institutions are urging teachers in every discipline (including music) to apply the technology to a certain proportion of teaching and learning. Teacher proficiency requirements in IT have been developed quickly. As such, the philosophy that has prompted the inclusion of technology in music teacher education must be evident. The paper aims to investigate some aspects of the philosophy behind promoting IT to a level of such importance. A paradigm shift has come about in the approaches of teaching and learning from teacher-centered to student-centered for a range of reasons including the advent of IT. The teacher has to take on more of a facilitator role in stimulating students to learn how to learn rather than teaching what to learn. This aligns with the advocacy of flexible and life-long learning which are prevailing thoughts in the education world nowadays. These generic values are to be considered with the more unique values of IT in music teacher education. A new philosophy could imply more drastic changes in education in the near future. This could affect music teacher education as well as music education. The issues of how far a philosophy will induce quality learning and whether this application of IT could equate to quality teaching are to be considered. In a world which calls for reflective thinking as well as quality assurance and excellence, it is hoped that this paper will contribute to the discussion on the philosophy of the application of IT in music teacher education.
[Copyright © 2001 Aichi University of Education.]

This paper discusses the problem of discriminating between individual contributions in the assessment of group projects. It is argued that peer assessment is a necessary element of any proposed structure but that the use of any 'weighting-factor' system is contrary to the philosophy underpinning collaborative groupwork. A structure that separates the process and product elements of the assessment is described and a set of generic criteria for the process peer assessment identified. This structure was implemented with a group of students at Hong Kong University and evaluated using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The paper discusses the results of this evaluation and, in particular, identifies the need for 'benchmarking' when using the criteria and also the problematic nature of the 'insider-outsider' syndrome as an important cultural factor.
[Copyright © 2003 Open University of Hong Kong Press.]