香港回歸以後全面推行了教育改革。應歷史教育改革的要求,香港民間出版社推出了幾套新的高中歷史教科書,其中現代教育研究社編撰出版的《高中中國歷史》在香港地區被廣泛使用,香港民眾對它的評價頗高,它是我們深入認識與了解香港歷史教育現狀的重要樣本。本文對香港現代版《高中中國歷史》(甲部課程)進行了專門研究。首先,探討了該教材的編撰背景。在“一國兩制”和中西融合的時代背景之下,2007年香港課程發展議會與香港考試及評核局聯合編訂了《中國歷史課程及評估指引(中四至中六)》,該《指引》成為教材編撰的指導思想,它要求教材編撰既要立足於國家立場,亦要遵循以學生發展為本的教育理念,並且該教材聘請了專業的編撰團隊。其次,探討了該教材的課文內容。通過對緒論性課文、基本課文、補充課文、史料性課文和探究性課文等課文系統進行詳細分析,以及對課前提要、課文插圖、課文注釋與課文習題等課程輔助系統進行深入探究,發現該教材既強調學材與學情的結合,也注重培養學生的愛國意識和探究能力。最後,對該教材進行了評介。該教材有其編纂特色,裝幀精美,圖文並茂,注重培養學生的思辨能力,並且開展了多種類型的學習活動,豐富了學生的學習體驗;但也存在忽視女性貢獻、內容繁瑣、晦澀、習題量大,增加了學生的學業負擔等缺陷。總而言之,香港現代版《高中中國歷史》(甲部課程)這套教材的編撰及選取的內容對中國大陸的相關教材具有借鑒意義。

2001年國家教育部在黨中央的領導下於正式啟動基礎教育課程改革,而香港自回歸之後,積極響應大陸教育課程改革的浪潮,不斷地努力與中國大陸靠攏,但是在歷史課程的規劃上還是與大陸有著很大的區別。中國歷史作為基礎教育改革中的重點課程,香港和大陸都進行了重點的研究規劃,尤其是在歷史教科書的編寫問題上,成為歷史教育研究學者的熱點問題,而香港歷史教科書的體例一直是研究的重點,歷史圖表的輔助研究卻常常被忽視。所以,筆者認為獨立系統的研究香港歷史教科書中的歷史圖表是有必要的,筆者選取2014年版由現代教育研究社出版的《高中中國歷史》甲部課程中的圖表為例,從數據統計分析著手,從微觀角度分析課前導讀、課內闡釋、課後總結三個方面分析歷史圖表的特點,隨後根據圖表的特點從宏觀角度分析出甲部課程中的圖表的亮點與值得商榷之處,最後選取內陸的人教版高中歷史教科書中的圖表進行系統的比較,通過比較對內陸教科書中的歷史圖表編寫提供借鑒。筆者認為通過對甲部課程中的圖表研究有助於完善歷史教育研究的領域;另外,通過對香港歷史教科書中的歷史圖表研究,總結經驗,得到啟發,為內地歷史教科書中的歷史圖表的編寫提供建議。

提問與對話是教學中最常見的形式，而在藝術評賞教育的領域更有著主導性的地位。藝術教育學者早已提出不少評賞理論和評賞教學方法，但對於教師如何與學生對話和向他們發問，卻一直缺乏一套較為完整和有系統的方法。相比其他學科，例如：語文、數學、科學，有關藝術評賞教學中對話與提問的研究相當貧乏。本文探討六個常見的藝術評賞教學理論和策略，然後提出四個藝術評賞教育的主要目的，並倡議一套與之相配及適用於教授視覺藝術的對話及提問框架。為了在應用層面進一步完善和建構本框架，七位香港小學教師及其學生受邀進行教學試驗。觀察有關教學試驗後，本文歸納出六項教學建議，以協助教育工作者應用本框架於藝術評賞教學。Questioning and dialogue are the most common way of teaching, and they are an essential element in the field of art criticism education. Previous scholarship had proposed various theories and teaching methods on art criticism education, but there is a lack of a holistic and systematic way for guiding teachers to question and have dialogue with students. The number of studies on questioning and dialogue in learning Visual Arts is limited, comparing to studies in subjects such as Languages, Mathematics, and Sciences. This paper reviews six art criticism models or methods, identifies four major goals in art criticism education, and proposes a framework of questioning and dialogue for the learning and teaching of visual art at schools and museums. Seven primary school visual arts teachers were invited to practice the framework in their own schools and art museums and finally six suggestions were concluded for teachers' implementation. Copyright © 2019 藝術教育研究期刊顧問委員會 & Ainosco Press.

This chapter reports the results of a study that evaluates the effectiveness of a Philosophy in Schools (PIS) programme in developing students’ thinking skills and English competence in Hong Kong. Sixty-two Secondary 3 English as a Second Language (ESL) students and their three Integrated Humanities (IH) teachers participated in this study. With training and support from the researcher, the participating teachers taught the participating students PIS in English during IH lessons. The students were found to be capable of reasoning and arguing in a competent way about philosophical problems arising from various stimuli prepared by their teachers according to the IH curriculum. It was also found that PIS played a major role in promoting the students’ critical and creative thinking, and helped the development of their English language proficiency to a significant extent. In addition, both the students and teachers were found to have a generally positive attitude towards doing philosophy in the classroom. The findings of this study suggest that integrating philosophy into the IH curriculum can promote critical thinking, creative thinking, and English language proficiency in ESL students. Copyright © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Chi-Ming Lam; individual chapters, the contributors.

This work-in-progress poster discusses our preliminary work on exploring the possibility of harnessing spherical video-based immersive virtual reality (SV-IVR) in learning and teaching of Physical Geography. In particular, it focuses on delineating (i) the rationale behind our initiative, and (ii) the proposed direction of how to adopt SV-IVR in the context of formal schooling in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2019 Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.

Until the reforms of the late 1990s, the music curriculum for Hong Kong primary schools focused largely on singing, instrumental playing and listening. Musical creativity, on the other hand, had been largely neglected. In 1997, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China announced that Hong Kong would be transformed to become a ‘knowledge-based’ society. The old school curriculum deemed to be deficient in terms of the intended policy initiatives. A reform of the education system took place with nine generic skills, in which creativity is regarded as one of the main foci, being introduced.Undoubtedly influenced by a large body of research findings that support the contention that Information Technology is a powerful tool for assisting students to learn to compose music, fourteen primary schools in Hong Kong have been set up with computer-based music rooms with the financial support of the Quality Education Fund (QEF). Of these fourteen schools, twelve have focused on the application of technology on musical creativity and teachers in these schools employ various forms of information technology to promote learning through creative music activities. Some methods have proven successful while others have been less so.This paper discusses the implementation of technology-based teaching of musical creativity and analyses the teaching strategies used by the twelve QEF-supported schools. The paper concludes by proposing alternative technology-based strategies — derived from the experience of other countries — that may have the potential to increase the effectiveness of teaching for musical creativity in Hong Kong schools. Copyright © 2005 School of Music, University of Washington.

This paper discusses how IT changes the way of teaching and learning of music composition at school. Four music teachers in Hong Kong took part in a series of semi-structured interviews. They described how they had employed IT in teaching music composition and what types of musical products their students were able to create. It was found that the teachers were simply substituting IT for paper and pencil to notate musical pieces, and they were using a rather traditional “practice and drill” approach to teach music composition. A teaching framework, called Pedagogical Framework for Music Composition with Information Technology (PFMCIT), was thus formulated. The purpose of the framework is to promote the more effective student-centered approach in teaching music composition. It is hoped that the framework can help to improve pre-service and in-service music teachers’ knowledge and skills in the area of IT-assisted music composition education, and to establish a better technological environment for teachers to develop students’ creativity. Copyright © 2012 International Society for Music Education (ISME).

Many Hong Kong Chinese parents believe that music training enhances the academic achievement of their children. The current study investigates the relationship between the extent and outcome of students' music training, their perceptions of the value of the subjects they study and their academic achievement. A total of 286 students in Primary 4, 5 and 6 from one school in Hong Kong reported the extent and outcome of their music training, including the number of instruments they studied, the number of years spent training, highest grade and highest level achieved. For value, students completed a subscale of the Achievement Task Value Questionnaire to measure their "liking and interest," perceived "importance" and "usefulness" of their school subjects. A nested structural equation model showed that, for both boys and girls, the extent and outcome of music training positively predicts academic achievement in Chinese, English and mathematics. Furthermore, the model shows that for both boys and girls, students' perceived value of their school subjects negatively predicts academic achievement in Chinese, and age has a direct and negative effect on mathematics achievement. For girls, age positively moderates the extent and outcome of music training on academic achievement whereas the moderator effect of age on students' perceived value of academic subjects is non-significant. For boys, in contrast, the moderator effect of age on extent and outcome of music training is non-significant, whereas its effect on students' perceived value of academic subjects is negative. In broad terms, the results show that parents are justified in believing that music training is positively related to academic achievement. However, the results differ for boys and girls in connection to the role of age in this relationship.
[Copyright of Research Studies in Music Education is the property of Sage Publications Ltd.]

Aims and objectives: To test the effectiveness of a musical training programme in promoting happiness and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children. Background: The impact of poverty and income disparity on the psychological wellbeing of children remains a profound global public health concern. There is substantial evidence that poverty and income disparity have many negative impacts on children's psychological well‐being, adversely affecting their quality of life. Methods: A nonequivalent, quasi‐experimental, two‐group, pretest and post‐test, between‐subjects design was conducted with 171 Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children (aged 3–6 years). Participants (n = 100) in the experimental group attended a weekly 1‐hr musical training lesson for 12 weeks conducted by the Music Children Foundation. Participants (n = 71) in the wait list control group received the same training after all data had been collected. Data collection for both groups was conducted at baseline and 12‐week follow‐up. The measured outcomes were happiness level and quality of life. A TREND checklist was completed. Results: Participants in the experimental group reported significantly higher levels of happiness (p = .002) and quality of life (p = .44) than those in the wait list control group. Conclusions: The present study indicates the effectiveness of a musical training programme in promoting happiness and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children. It also demonstrated the feasibility of implementing the programme in a community context. Relevance to clinical practice: This study aids to inform nurses the beneficial effect of the musical training programme in improving underprivileged children's psychological well‐being and quality of life. Indeed, community nurses may act as facilitators to promote the musical training programme to underprivileged children. The involvement of community nurses may greatly enhance the sustainability