14 students of the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) Programme joined a study tour to Brisbane , Australia in June 2016. One major objective of the tour was to participate as volunteers in a biennial festival, namely “Out of the Box (OOTB)” organized by Queensland Performing Arts Centre. Since 1992, OOTB festival has been “a national leader in programming for young children’s creativity and imagination” in Australia, providing a variety of free events, performances and workshops for young children under eight years old. As volunteers, students assisted the set-up and implementation of workshops, navigated school groups and teachers during their visits, and provided general administrative assistance. The practical work allowed students to reflect on their own value of arts and experienced different ways to enhance and nurture children's creativity and imagination. Besides, it was also a wonderful and valuable opportunity for the students to experience the cultural difference through working with the organizer, artists and volunteers from different countries. In addition to volunteer in OOTB festival, the students also visited numerous kindergartens and cultural institutions including museums and art gallery. These visits provided the students with a better understanding of early childhood arts education in Brisbane, Australia.

香港實行的中學新學制及西九文化區的建設為高等教育的課程重組、師資培訓、與社區接軌等方面帶來了契機，香港教育學院文化與創意藝術學系的課程設置也做了相應的調整。本文指出連貫的課程設置與培養有創意及有想象力的下一代是教改的關鍵，並從四個方面論述了課程重組與實施的策略：本科知識與教學法緊扣；正規課程與聯課活動(co-curricular activities) 聯系；開辦相關的音樂教育與文化藝術課程；課程善用社區資源。

Identity formation is a major development issue confronting adolescents (Erikson, 1968). By adopting Marcia’s (1966) identity status model and employing part of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status, the researcher examined a sample of Hong Kong secondary school students’ identity statuses in the four identity domain areas, say education, career, life-style, and friendship. It was found that 95.9% of the students can be categorized into a particular status, and 31.7%, 25.6%, 20.4%, 22.3% of the students were assigned as diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement statuses respectively. Further statistical analysis has been conducted to unpack the relationship between the respondents’ identity statuses and personal characteristics, parents’ influence, and community service engagement. Implications for the enhancement of community service programmes at secondary schools will be discussed at the end.

宗教建築作為信徒聚集和舉行宗教活動的場所，不單是一個能讓人體驗和感受與日常生活不同氛圍的空間，同時亦因其建築風格、藝術特色，乃至建築和信徒群體的關係等，承載著群體和先賢的信仰和生命故事。因此，通過學習宗教建築能成為宗教教育的重要教學策略，促進學生提升靈性，並加深瞭解和認同天主教信仰種種生命故事中的價值觀。本文便以香港教育學院宗教教育與心靈教育中心和嘉諾撒聖心學校推行「宗教建築：生命的標誌」協作計劃為個案，探討如何以實地考察結合劇場和圖像等多種方式，讓宗教建築學習成為具創意和有效的學習經歷，幫助學生培養天主教價值觀。而學生的回饋既指出這一學習的成效，亦顯示宗教建築學習值得進一步推動和發展為校本經驗。

This paper reports the impacts of university-school partnership on the development of English language teachers’ capacities for self-regulated professional renewals. Two classroom based enquires were undertaken in two secondary schools in Hong Kong which aimed to enhance students’ ability in English reading comprehension. The two projects were conducted in Secondary 2 classes and a Secondary 4 classes respectively. In both projects, a cognitive approach was adopted to the learning of English as a second language, with the former focuses solely on vocabulary while the latter deals with both vocabulary and textual analysis. A case study method was adopted in understanding the impacts of the enquiries as experienced by the teachers. The investigative process occurred in a spiral of actions which began with problem identification, and continued with action planning, implementation, evaluation and then further planning. The action cycle engaged teachers in making critical reflection on their prior pedagogical practice and their understanding of learners’ needs. Data were collected through group discussions, lesson observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings show that while teachers acknowledged the benefits that the projects had brought to both teachers and students, they were aware of the limitations of such one-off projects and felt skeptical about the sustainability of the positive effects, if the issues of expertise, ownership and differing conceptions of goals are not properly addressed. This paper will first outline the enquiry cycles of the two projects, which will then be followed by the teachers’ reflection on the impacts of the projects on their pedagogy, as well as the challenges they encountered. It will then conclude with a discussion about the enabling conditions that would help empower teachers with the intellectual orientation and capacity for embedding the enquiries as part of their everyday professional lives.

本文提出香港現今師資培訓及中學校教育的局限性，並以行動研究的角度去尋找、探討及描述一個創新的教學法：「以院校合作模式推動課程統整」。文中描述這個院校合作計畫的理論架構、實踐模式及研究結果。院校合作提供啟導以及院校協作推動課程發展的機會，讓準老師把他們已涉獵的理論和教學法實踐在真實的教學情景中，師資培訓不再是紙上談兵。這個實景性學習能激發準老師的學習動機的同時，也能推動學校的課程發展。此外，院校合作的設計與實踐也融合了課程統整的原素：把學科分割的知識在有意義的教學主題下重新統合。因此，作為門徑去推動中學課程統整的院校合作計劃亦能讓中學生明白知識與生活是息息相關，讓他們體會學會學習的真諦。
[Copyright © 2010 高等教育文化事業有限公司.]

In Hong Kong, many school principals have outsourced their extra-curricular activities to reduce the workload of teachers and provide more activity options for students. This article reports on a qualitative study aimed at examining the views of a group of 16 teaching professionals from ten primary schools in Hong Kong on the effectiveness of, as well as the major concerns about, outsourcing extra-curricular activities. The findings indicate that three themes emerged from the data regarding the effectiveness of outsourcing extracurricular activities to external organisations: (1) reducing teachers' workload and cost saving; (2) enhancing the expertise of teachers; and (3) catering for the needs of both parents and students. On the other hand, the major concerns about outsourcing activities were: (1) increasing administrative duties; (2) quality of the activities; (3) linking activities to school curricula; and (4) student discipline. It is recommended that school, government and parent representatives be involved in the monitoring of delivering outsourcing activities.
[Copyright © 2015 Education Pub.]