Challenges & opportunities in an era of curriculum change

Hui Chui Hung, Sammy

Convenor of Staff Development Committee

Sha Tin Methodist College

Academic system change & Curriculum reform in Hong Kong

• Emerging demands on teachers

• Greater challenges to the administrators

Our Dream:

• Seize the challenge as an opportunity

Our experience

• We are not ‘prophets’

• Trial & error

• Reflections

Curriculum Focus of the school since 2001

Liberal studies since 1992

Integrated Humanities since 2003

Humanities Project: Museum Studies Science and Technology project.

Liberal StudiesModule: Chinese Traditional Medicine

Liberal Studies since 2002

History

&

Culture

level

7

6

5

4

3

1

2

Number of teachers involving in the projects in 2004/05 :

S1 Liberal Studies 3S2 Science and Technology Project 15S3 Museum Studies 6S1-3 History and Culture 10

S4-5 Integrated Humanities 4S6-7 Liberal Studies 8

Total teachers involved 29

Stage 1: Initiating change

Teachers’ commitment to curriculum innovations (vision & ownership)

Stage 2: Implementing change

Communication & collaboration

Stage 3: Sustaining change

Teachers’ professional development

3 stages of curriculum projects in the school

Institutional

Individual

Deficit Growth

Off-site seminars, workshops and courses

Fragmented individualism

Critical self reflection

Fragmented individualism

School-based staff development days; curriculum projects

Contrived collegiality

Ongoing inquiry as stance; creating professional learning communities

Collaborative culture

A conceptual framework of professional development models (based on Huberman & Gusky, 1995 and Hargreaves, 1994)

Collaborative Culture

Structure

Professional development policies

Strategies of planning & implementing the new curriculum

A collaborative culture

• Cordial relationship among the colleagues

• Important but not sufficient!

• Recognize that disagreement and diversity are central to working in the process of change

On structure

• The best structure to foster collaboration is the ‘Team’

• provide ‘Structured time’ for inquiring, e.g. a time slot for lesson planning

On staff professional development policy

• The best staff development occurs not in workshops but in the workplace

• Should deepen discussion,open up debates

• Treat teachers not only knowledge consumers but also knowledge generators

• With change forces abounding, it is easy to experience overload, fragmentation and incoherence.

• the sheer presence of problems and multiple unconnected solutions are overwhelming…

Fullan, 1999

• Teachers, curriculum leaders, staff developers and the administrators need

• ‘Shared mission, values, collective inquiry, collaborative teams, an orientation towards action and a willingness to experiment, commitment to continuous improvement and a focus on results’.

Dufour & Eaker, 1998

一個「全新」開始的建議

(4)

接受培訓

+規劃綜合人文

成立小組

(4)

培訓更多老師

開設2組中四綜合人文4

(4)

培訓更多老師

開設2組中四2組中五綜合人文4+4

(444+ 4 +n)

接受培訓+

規劃新通識

開設2組中四2組中五綜合人文4+ 4

開設 5組新高一新通識4 4 + 4 + n

開設2組中五綜合人文4

20082004 2005 2006 2007

Thank You very much!