Bob Adamson

Tammy Kwan

Ka-ki Chan

The Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) is arguably the most comprehensive, fundamental and controversial attempt to promote systemic curriculum reform in Hong Kong. It aimed at a radical change in the nature of knowledge, pedagogy and assessment in schools. After an initial phase of confusion and criticism, this ambitious reform was revamped and vigorously promoted, but within a few years, it totally lost momentum as other educational issues attracted the attention of policy-makers. This book traces the career of TOC and studies the impact of the reform on the education system, subjects, schools and teachers. Drawing on a four-year multi-level research project, the chapters provide a deep understanding of the complex nature of educational reform and how a new curriculum is interpreted, developed and implemented. Besides providing a fascinating portrayal of the experiences of the TOC reform, this book offers lessons for future curriculum change in Hong Kong and elsewhere. 'This', writes Ivor Goodson in the Foreword, 'is curriculum research at its best.'

The Impact of Reform on Primary Schooling in Hong Kong

Changing the Curriculum

Rita Berry

This book discusses the recent assessment movements in the eastern and western worlds with particular focuses on the policies, implementation, and impacts of assessment reform on education. A new perspective of assessment sees assessment as a means to enhance learning. This book examines the tensions, challenges and outcomes (intended and unintended) of assessment reform arising at the interface of policy and implementation, and implementation and student learning. The book reviews the experiences insights gained from research, and identifies the facilitators and hindrances to effective change. It reflects current thinking of assessment and provides the readers with ample background information of assessment development in many countries including USA, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Policy and Practice

Assessment Reform in Education

Anwei Feng

Multilingual China explores the dynamics of multilingualism in one of the most multilingual countries in the world. This edited collection comprises frontline empirical research into a range of important issues that arise from the presence of 55 official ethnic minority groups, plus China’s search to modernize and strengthen the nation’s place in the world order. Topics focus on the dynamics of national, ethnic minority and foreign languages in use, policy making and education, inside China and beyond. Micro-studies of language contact and variation are included, as are chapters dealing with multilingual media and linguistic landscapes. The book highlights tensions such as threats to the sustainability of weak languages and dialects, the role and status of foreign languages (especially English) and how Chinese can be presented as a viable regional or international language. Multilingual China will appeal to academics and researchers working in multilingualism and multilingual education, as well as sinologists keen to examine the interplay of languages in this complex multilingual context.

National, Minority and Foreign Languages

Multilingual China

Mark Mason

Mark Bray

Approaches and methods in comparative education are of obvious importance, but do not always receive adequate attention. This second edition of a well-received book, containing thoroughly updated and additional material, contributes new insights within the longstanding traditions of the field. A particular feature is the focus on different units of analysis. Individual chapters compare places, systems, times, cultures, values, policies, curricula and other units. These chapters are contextualised within broader analytical frameworks which identify the purposes and strengths of the field. The book includes a focus on intra-national as well as cross-national comparisons, and highlights the value of approaching themes from different angles. As already demonstrated by the first edition of the book, the work will be of great value not only to producers of comparative education research but also to users who wish to understand more thoroughly the parameters and value of the field.

Bob Adamson

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