Resource Management

6.5.1 Sharing of learning and teaching resources

A culture of sharing is the key to the success of knowledge management. Schools should make arrangements for:

 teachers and students to share learning and teaching resources through the Intranet or other means within the school;

 teachers to form professional development groups for the exchange of experience.

6.5.2 Resource management in schools

The management of learning resources is an ongoing process which includes budgeting,

purchasing, organising and accessing:

 Budgeting must be carried out before funds are allocated for the acquisition of learning resources.

 Teachers should be encouraged to make suggestions on the procurement of learning resources, and cost-effective ways of purchasing them, such as the tendering process or bulk purchasing, should be adopted.

 Resources should be organised and classified according to their nature – books, journals, magazines, encyclopaedias, CD-ROMs, interactive media and online resources. It is important for teachers, with the help of school librarians, to categorise them properly and update them to meet the demands of the new curriculum. An inventory of existing resources, including teaching aids, should be available for teachers’ easy reference; and references/resources provided by the EDB – such as curriculum and assessment guides, curriculum packages and glossaries – should also be catalogued and circulated for use. All resource materials should be stored in places where panel members have easy access to them, for example in the staff common room or school library.

 With help from the school librarian, learning resources, in particular books and journals, should also be easily accessible to students to promote reading. However, it is very important to nurture a sense of responsibility among students regarding intellectual property rights, and teachers need to develop their own codes of conduct when using these resources to comply with the copyright ordinance.

Assessment:

Internal assessment Public assessment

–SBA

Values and attitude

Historical enquiry Chronological

thinking

Elective Part (one of the following) 1. Comparative studies 2. Issue-based studies 3. Local heritage studies

Historical thinking skills

Organisation and communication Compulsory Part

The Making of the Modern World

Modernisation and Transformation in 20^th century Asia Conflicts and Cooperation in the 20^th century World

Historical interpretation Historical

comprehension and analysis

Organisation and communication

Assessment:

Internal assessment Public examination

Historical Thinking Skills

Curriculum Framework and Assessment

65 Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Teaching “The Making of the Modern World”

using a direct instruction approach

A direct instruction approach can be applied in teaching the introductory part of the curriculum, where in around ten contact hours the necessary background knowledge can be transmitted to students to facilitate their understanding of the twentieth century world.

Teachers can use a question-and-answer approach to check students’ prior knowledge of a broad range of human experiences from ancient times to the contemporary world. With the help of time-lines, maps, pictures and videos, teachers can then outline the major developments from the 16^th to the 19^th century, and explain how advances in science and technology, ideological developments and political revolutions laid the foundations of Western supremacy. In the process, they can refer frequently to key historical concepts – such as “cause and effect”, “time, continuity and change” and “similarities and differences” – as well as the importance of sources and evidence in studying history. With skilful guidance from the teacher, students can learn the main trends of development and their features and avoid the danger of being side-tracked into in-depth study of pre-20th century history. However, while a direct approach can be effective and appropriate for teaching this part of the curriculum, the possibility of adopting other teaching approaches should not be ruled out; and teachers should always be aware of the danger of creating a teacher-centred classroom with a boring learning atmosphere when only one approach is used.

Appendix 3

Using an enquiry approach in teaching

“International economic cooperation”

A teacher started the above topic by giving out newspaper cuttings to students on the riots in Hong Kong in December 2005 when the sixth ministerial conference of the WTO was held. Students were divided into groups to analyse sources on the disputes within the European Union (EU) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and between these two organisations.

(Website:http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/kla/pshe/references-and-resources/cross-curricular-resources/IH_S4_5_WTO_Eng_student.doc

)

Students were then asked to find out more information about the grievances of the rioters and trace the origins and development of the protest movements against the WTO and the trend towards globalisation. Next, they had to trace in more depth the formation and development of these two organisations on economic cooperation since World War II.

(Websites:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/2430089.stm, http://www.eurunion.org/infores/euindex.htm).

Each group formulated its own enquiry questions on the above issues, worked out the possible solutions to their questions, and prepared a 20-minute presentation to summarise the attempts at economic cooperation and integration that had been made in Europe and the world, and assess the efforts of the EU and WTO to resolve their internal and external disputes.

Appendix 4

Group discussion:

“Do you think that the international order created after the Second World War was a new international order?”

Preparation:

The teacher asked students to collect relevant data such as maps showing the situation in Europe and the world in 1945, and together they worked out the international order created after the two world wars through questioning and discussion. The teacher raised questions from time to time to ensure that students understood the meaning of

“international order”, and students received hints about the answers either from the teacher, who put relevant notes on the blackboard, or students’ own notes from reading.

Group discussion:

Students formed groups of two to four to discuss whether the international order created after World War II was a “new” order or not. The concept of a “new” order was raised for discussion, and students worked out their views in their groups. They then compared the situation after each of the two world wars to find out the similarities and differences.

Afterwards, they drew conclusions on whether the international order created after the Second World War was new, or simply a continuation of the one after World War I. They discussed the criteria on which their judgments were based and were able to explain whether the statement in the main question was valid. (To give students more opportunities to construct knowledge and to develop higher-order thinking skills, teachers can at this stage provide more input, e.g. indicating the views of historians with other perspectives, or showing video clips or other sources of information). At the end of the discussion, peer assessment was arranged and each group commented on the other groups’ findings. The teacher then gave feedback by pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each group’s presentation.

Appendix 5