Hong Kong’s curriculum reform: intentions, perceptions and practices

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-106
Author(s):  
Joe Tin-yau Lo ◽  
Irene Nga-yee Cheng ◽  
Emmy Man-yee Wong
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Inquiry Teaching ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Intended Curriculum ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Teaching Learning

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the complex, intricate relationships between the central (intended) curriculum, teachers’ perceived curriculums, and the enacted/assessed curriculum in classroom contexts. To do this, the authors have used Hong Kong’s new core senior-secondary liberal studies (LS) curriculum as a case study, with a special focus on its key pedagogical component – inquiry teaching/learning. Design/methodology/approach This study’s objects are two teachers (from two local schools), each with a LS teacher’s education. Documentary analysis, lesson observation, and focus interviews were used to triangulate data for interpretation and analysis. Findings The findings illuminate: how LS teachers’ perceptions of inquiry teaching/learning relate to and align with the advocacy embodied in the intended curriculum, the relationships between teachers’ perceptions and practices of inquiry learning and teaching, and how this aspect of the intended curriculum reform can be made more relevant to the classroom context. Originality/value This paper contributes to the under-researched area of curriculum gaps and (mis)alignments in Hong Kong’s LS curriculum reform.

A year in the mentor's classroom

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén Garza ◽  
Ellen L. Duchaine ◽  
Raymond Reynosa
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Teaching Experiences ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
School Year

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine preservice teachers’ perceptions of their learning and teaching experiences in a mentor's classroom during a year-long field-based placement in a high-need urban school. In addition, the authors sought to examine how the experiences contributed to their professional growth and development as future teachers. Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative study used constant comparative analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) to examine preservice teachers’ responses to an open-ended questionnaire, program survey, and also in focus groups about their mentoring experiences. Findings – The findings provide insight into participants’ mentors’ influence during a year-long placement and into characteristics of effective mentoring that contributed to their growth. Major findings of preservice teachers’ mentoring experiences in a high-need urban setting reflected two dominant themes: experiencing a pedagogical fulcrum and navigating the tributaries of professionalism. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited by the small number of participants from one large public university and included only secondary preservice teachers enrolled in one residency program designed to prepare mathematics, science, and special education teachers. Caution should be taken against generalizing the findings, regarding preservice teachers’ learning and teaching experiences in a mentor's classroom, to resident teachers in other areas due to the small sample size and interpretation of the findings. Originality/value – The findings provide a different perspective about the mentoring process to that provided by previous studies because preservice teachers learned and taught in the mentor's classroom during one academic school year without being evaluated by the mentor. The findings illuminate preservice teachers’ professional growth fostered by their experiences and highlight characteristics of the mentor's influence that contributed to their development.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF KURIKULUM TINGKAT SATUAN PENDIDIKAN (KTSP) IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH; A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY IN THE TENTH GRADE OF SMA NEGERI 1 NGUNUT, 2013/2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Anis Azimah
Keyword(s):  
Learning Activity ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Standard Material ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Interactive Analysis ◽  
Tenth Grade ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Unobtrusive Observation ◽  
Descriptive Method

The objective of this study is to describe the teachers’ perceptions towards the implementation of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Penddikan (KTSP) in SMA Negeri 1 Ngunut and also the implementation of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) in the Teaching of English in the classroom for the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 1 Ngunut 2013/2014 academic year, including its material, teaching learning activity and the evaluation. Further more, it is also intended to know more about the strengths and the weaknesses of the implementation of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP). In this research, the writer uses a qualitative research. To describe the students’ and teachers’ perception towards the implementation of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) in the class, the researcher uses descriptive method. The technique of collecting the data in this research is unobtrusive observation, in-depth interviewing, and document analysis. The writer uses guided-interview to support the data. In analyzing the data, the writer uses interactive analysis method by data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. After doing observation and interview, the writer can conclude that the teachers have good perception towards the implementation of KTSP in the school and play their role as teachers in the classroom well. The implementation of Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) in the teaching of English at the tenth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Ngunut is well conducted. The teaching-learning activity in the classroom runs well because the teachers always try to encourage the students in teaching-learning process. The material given to the students in teaching-learning activity is appropriate to the KTSP’s standard material. Key words: Implementation, Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), Received: 23 June, 2016; Accepted: 8 September, 2016

Crisis or opportunity: Marks and Spencer’s tryst with Indian retail

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 671-690
Author(s):  
Arunima Rana ◽  
Ravi Shankar
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Business ◽  
Brand Management ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Retail Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Competitor Analysis ◽  
Fashion Retail

Research methodology The case is written using secondary data sources (namely, research documents, press information, journal articles and published interviews). Publicly declared company information has further been leveraged to augment case facts. All information sources have been duly acknowledged in the reference section. Case overview/synopsis The case is written in the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the Indian retail industry, revolving around scenarios in which a multinational retailer has to decide on its long- and short-term strategy in such an economic crisis. The case story has been developed around Marks and Spencer’s retail venture in the Indian market. With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting business at various levels, with countries moving to lock down and economies shrinking to recessionary levels, one of the worst affected sectors is retail. The teaching case builds upon Mark and Spencer’s initial decision of not entering and extending its food/grocery business in India. While it remained a dominant player in Indian fashion retail for almost two decades, it needs to re-think its decision of entering food retail owing to a pandemic situation affecting its offline sales/store footfall and increasing competition from global fashion brands such as Zara and H&M that had flooded the Indian fashion retail sector. The case provides a context for students to perform environmental factor and competitor analysis for a sector, with special focus on decision making in a changing crisis scenario. Complexity academic level This case could be used in undergraduate and MBA classroom programme, across subjects such as retail management, marketing management, international business, international business environment and strategic business management. This case fits while discussing topics such as business environmental factors, competitor analysis, decision-making under crisis, market entry decision, omnichannel retail strategy, consumer behaviour and brand management.

From digital citizen to digital professional

Kybernetes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 1463-1477
Author(s):  
Olga Marino ◽  
Jaime Andres Gutierrez ◽  
Sandra Aguirre
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovative Strategy ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Teaching Learning

Purpose This paper aims to propose and evaluate a pedagogically sound and innovative strategy to teach a higher education course that prepares future professionals to intelligently use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their personal and professional lives. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual framework used for the design of the course was the socio-constructivism and activity theories. The implementation of the course was evaluated using the intrinsic case study methodology by including several instruments. Findings The pedagogical strategy proposed proved to be sound, as the evaluation showed that students were able to describe, use and propose innovative uses of a wide range of cutting-edge technologies in their both everyday lives and professional settings; they also had the skills to analyse the opportunities and challenges that these presented. Moreover, students liked this innovative way of learning and ended with a positive attitude towards ICT. Originality/value Although several courses prepare students to be digital citizens or use ICT to enhance the teaching-learning process, millennials are ill prepared to use cutting-edge technologies in an innovative, responsible and critical way in their future professions. The course that was designed is original in that it goes beyond preparing digital citizens to prepare professionals in any domain to use ICT in an informed and responsible way. Moreover, it is a documented, successful example of an undergraduate universal course in a highly important current society dimension. The authors believe that its pedagogical proposal could be transferred to courses dealing with other global issues such as the environment, economy and peace.

Impact of quality management systems on teaching-learning processes

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco José Fernández Cruz ◽  
Inmaculada Egido Gálvez ◽  
Rafael Carballo Santaolalla
Keyword(s):  
Quality Management ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Quality Management Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Quality management systems are being used more frequently in educational institutions, although their application has generated a certain amount of disagreement among education experts, who have at times questioned their suitability and usefulness for improving schools. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by providing additional knowledge on the effects in educational institutions of implementing quality management systems. Specifically, this study investigates teachers’ and managers’ perception of the impact that quality management systems have on one essential dimension of schools, the teaching–learning processes, with impact being understood as sustained medium- and long-term organisational change. Design/methodology/approach The responses were analysed and classified into a set of sub-dimensions linked to quality management processes in a total of 29 Spanish primary and secondary education schools that have used such systems for at least three years. Findings The results showed that, according to the respondents, the following sub-dimensions were improving as a result of implementing quality management plans: teaching and learning processes, the analysis of student results, tutoring, consideration of attitudes and values and assessment processes. Conversely, quality management systems did not seem to have a clear impact on the teaching methodologies used by teachers or on family involvement in student learning. In fact, the perceived impact in these sub-dimensions varied among teachers of public and private schools as well as when comparing different regional autonomous communities. Originality/value As the main objective of a school is to guarantee student learning, one of the essential purposes of school quality assurance systems is to perform all the activities aimed at ensuring high levels of student performance.

Career advancement or teacher development? Teachers’ perceptions of writing publications in China

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-318
Author(s):  
Jocelyn L.N. Wong
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Development ◽  
Career Advancement ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Systematic Training

Purpose – Studies in teacher research have seldom discussed the effects of writing publications and teachers’ views on it. This paper aims to examine how teachers in China regard the purpose of writing up research papers and its impact on their professional practice. It also investigates facilitating factors in preparing and writing publications. Design/methodology/approach – This is a qualitative study which mainly analyses interview data gathered from 14 teachers, who have experience in writing publications, from three schools in Shanghai, China. Documentary analysis includes selected published journal papers and book chapters of the interviewees. Findings – Findings show that teachers perceive producing publications as serving both an instrumental purpose of career advancement and a developmental purpose of enhancing their individual professional competency which in turn improves the quality of the teaching profession through knowledge transfer and knowledge transportation. Research limitations/implications – Contributing factors to help teachers to write include the provision of systematic training courses for teachers and the development of network and research partners. Originality/value – Findings of this study help school leaders and teacher educators better their understanding of improving the quality of practice of teachers through equipping them with a “stance of inquiry”. Findings suggest ways to provide relevant support to enhance the writing capacity of teachers. More importantly, a revision of the existing teacher promotion system may make the practice of writing publications of more direct value to teachers’ daily practice.

Why are companies still struggling to reach higher continuous improvement maturity levels? Empirical evidence from high performance companies

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Jurburg ◽  
Elisabeth Viles ◽  
Carmen Jaca ◽  
Martin Tanco
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Measurement System ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Basque Country ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Performing

Purpose – Continuous improvement (CI) is regarded as a powerful approach to achieve business excellence. However, the implementation is not simple as it involves managing a considerable amount of tangible and intangible factors throughout the whole organization. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap by presenting first-hand information about how companies really implement and organize their CI processes. Design/methodology/approach – The study was based on semi-structured interviews in ten high performing companies in the Basque Country, a region in northern Spain well known for its business quality. The objective was to analyze the state of their CI processes, putting special focus on how the organizational structure integrates with the CI processes and what are the characteristics of the corresponding measurement system. Findings – The study shows a lack of company-wide focus on CI, little written evidence of previous improvement activities, unclear improvement process owner, and poor use of adequate measurement systems to monitor CI. Practical implications – Managers should understand that is not enough to guarantee their own commitment and provide the structure, since in order to become learning organization, a different holistic approach towards the CI process must be adopted. Originality/value – While most previous work on this field have focused primarily on how to implement different techniques in order to achieve better productive performance, this study presents empirical research from a more holistic approach, assessing the characteristics affecting CI by considering strategy, structure, and the measurement system.

Evaluation of teachers’ information literacy based on information of behavioral data in online learning and teaching platforms: an empirical study of China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yating Li ◽  
Chi Zhou ◽  
Di Wu ◽  
Min Chen
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Behaviors ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Performance Group

PurposeAdvances in information technology now permit the recording of massive and diverse process data, thereby making data-driven evaluations possible. This study discusses whether teachers’ information literacy can be evaluated based on their online information behaviors on online learning and teaching platforms (OLTPs).Design/methodology/approachFirst, to evaluate teachers’ information literacy, the process data were combined from teachers on OLTP to describe nine third-level indicators from the richness, diversity, usefulness and timeliness analysis dimensions. Second, propensity score matching (PSM) and difference tests were used to analyze the differences between the performance groups with reduced selection bias. Third, to effectively predict the information literacy score of each teacher, four sets of input variables were used for prediction using supervised learning models.FindingsThe results show that the high-performance group performs better than the low-performance group in 6 indicators. In addition, information-based teaching and behavioral research data can best reflect the level of information literacy. In the future, greater in-depth explorations are needed with richer online information behavioral data and a more effective evaluation model to increase evaluation accuracy.Originality/valueThe evaluation based on online information behaviors has concrete application scenarios, positively correlated results and prediction interpretability. Therefore, information literacy evaluations based on behaviors have great potential and favorable prospects.

Relationships between research supervisors and students from coursework-based master’s degrees: information usage under social media

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnan Dong ◽  
Dickson K.W. Chiu ◽  
Po-Sen Huang ◽  
Kevin K.W. Ho ◽  
Mavis Man-wai Lung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Master's Degrees ◽  
Information Usage ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Research Students ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Existing studies reflect that traditional teaching–learning relationships between supervisors and graduate students have become disjointed with actuality seriously. In particular, there are practical difficulties in handling many students from coursework-based postgraduate degrees under current university curricula. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between research supervisors and graduate students on social media, which is popular among students. Design/methodology/approach This study surveyed 109 graduate students from two majors (population around 100 each) of a university in Hong Kong to explore their information usage for research on social media, related attitudes and their perceived supervisor relationships. The differences between the two majors were also compared. Findings The authors’ findings indicated that graduate students were active on social media, and social media has successfully provided effective alternate ways for students to communicate with their research supervisors. Social media could improve relationships between supervisors and research students and among fellow students. Besides education purposes, students also discussed their personal affairs on social media with supervisors, demonstrating enhanced trusted relationships. Graduate students also showed confidence in the further application of social media in higher education. Some differences between respondents from the two programs were also found in terms of communication contents, strengths, personal preferences and purposes for using social media. Originality/value Scant studies focus on the relationship between supervisors and graduate students under the current social media environment, especially for students from coursework-based postgraduate degrees. At a deeper level, for the widespread use of social media in the information age, this study explores the specific changes brought about by social media. Therefore, this study is of great theoretical and practical value to graduate education under the current social media environment.

A blended learning strategy: reimagining the post-Covid-19 architectural education

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naglaa Megahed ◽  
Asmaa Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Delivery Mode ◽  
Instructional Models ◽  
Architecture Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teaching Learning

PurposeThe present work reviews the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on architecture education (AE), with the aim of discussing the interaction and integration of technology-based models.Design/methodology/approachDifferent research methods were used to achieve the research purposes including an online survey, semistructured interviews, observations and reviewing recent literature. The study proposes a theoretical framework to investigate blended learning (BL) approaches in AE, based on the blended teaching–learning continuum, the growth of online delivery mode and technology integration and the gradual responsibility adopted for the current Covid-19 pandemic.FindingsThe study proposes a vision to reimagine post-Covid-19 education and the required BL strategy to provide a theoretical framework that integrates the instructional models required to be investigated by instructors.Research limitations/implicationsThe research findings are based on a theoretical approach not tested practically. A further detailed investigation is required. Thus, the road to reimagining the post-Covid-19 AE is still evolving.Social implicationsAs faculty members, one should take steps toward preparing BL strategies. These strategies present other alternatives to continue teaching and learning while keeping safe in any other emergency in education. In this work, an overview of BL approaches, continuum and related technological and instructional models has been shaped to propose a new vision to post-Covid-19 AE.Originality/valueThis paper responds directly to the initiated call on the pandemic's effect on traditional education by taking a pedagogical perspective. The study presents a holistic BL strategy and proposes a new theoretical and instructional model to design a suitable and balanced BL environment in AE.

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