(......Continued)
Two colleges and
four departments from Minnesota have joined five departments
from the Institute, with seven faculty members from
each institution spending a month on the other's campus.
The outcome, on both sides, will be enhanced research
skills, new curriculum and instructional modules, and
better preparation for teachers. Two institutions from
Guangzhou in China, South China Normal University and
Sun Yat-Sen University, are also playing a part.
The Dean of the School
of Languages in Education is leading a project exploring
basic educational texts in use in China since the Qin
Dynasty. The project aims to promote greater understanding
of basic education in China, its practice as well as
its philosophy, in the belief that this understanding
will provide a new direction for the teaching of Chinese
in Hong Kong schools.
The School of Early Childhood Education (SECE) this
year completed the first stage in a $2.4 million project,
"A self-assessment and self-improvement model for
quality teaching in preschools", funded by the Quality
Education Fund. The project involved seven lecturers
working closely with 12 kindergartens and child care
centres from diverse backgrounds and is an illustration
of the type of applied research the Institute specializes
in - action research in collaboration with practitioners
to improve their practice.
The aim of the project is to develop a self-assessment
and self-improvement model for quality learning and
teaching that can be adopted by kindergartens and child
care centres throughout Hong Kong using the performance
indicators (PIs) developed by the Education Department
and the Social Welfare Department.
The project outcome
will have significant impact on kindergartens and child
care centres. This will be achieved through the dissemination
of a learning package that can be used in early childhood
settings to guide practitioners through the process
of assessing and improving learning and teaching. It
will contain materials reflecting the practical experience
of the 12 participating kindergartens and child care
centres and guidance about what and how to assess in
relation to each aspect of the PIs, a set of video vignettes
on CD providing evidence related to particular PIs,
and a floppy disk that provides copies of the assessment
and improvement tools.
Research at departmental level
The Chinese Department is taking part in two research
initiatives that will have a significant effect on everyday
classroom teaching. A Government-funded project will
use material from the mass media to improve Chinese
listening and speaking skills at secondary level. The
resulting multi-media kit will help to develop students'
critical thinking, knowledge base and emotional maturity.
Staff of the Department are also collaborating with
academics from the University of Hong Kong in an important
study of the basic Chinese language competency of primary
and secondary school pupils.
Meanwhile, staff at the Centre for Language in Education
(CLE) this year explored the language used by teachers
in Hong Kong language classrooms and used their results
to develop a data bank of classroom language recordings.
These are being used as teaching materials in enhancement
courses for students and serving teachers. They also
worked on reading tests for language proficiency assessment,
Putonghua and Cantonese recital training, and video
clips on educational topics.
The English Department has a number of major projects
underway, including a three-year investigation commissioned
by the Education Department into an enrichment programme
in Chinese medium schools which increases secondary
students' exposure to English while they continue to
learn effectively in Chinese. Another project, which
will aid the effective implementation of the new secondary
school English language syllabus, is nearing completion.
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