Chapter 6 Learning and Teaching Resources
6.5 Resource Management
In addition, parents and alumni can be a very valuable resource for supporting student learning. Parents and alumni from different professions can be invited to deliver speeches/lectures to enable students to gain authentic knowledge about various disciplines.
They can share their views on the value of learning to learn to encourage students to learn.
The EDB will continue to develop and update useful resources, inclusive of supplementary notes, to support the implementation of the curriculum. A list of resource materials published by the EDB can be found in Appendix 2. To assist schools in managing curriculum change, the EDB has provided a curriculum resources directory service at http://www.edb.gov.hk/cr, which provides a central pool of ready-to-use learning and teaching resources and useful references developed by the EDB and other parties.
6.5.2 Sharing Resources
A culture of sharing is useful for resource and 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; and
teachers to share their experiences, for example, by using well-established web-based platforms such as the Hong Kong Education City.
6.5.3 Storing Resources
Schools should assign staff to keep up-to-date inventories of learning resources. IT is helpful for managing and storing the materials acquired – for example, the school Intranet can be used to give students and teachers easy access to suitable resources for specific topics and subjects. Software which is commonly available in schools, such as spreadsheets, word processing and database programmes can also be useful tools for this purpose. Keeping systematic records and providing easy access to learning and teaching resources, and to laboratory equipment, can have a significant impact on learning effectiveness.
Science teachers should work closely with teacher-librarians to provide a wide range of reading and learning resources for students. The teacher-librarian, as an information specialist, is in the best position to help students to acquire the information skills and attitudes necessary for using information appropriately and ethically.
Appendix 1
Time-tabling arrangement and the deployment of teachers to cater for the diverse needs of students
There are four subjects, namely Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Science (including Mode I and Mode II) offered in the Science Education KLA, leading to a number of possible subject combinations for students. The various subject combinations are considered worthwhile and valuable to serve the needs of students pursuing different post-secondary pathways. Possible ways of managing school time-tabling and resources to allow students more choices are discussed below.
Implementation of Mode I - Integrated Science Curriculum
If this subject is taken by a class of students as a single elective subject, normal time-tabling can be adopted. It is a common practice in schools that a teacher will take up the teaching of a course for three years. However, due to the interdisciplinary nature of this subject, schools may consider assigning teachers with different expertise to teach this subject at different levels (S4, 5 and 6), or two teachers with different subject expertise to teach one class, so that teachers can focus more on modules that they are familiar with. This also helps to share out the work required to prepare for this curriculum.
We encourage schools to promote partnership in terms of preparation of lessons, team teaching as well as lesson observations so that teachers work and learn together. It is recommended that schools reserve time for collaborative lesson planning in the time-table.
In cases where a school is offering this subject to two or more classes, it is advisable to assign teachers with different subject expertise to different classes. With special time-tabling, it is then possible to swap the classes so that teachers can concentrate on modules that they are more familiar with. After a few years, the teachers will be able to cover the teaching of the whole curriculum and be better placed to monitor the progress of the students.
The following illustrates the different arrangements that schools may adopt according to their resources and the readiness of their teachers:
Option A: One teacher teaches one class for all three levels. The teacher is required to teach beyond his/her own expertise, and so time should be allowed for his/her professional development, knowledge updating and lesson preparation.
Option B: Teachers with different expertise share the teaching of one class. The teachers will be able to concentrate on preparing the modules they are more familiar with.
Option C: Two teachers with different expertise teach two classes, with each teaching one class. There should be regular sharing between the two teachers, helping each other in preparing resources and knowledge enrichment.
Option D: Two teachers with different expertise teach two classes, with a special time-table which allows them to swap their responsibilities at different times during the school year.
Implementation of Mode II - Combined Science Curriculum with Biology, Chemistry and Physics
The Combined Science Curriculum is designed for students taking two elective subjects in the Science Education KLA; it comprises three parts with content selected from the Biology, Chemistry and Physics curricula. Students will have to take the two parts that are complementary to the single discipline in which they specialise. Special time-tabling and staff deployment are needed for implementation.
To help students to build up a broader knowledge base, it is recommended that students should be offered more elective subjects in S4 and be guided to select two or three electives to focus on in S5 and S6. Students wishing to take two elective subjects in the Science Education KLA should study all three science disciplines using the lesson time for two elective subjects in S4. That is, if four periods per cycle are allocated for one elective subject, schools may arrange three periods for each science discipline in S4. Teachers should refer to the respective C&A Guides for a selection of topics suitable to be included in the S4 curriculum to help students to build a broad-based foundation. Schools may consider the following two arrangements in S5 and S6:
(1) Flexible grouping and split class arrangement
Students from two or three different classes are arranged into three groups namely, Biology group, Chemistry group and Physics group depending on the specialised subject they opt for.
As illustrated in the diagram below, the students will have four periods per cycle for their specialised subject and two periods per cycle for the other two complementary subjects.
S4 S6
S5
Bio Chem Phy
Class A Class B
Bio Chem Phy Bio Chem Phy
Bio Chem Phy
Class A Class B
Bio Chem Phy Bio Chem Phy C P
Bio
Bio Group
C P Bio
Bio Group
B P Chem
Chem Group
B P Chem
Chem Group
Chem
Chem Group
C B Phy
Phy Group
An example of two classes taking two elective subjects from the Science Education KLA
To facilitate the split class arrangement, three common blocks in the time-table have to be arranged for Biology, Chemistry and Physics teachers. That is, in the four periods allocated for the 1st Block, the respective subject teachers will be teaching the groups that have chosen to specialise in their subject. In the 2nd and 3rd Blocks, they will be spending two periods each with the groups taking the other two specialised subjects.
Biology Teacher Chemistry Teacher Physics Teacher 1st Block
(4 periods)
Biology (Bio Group)
Chemistry (Chem Group)
Physics (Phy Group) 2nd Block
(2 periods)
Biology part of Combined Science
(Chem Group)
Chemistry part of Combined Science
(Phy Group)
Physics part of Combined Science
(Bio Group) 3rd Block
(2 periods)
Biology part of Combined Science
(Phy Group)
Chemistry part of Combined Science
(Bio Group)
Physics part of Combined Science
(Chem Group)
(2) Block time-table arrangement
Schools may arrange three common blocks in the time-table for three classes. The three subjects in each block will share the same time slots in the time-table. In each block, students may take any one subject from the three subjects offered in the block.
Class A Class B Class C Other Classes
Core subjects
Chin Lang Chin Lang Chin Lang Chin Lang
Eng Lang Eng Lang Eng Lang Eng Lang
Math Math Math Math
LS LS LS LS
1st Block Bio / Combined Sci (Chem, Bio) / X from other KLAs Integrated Science 2nd Block Chem / Combined Sci (Phy, Chem) / X from other KLAs X from other KLAs 3rd Block Phy / Combined Sci (Bio, Phy) / X from other KLAs X from other KLAs
In the above arrangement, X is an elective subject from the other KLAs or an ApL course.
Students in Classes A, B and C are offered the following possible choices:
Biology + 2X
Chemistry + 2X
Physics + 2X
Biology + Combined Science (Phy, Chem) + X
Chemistry + Combined Science (Bio, Phy) + X
Physics + Combined Science (Chem, Bio) + X
Biology + Chemistry + X
Chemistry + Physics + X
Biology + Physics + X
Biology + Chemistry + Physics
3X (from other KLAs / ApL course)
From the time-table, it is clear that two teachers of each science discipline are needed. For example, in the third common block, one Physics teacher is needed to teach four periods of Physics and another Physics teacher is needed to teach the two periods for the Physics part of the Combined Science (Bio, Phy) Curriculum.