Changing times and postmodern perspectives have changed the traditional beliefs about child development knowledge, early childhood learning and curriculum and their relationships. Despite ongoing exchanges about how best to respond to the critique of the developmental knowledge base, few descriptions of how particular educators have reconceptualized their curriculum exist. Employing postmodern views of knowledge, learning, and curriculum, this chapter describes a new narrative curriculum developed by the authors to enact a postmodern early years learning in a typical Chinese context: Story Approach to Integrated Learning (SAIL). It first reflects on the existing early childhood curricula in Hong Kong and the associated problems and challenges. Second, it reviews the literature about the reconceptualization of early years learning and curriculum to seek possible solutions to Hong Kong problems. Third, a brief introduction of SAIL is presented and an example is given to illustrate how SAIL can put postmodernism curriculum into practice. Last, this chapter concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges and future directions relating to the shift from developmental to postmodern practices in the development of early childhood curriculum.

This chapter considers the articulation of education discourse through visual representations of curriculum policies in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore under the umbrella of the Global Childhoods project. We are concerned with the ways that policy and culture are co-implicated in the everyday lives of children in global cities. We explore how, in contexts of high-stakes testing, rankings and intense competition, discourses of education are depicted in officially produced visual texts. Texts selected for analysis here focus on curriculum content, learning, and the imagined skills and characteristics of idealised learner-citizens. Drawing insights from social semiotics and using Foucauldian notions of discourse and governmentality, we show how these visual policy texts represent education in broadly instrumentalist terms concerned with “what” and “who” is being taught in a nation’s schools. In all three study sites, these concerns connect to broader economic and social goals, and tacitly reiterate ideologically inflected narratives concerned with the purposes and potential of education. We highlight distinctions between visual policy texts that acknowledge education as an interconnected human endeavour, and those that rely on imagery and bounded lists. We also argue that such images and lists are largely devoid of reference to the students, teachers and societies. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

In neoliberal contexts, schools are accountable for educational quality, and effectiveness is measured by objective indicators, such as examination scores. Schools tend to become committed to preparing students for examinations rather than all-round and complete personal development, making it difficult for students to identify the meaningful connections between themselves and learning activities, and, in turn, resulting in negative learning experiences. Marxist theorists refer to this condition as alienated learning, that is, the internal contradiction between the learner’s self and learning labour. In contrast, curricular reforms across the globe have promoted a progressive pedagogy that values engaging students in the full range of life experiences in education, enabling them to overcome alienated learning. Yet the effects of curricular reforms are still unclear. The present study sheds light on the extent to which reforms permit students to confront alienated learning. To achieve this aim, the study investigated 44 Hong Kong secondary and undergraduate students with photovoice methods. Its findings suggest that the effects of these curricular reforms are minimal, though they offer opportunities for students to explore their interests. Many students will still experience alienated learning; their interests continue to be subordinated to examinations and even devalued by their schools and teachers. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

In this study, a modified version of the Curriculum Orientation Inventory for Early Childhood Education (COI-ECE) is developed and validated with a sample of 717 in-service teachers from fifty Hong Kong pre-primary schools. Results of confirmatory factor analysis show that the curriculum beliefs of pre-primary school teachers can be conceptualised into four dimensions: humanistic, cognitive process/academic, technological, and social reconstruction orientations. Results also reveal that pre-primary school teachers hold strong humanistic orientation beliefs while cognitive process/academic orientation beliefs are held less strongly. Further analyses by one-way ANOVA tests find that differences in curricular orientation beliefs are related to teachers’ educational level and teaching position. This study reaffirms the importance of implementing an integrated developmentally appropriate curriculum in promoting whole-child development in children’s early years. The implications for supporting and sustaining teachers’ curriculum-based planning and subsequent teaching practices will be discussed. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

本文以一個教研項目的經驗為基礎，討論價值觀教育課程的設計原則與教學實踐技巧。內容主要以一初中系列的視像教材設計及相關課研經驗為例子，先綜合出四項課程設計原則。之後，藉著過程中所蒐集的課堂數據解釋相關的教學實踐技巧。最後，本文以建議教師在設計及實踐價值觀教育課程的角色作為往後值得關注的課題作結。With reference to an experience drawn from a teaching study, this paper discusses the design principles and teaching practice skills for values education curriculum. It first summarizes four design principles by using the series of video resource and the teaching study from a junior secondary school. Then, it explains the related teaching practice skills based on the empirical data collected in lessons. At last, it ends with suggesting that the role of teachers in designing and teaching values education curriculum would be a topic for further study. Copyright © 2020 香港教師中心.

課程實施是課程改革取得成功的關鍵因素之一。本文試圖透過目標為本課程這個案例，從改革特性、整體策略、教師發展、資源提供、學校行政和教師文化等幾方面，剖析影響香港課程實施的諸多因素。研究表明，雖然政府已經意識到課程實施的重要性，並採取了一些相應措施，但是許多不利因素依然存在。因此，此項改革的課堂實施情況，與改革的理想之間，還存在巨大的反差。目標為本課程，遠非一項成功的改革。 Copyright © 2006 華東師範大學.

香港科學教育課程改革既有自身持續更新的內在需求,又受到社會經濟及科技發展的驅動,以及全球教育改革趨勢的推動。科學教育課程從"知識和理解""技能和過程""價值觀和態度"等三個方面建構了以培養學生科學素養為目標的課程體系,旨在落實以學生為本的課程理念。通過開放而具彈性的課程架構、課程設置的連貫與統整、多樣化的教學策略,推進既定課程目標與理念的實現。香港科學教育課程改革過程中體現出的變革素養、課程內容的結構化設計、注重能力培養的綜合化學習方式,可為內地科學教育課程改革提供參考。

香港推行校本課程剪裁計劃，目的是將其課程作適當的剪裁，以切合學業成績稍遜學生的需要。1994年9月，共十間中學參加試驗計劃，結果顯示計劃確能使學業成績稍遜學生獲益。試驗計劃成功協助錄取大量成績稍遜的學生，是在於採取了三方面的策略：1.調整課程內容，重新鞏固學生學習基礎；2.改善教材、教法，切合學生的需要；3.重視提高學生的學習動機。本文透過課程剪裁計劃，反思香港教育及課程改革的規模是否過大，以致未能集中處理學與教的問題。 Copyright © 2008 華東師範大學.

核心素養已成為近些年來全球教育界關注的焦點，也引領著各地的教育改革。儘管在不同的地區，核心素養的內涵和特質有差異，但更多是呈現出共同之處。然而，如何有效地落實「素養導向的教育」卻仍未明確。本文分析了香港的教育改革經驗，綜合核心素養的相關理論和討論，探索香港在落實課程改革的發展脈絡，以期能對當前推行核心素養導向的教育改革提供參考和借鑑。In recent years, many places have adopted the concept of key competency as the basis of developing school curriculum. Researchers and academics are still debating the definition and nature of key competencies. Yet, they have come to some common understanding of what key competency is. However, it is not yet clear how to nurture students’ key competencies. This paper reports the experiences of Hong Kong in nurturing students’ key competencies. The experience of Hong Kong is reflected through analyzing the theories on key competence, and the implementation of curriculum and instruction reform since 2001. Copyright © 2017 高等教育文化事業有限公司.

Background: This study is part of a larger study entitled “Secondary Students’ Independent Learning” funded by a Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (Number HKIED 8005/03H) of the Research Grants Committee, Hong Kong SAR Government. The original project aimed to establish and validate with empirical data, a conceptual framework of self-directed learning, the characteristics and processes involved and their relations with academic achievement of secondary students. Aims and Keywords: This study aimed to explore the effect of academic aims, goal setting and planning on academic achievement of secondary students. Sample: The sample comprised 14,846 students currently enrolled at Secondary 1 to Secondary 6 (except Secondary 5) from 23 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Methods: Students completed a self-administered questionnaire comprising 4-point Likert items (1: Strongly Disagree, 2: Partly Disagree; 3: Partly Agree, 4: Strongly Agree) on academic aims, goal setting, planning, and other aspects of self-directed learning not included in this study. Each construct was measured by five items. Measurement quality of the scales according to the framework was established using the Winsteps software (version 3.72.3). Based on Rasch scores of the latent variables and standardized scores of Chinese, English and mathematics, structural equation modeling was undertaken using Mplus (version 6). Results: Analyses indicated that academic aims and academic planning both directly predicted academic achievement, with educational aims being the stronger predictor. Academic goal setting indirectly predicted academic achievement via academic planning. Consistency was found both in the structure and in the effects of the predictor across gender and year levels. Conclusion: The study shows that self-directed learning has positive effect on academic achievement of secondary students of both gender and all year levels.