This study aims at investigating the effectiveness of the establishment of the school based curriculum development teams as a response to the challenges of the school performance and student learning. A theoretical framework is derived from the various assumptions about school leadership, patterns of dissemination and teacher development. This framework will then be used to evaluate the extent that school based curriculum development teams contribute to teacher development and school improvement. The findings will shed light on the necessary conditions for successful implementation of school based curriculum development in a policy context of decentralizing curriculum decision making. Two case schools from two different socio-cultural milieu, Hong Kong and the Netherlands, are chosen for comparison. A mixed method approach of investigation is adopted and methods include interviews of teachers and students, analysis of video taped meetings and questionnaires.

In Hong Kong, curriculum is centrally developed and teachers are expected to implement it as designed. With few teachers and educators involved during the developmental process and limited efforts to disseminate the curriculum initiatives, teachers are often left to implement the curriculum with little understanding of the rationale of these changes. Successful implementation is, therefore, left with individual teachers. Based on experience and research in areas of (a) curriculum development, (b) implementation of innovation, (c) teacher thinking and teaching, and (d) professional development of teachers, this paper argues for the importance of looking at implementation issues from the eyes of practitioners in schools. Research findings suggesting that teachers’ conceptualization of teaching and the way they carry out their professional duties are influenced by their personal theories and school culture will further be presented. With knowledge and understanding of the social realities of teachers, strategies for effective implementation of educational innovation will be proposed.

The paper reports the findings of a study of student-teachers' perceptions of the Target-Oriented Curriculum (TOC) in Hong Kong. It attempts to clarify the present pictures created by the impacts caused by the introduction of the TOC initiative and its consequences. Focusing on the perceptions of student-teachers studying the final year of the two-year full-time Certificate of Education (Primary) Course at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), a prominent teacher education institution in Hong Kong, the paper examines some issues in relation to the implementation of TOC. The writer administrated a written questionnaire which contained a number of attitude statements regarding the context, concept and practice of the TOC initiative. The student-teachers were invited to indicate the extent to which they agreed with the statement and the responses to the questionnaire were analysed. The writer also conducted a semi-structured group interview in which a number of open-ended questions, based on the content concerning the written questionnaire, were presented for discussion in depth among some key informants. In this paper, the writer regards the student-teachers as 'newly trained teachers' since data of the study was collected from the sample population at a critical time, at the end of the course and just before they became 'serving teachers'. The study is not on a large scale and the data collected represents respondents' views at particular point of time. These views may be strengthened or modified after some time. However, the writer recommends that further study, focusing on newly trained teacher's change of perceptions of the TOC, is worthwhile to engage in. To conclude, the quality of school education is an issue of major concern. The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), should always be committed to work for the improvement of the education system. Having provided adequate places for teacher education, it is necessary to raise the standard of it and

This study aims to identify the elements and patterns of school cultural changes related curriculum innovations within the selected the curriculum in Information Technology (IT) and Peer Teaching Observation (PTO) in Hong Kong Primary Schools. The study is also identifying the elements of the receptivity of teachers to the curriculum innovations. The responding subjects will cover 2000 teachers from different primary schools to respond to the main questionnaire survey. The study is important for school level personnel, local school curriculum development and implementation designers and educational researchers. In particular, the Hong Kong curriculum change model of school culture provides a significant alternative conception of the nature of schools and the processes by which they improve.

This study is designed to investigate the impact of school-based curriculum development teams on teacher development and pupil learning, within the tradition of school-based curriculum development in a primary school in Hong Kong. Teacher and pupil interviews are used to evaluate the extent that teacher engagement in curriculum decision making processes within two school based curriculum development teams has led to teacher professional development which will be triangulated with the video taped meetings and tryout lessons. Pupils’ perspectives about how the innovation is perceived are to be collected in order to extend our understanding of the underlying principles in implementing curriculum changes in schools. Qualitative evidence reveals positively that participating teachers have developed themselves professionally through the process of planning, implementing and reflecting (PIR model) upon curriculum practice and innovation under certain conditions. However, the complexity of the structures and processes that are established for involving teachers in curriculum decision making processes needs further empirical and theoretical work.

The control of curriculum content has been a sensitive issue in the Hong Kong school curriculum. During the colonial period, the Hong Kong Government controlled the curriculum content in various subjects, for example, by excluding knowledge concerning modern China or prohibiting overtly political material from being part of the curriculum. By law, the use of text, instructional materials and any forms of classroom instructions were prohibited except in accordance with a syllabus approved by the authority. The use of legal structures to force compliance has been termed “hard policy” since there are legal implications for non-compliance. After 1997, however, the government has given teachers a much more direct role in curriculum reform and renewal through the selection of school-based teaching materials in various key learning areas. This role has been given to teachers through a series of what might be called “soft” policy innovations where the innovations do not have the force of law but their success depend on teachers’ professional decisions more than on persuasion. With such an approach, the role of teachers has experienced vital shift, i.e., instead of being technicians teaching the prescribed texts, teachers are expected to be autonomous professionals in carrying out classroom instructions. The shift is dramatic, as teachers are used to the prescribed textbooks in their classroom teaching. The paper aims to analyze such a shift through the perspectives of government policy and its expected role of teachers. It also argues that political considerations, rather than the instructional needs of the classroom, have significant influence on the Hong Kong curriculum traditionally, resulting in neglect of teachers’ professional development and their autonomy in making instructional decisions. The move from the “hard” to the “soft” policy requires further clarification and communication between the government and the front line teachers.