Music teachers in Hong Kong schools are required to pay more attention to various forms of Chinese music after the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. This new emphasis gave rise to an additional dimension in the music curriculum as well as many teaching problems. For instance, teaching materials on Chinese music are found to be inadequate. Teachers of Chinese music needed more musical experience and training. Teaching methods of proven effectiveness in this area are also in short supply. And then there is the problem of over learning, as students are provided with considerable amount of information on both Western and Chinese music. A study was undertaken to develop an effective strategy to teach traditional Chinese music in the context of Hong Kong secondary schools. Experiments were designed to test three identified variables that are likely to affect the results of classroom teaching. The variables are: 1. teaching sequence, 2. proportion between information and direct music experience, and 3. degree of framing. However, the findings of the experiments are inconclusive. As a demonstration of the approaches to this study, the experiment involving two different teaching sequences is described in this paper.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Computer-based technology, a relatively recent innovation, has taken an important place in both teacher education and in school education. In music teacher education programs, since computer-based music technology has been included in Hong Kong, it is the concern of music teacher educators to know how well their student teachers are implementing what they have learnt, and whether what they have learnt are practical. This paper reports on an investigation of the perception of a class of music student teachers on the curriculum of a computer-based music technology course, the self evaluation of their standard after taking the course and how well they have applied the technology to their music teaching and learning. The data has been collected through a questionnaire administered to the students at the end of a music technology course and then a phone interview of these students when they were teaching in schools. The analysis of the data revealed situations encountered by these music teachers. Recommendations are made regarding further development of the computer-based music technology curriculum in the music teacher education programs.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The findings reported in this paper is part of an international project “Schools Around the World” (SAW) that aims to enhance teacher development in the area of assessing students’ work in science. The aim of this paper is to review the current assessment practices that teachers adopt in science at both the primary and secondary levels. This review helps researcher and science educators to identify the needs of the teachers and chart out possible directions to improve the assessment of students’ science learning in future. Moreover, drawing on the findings, the SAW project team may also identify ways of facilitating such changes. Teachers teaching primary four General Studies, secondary teachers teaching secondary two Integrated Science and secondary four Biology were interviewed. The interview questions focused on revealing their current practices in assigning students’ work; factors influencing the assignment of students’ work; performance criteria they set on students’ work, feedback they provided for students, their views about science assessment and their opinions on alternative forms of science assessment. In this paper, students’ work include all different forms of tasks that the teachers assign to students which may be formative or summative assessment tasks conducted during or after lessons. Findings reveal that homework in the form of written assignments, laboratory reports, workbooks and tests are at present the major forms of students’ work, though the teachers realized the importance of project work and experimental work in science learning. Results also show that the teachers are ready for a change from the current practice to give more emphasis on project work and formative assessment tasks. In the SAW project, teachers are encouraged to attempt the use of alternative form of students’ work in assessing students’ science learning and engage in professional discussion with teachers from other countries participating in the project.
[Copyright © 2002

The latest music syllabus for Form I - III was published in 1983. It has been put into practice for more than fifteen years. To review the syllabus, the Curriculum Development Institute conducted in 1998 a survey on its implementation. A special meeting of music experts was also organized to examine the future trends of music education of Hong Kong. In anticipation of the revision of the syllabus, this chapter aims at reviewing the music contents stated in the syllabus and discussing the reform implications for teachers, students, schools heads, policy makers, and music teacher educators.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The Hong Kong primary English curriculum has shifted from an emphasis on oral proficiency in the 1970s through a focus on functional competence in the 1980s to a goal of developing learners' ever-improving capability to use English in the 1990s. This chapter applies a multi-level framework, based on Richards and Rodgers' (1986) model for curriculum discussion and comparison, to review and analyze the three syllabi available in the local teaching context in the past two decades. It describes and analyzes the changes in the aims, objectives, and methodology of the primary English curriculum under the "fads" of different approaches recommended in the respective curriculum documents. Attempts are made to capture the theoretical and methodological developments in the primary English curriculum. The main purpose is to explicate the underlying assumptions on the nature of language and language teaching and learning to formulate a basis for understanding curriculum implementation at the classroom level. It is argued in the chapter that congruence between the intended and implemented curriculum relies on the mapping of the underlying assumptions about language and language teaching and learning. Evaluation of classroom implementation, teachers' practices, and classroom research should be related to such deeper level of theoretical orientation. Implications for policy makers, teacher educators, teachers, and classroom researchers are sought.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This chapter focuses on teaching and learning science in Hong Kong primary classrooms. Two broad types of teaching strategies that are based on the most important variables in teaching strategies - teacher dominance in instruction and learners' amount of participation - are discussed. The findings from the analysis of teachers' teaching and pupils' learning of science provided insights for discussion. The issues of addressing teachers' professional development needs, encouraging active participation and bridging the gap between teachers' teaching and pupils' need were concluded. Future directions of work for on-going professional development and continuous work with teachers were suggested.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The sports physiology support provided for the Hong Kong elite athletes at the Hong Kong Sports Institute includes a range of physiological tests, including body composition assessment, respiratory functions, joint mobility, aerobic and anaerobic power, lactate velocity curve, and the concentration of various blood metabolites. Sports-specific testing in soccer, rowing, badminton, squash, gymnastics, table tennis, canoeing, windsurfing and wheelchair marathon have been constructed to assess the specific demand of those sports. Individual tolerance to lactic acid during different exercise intensities is evaluated. The purpose of this work is to provide coaching with more information relating to the intensities of effort of training and competitions so that factors which are important for athletic success can be identified. A data bank of physiological profiles of over 400 Hong Kong elite athletes and Hong Kong teams involved in 23 different sports has been established on computer so that instaneous information is ready available to both coach and athletes. The sports physiology staff attempt to provide the testing services at least three to four times per micro-training cycle, roughly corresponding to pre-season, mid season, and peak condition. Training intensities and recovery periods are continuously adjusted upon the observation made in testing, training and competition sessions. Biochemical monitoring of various blood parameters such as Hb, CPK and urea are obtained at rest and after exercise to detect overstraining, which has become a major problem, resulting in injuries, physical exhaustion, reduced performance and psychological burn out.