In this age of advanced technology, the pervasive influences of the media on pupils has aroused widespread concern among educators in general and religious educators in particular. This article argues for the teaching of religion through media education. It first discusses the interest of religious groups in media education and how media education might make an important contribution to the teaching of religion. Then it provides data from two schools who have adopted media education in the teaching of religious education to see how teachers and pupils have responded to this initiative.
[Copyright of Religious Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00344080600956723]

This study is a qualitative case study of a geography field trip of secondary four (year 10) students in a Hong Kong school. It conceives fieldwork as an experiential activity in which an understanding of the experiences of teachers and students in their contexts is important. The results revealed that the students' intent before the trip and their learning experiences after the trip were much richer than their teachers had intended. Despite some students' negative experiences of previous field trips, there was a universally strong desire to escape from their perceived boredom and constraints of the classroom. Field trips were cherished for their rarity and freedom, and the field sites were sought for their novelty. The study has revealed the relative freedom of the field as a learning environment in which the students were more proactive and teacher-student rapport improved. Besides deepening their understanding of what they had previously learned in class, some students were able to see things in new perspective. For many of them, there was a desire to be free from the presence of the teachers and to have greater control over their learning. The findings also indicated that upon return to school, there was a quick return to the status quo. The inspiration which resulted from freedom of learning from the field trip was often not transferred to the classroom setting.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382049908667614]

This paper reports on a study conducted in Hong Kong which addresses the question of whether teaching approaches can influence the development of learning outcomes within the context of environmental education, how such outcomes are affected by different academic ability levels, and whether they vary over time. The overall hypothesis is that enquiry teaching is more effective than didactic approaches for the development of environmental understanding, irrespective of students' original academic ability and the time frame of measurement. A quasi-experimental design based on a pre-test and two post-tests and follow-up interviews administered to geography classes at matriculation level was used to collect numerical data about changes in understanding after the teaching of a people-environment topic. Students showed a moderate level of environmental understanding to begin with. Results showed that, irrespective of academic ability, those taught with an enquiry approach did better than those who were taught didactically in the short term but not in the long term. The reasons for this trend are discussed in terms of student ability and teaching conditions in schools. To increase the effectiveness of enquiry teaching, improvements in teacher education and training, curriculum revision, funding and research support and changes in examination questions are called for.
[Copyright of International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10382040108667445 ]

Through interviews and observing day-to-day classroom practice, this study explores the beliefs of 10 music teachers in elementary schools in Vancouver and Hong Kong. The results demonstrate that the music teachers of the two localities hold similar cognitive beliefs about the essential elements of music education. However, they hold different beliefs about the value or impact of music education on the psychological or character development of students. Music teachers of Vancouver are found to be more student-centred than their counterparts in Hong Kong, and this is reflected in both the curriculum and activities selected for classroom teaching. Though both groups of teachers place similar emphasis on western music, in Canada more classroom activities are based around the student's personal enjoyment and expression. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, music education is viewed as a means of nurturing the student's temperamental development. While students in Vancouver are allowed to express their personal musical preferences in classroom activities, in Hong Kong students are required to perform according to prescribed standard indicators of success. This is probably linked--albeit invisibly--to Chinese Confucian culture.
[Copyright of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13450600500137182]

作者對數碼影像作為美術創作活動作出探討，並關注它對美術製作的態度和思考帶來的改變。作者指出，由於電腦新媒體給予學生無懼犯錯地探索、實驗和創作視像世界，消除他們在傳統學習環境上所遇到的大部份困難，為他們提供了很多的滿足感。此外，作者匯報，調查顯示這個新媒體已成為香港美術與設計教育的新嘗試，這種科技擁有無窮潛力，而資訊高速公路——國際網絡——亦已成為國際上美術工作者及美術教育者的分享渠道，作者極力倡議香港的美術教育系統應從速加添新元素。