The Music Curriculum in Hong Kong Secondary Schools—Intentions and Constraints

1999 ◽  
Vol 100 (5) ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Yuen-Fun Ng ◽  
Paul Morris
1998 ◽  
Vol os-31 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Yuen-Fun Ng ◽  
Paul Morris

This paper has three purposes: it reviews the official aims of the formal music curriculum as promulgated by the Hong Kong Government, compares them to teachers’ perceptions of those aims and analyses the explanations of teachers for the pedagogic approach they emphasize. The analysis indicates that a balanced music curriculum is promoted which incorporates three components, namely: listening, performance and composition as its key dimensions. However, a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, collected by questionnaires and interviews showed that musical experiences associated closely with listening were perceived by teachers to be more important than the other components. What emerged most clearly from the explanations of the teachers was the extent to which the prevailing ethos of schooling in Hong Kong, which places a premium on the transmission and objective assessment of academic knowledge, was seen to be a powerful influence on the music curriculum. The result is an implemented music curriculum which is constrained by the broader context of schooling and is heavily.oriented to providing students with listening experiences.


Author(s):  
Vincent Kan ◽  
Bob Adamson

Francis of Education (print)/1474-8479 (online) Article 2010 Language in education debates in Hong Kong focus on the role and status of English (as the former colonial language and an important means for international communication); Cantonese, the mother tongue of the majority of the population; and Putonghua, the national language of China. This paper examines the language policy formulated in 1997–1998, and finds that it radically departed from previous policies by mandating the use of Cantonese as the medium of instruction in secondary schools. The paper then analyses two subsequent policy revisions and concludes that, while the tonal emphasis on mother-tongue education has remained, the policy revisions have reversed the language policy to previous practices that emphasised the importance of English.


2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wai-Chung Ho

This article argues that changes of gendered attitudes towards IT among students may be related to recent educational reforms focusing on incorporating computers into the classroom. Data are drawn from an interview survey with 430 students attending 26 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. The results reveal no significant differences between females and males in three aspects: (1) their belief in the effectiveness of using technological facilities; (2) their confidence in handling technology when learning about music; and (3) their motivation towards learning about music with the help of information technology (IT). Primary boys and girls in this study reported obtaining a higher degree of motivation for learning about music with the help of IT than secondary students of both sexes. The potential implications of these findings for educational policy in Hong Kong are to find out how to motivate students' musical learning with the help of IT, and to make technology relevant to the content of the music programmes of primary and secondary schools.


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