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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article 11 (Dec., 2012) |
Curriculum reform and restructuring of senior secondary science education in Hong Kong: Teachers’ perceptions and implications
Yau-Yuen YEUNG, Yeung-Chung LEE and Irene Chung-Man LAM
Hong Kong Institute of Education, HONG KONG
E-mail: yyyeung@ied.edu.hk
Revised 20 Dec., 2012
Contents
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Research methodology
- Results and discussion
- Understanding of the curriculum
- Perceived emphases of the curriculum
- Perceived level of the curriculum
- Teaching the core and elective parts
- Progression of contents
- Progression from the junior to senior secondary level
- Dealing with mixed ability
- Pedagogy
- School-based assessment
- Conclusion and implications
- Acknowledgements
- Reference
- Appendix
With the restructuring of the senior secondary education system in Hong Kong in 2009, the senior secondary curriculum was overhauled substantially by the conversion of the two-year Certificate Level and the two-year Advanced Level to a new three-year senior secondary level. This process entails changes to the contents and organization of various science subjects. This study was designed to explore, through questionnaires and interviews, the perceptions of science teachers about the design of the three science curricula, namely Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, and the challenges teachers perceived for teaching and learning these subjects in the new education context before the full implementation of the reform. The findings show that the respondents were well aware of the emphases of the new curricula. However, the respondents were likely to experience difficulty in putting rhetoric into practice due to limitations inherent to the curriculum design, increased diversity of students’ ability, teachers’ inertia in changing old practices, and resource constraints.
Keywords: science curriculum, curriculum reform, senior secondary science, Hong Kong
