Supportive Conditions for the Reform

Curriculum Reform Document

The BECG and curriculum guides were designed to assist schools to understand what and how to implement the new curriculum. In the survey, respondents were asked to indicate whether they had read the different curriculum guides and other relevant documents. Those who had read the documents were then asked to rate the extent to which they had found the documents helpful on a 4-point scale from not helpful to very helpful.

Results show that 96.9% of primary school heads and 91.9% of secondary school heads had read the BECG. Of those who had read the document, 96.8% of the primary school group and 91.9% of the secondary group had found the document helpful or very helpful.

Reponses from KLA/subject heads and teachers differed according to the different KLAs/subject. Table 7 and 8 provide an overview of the survey results for individual KLAs/subject. For most of the KLAs/subject, over 70% of the heads had read the BECG and the relevant curriculum guides. For Science Education and Technology Education KLAs, over 50% of heads had read the BECG and the relevant curriculum guides. As can be seen from the two tables, a large majority (over 70%) of those who had read the documents found them helpful or very helpful.

In general, over 75% of primary school KLA/subject teachers and over 65% of secondary school KLA teachers had read the relevant curriculum guides. Among those who had read the document, over 70% of the primary school group and over 64% of the secondary school group found the document helpful or very helpful.

A general pattern was observed. The percentages of the primary school groups who had read the document were in general higher than those of the corresponding secondary school groups. Similar results were obtained on the issue of the helpfulness of the documents.

Curriculum Continuity

Curriculum continuity from junior secondary to senior secondary level is important. Secondary school KLA/subject heads and teachers were asked to indicate the extent of continuity between the new secondary 1-3 curriculum and the existing secondary 4-5 subjects on a 3-point scale ranging from “no continuity” to “high degree of continuity”. On the whole, the views of the KLA heads and teachers were similar. Around 35% of secondary school Mathematics Education KLA heads and teachers indicated that there was high continuity. For majority of the respondents, around 70% of them indicated that there was some continuity. Table 9 presents the results for each group. It is worth pointing out here that the implementation of the new curriculum was carried out progressively from Primary 1- Secondary 3 and then to Secondary 4-5 level. Since 1999, the curriculum for Secondary 4-5 and Secondary 6-7 has been revised in line with the new directions. However, revision to public examinations will only take place in the coming few years, resulting in a time lag for ensuring continuity. There was also a “wait-and-see” attitude towards the proposed review of the academic system combining HKCEE and HKALE. Hence, the majority of the responses indicate that there was only “some curriculum continuity” from junior to senior secondary levels.

Confidence and Perceived Competence

It is believed that the confidence and competence of KLA/subject heads and teachers are critical to implementing curriculum reform. The KLA/subject heads and teachers were asked to rate on a 5-point scale from 0 to 4 how confident they were in implementing various strategies, such as developing a school-based curriculum to facilitate transition, designing learning tasks and activities, designing learning materials, coordinating or collaborating with other subject teachers, encouraging students to read, integrating moral and civic education into KLA learning activities, promoting interactive learning through the use of information technology, using strategies to cater for learner diversity, using assessment as a basis for providing feedback to students to enhance learning, using diversified modes of assessment, and assigning quality homework.

In general, the KLA/subject heads and teachers had moderate to high confidence (a median score of 2 or 3) in their ability to implement the above strategies. In addition, respondents were asked to indicate their perceived competence in implementing the strategies. Results showed that in most areas, the respondents felt that their competence was moderate to high (a median score of 2 or 3). Respondents’ confidence level and perceived competence were highly correlated. The strategies that they felt less confident about were mostly those that they felt less competent in.

Professional Development Opportunities

Professional development opportunities are vital for school heads, KLA/subject heads and teachers to enhance their professionalism and capacity to carry out curriculum reform in schools. In the study, school heads were asked to indicate three activities in which they had participated in the current school year. More than 80% of the primary school heads and more than 75% of the secondary school heads had participated in experience-sharing about learning and teaching and curriculum development, and in training courses organized by educational institutes. In contrast, only about 37% of primary and secondary school heads had participated in educational research including action research.

Opportunities for the professional development of teachers in different domains of curriculum development have also been provided. In this study, KLA/subject heads and teachers were asked to indicate the extent to which they had found these opportunities adequate. The percentages reported for most of the KLAs/subject were in the range 40% - 60%. A greater sense of inadequacy in professional development opportunities was more widely felt among heads and teachers in Arts Education, Chinese Language Education, Mathematics Education, and Personal, Social and Humanities Education than in other KLAs/subject.

The study reflected that “attending in-service teacher development courses” and “independent study” were found effective by most respondents, although there were slight variations among the KLAs/subject. On the other hand, “action research” and “peer observation” were deemed less effective. From the open-ended comments made by respondents, it was clear that several additional strategies for professional development also deserve consideration. These include: sharing experiences and practices across schools, sharing of experience from pilot schools, posting successful experience on the Internet, compiling case studies of successful experience, and visits to mainland or overseas institutions.