Values education

• The learning and teaching of the PSHE KLA curriculum provide a rich and relevant context for nurturing students’ positive values and attitudes.

• Under the guidance of teachers, students learn to develop their abilities to identify the values embedded in different issues they may encounter at different developmental stages, analyse these values objectively and make reasoned judgements. In the process, students develop positive values, including perseverance, respect for others and responsibility, through engaging in relevant learning experiences.

The strand “Science and Technology in Everyday life” of the General Studies curriculum at the primary level provides learning experiences for students to learn to face challenges and uphold perseverance when participating in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education activities.

Source: Adapted from General Studies Curriculum Guide for Primary Schools (Primary 1 – Primary 6) (CDC, 2017a).

A primary school attaches great importance to values education in their General Studies curriculum. The school places emphasis on developing students’ knowledge and skills, which are essential for making informed decisions, alongside their effort in nurturing their positive values and attitudes. For details, please refer to Example 31 “Nurturing students’ positive values through learning and teaching of General Studies for Primary Schools”.

Example 13 “Nurturing junior secondary students’ positive values and attitudes in Chinese History: Understanding ‘integrity’ and ‘caring’ from Sun Yat-sen”

(Chinese version only) depicts a secondary school which places emphasis not only on developing students’ understanding of historical events and their generic skills, but also on nurturing their positive values and attitudes in Chinese History.

Example 20 “Building on strengths: Synergy between religious and values education” shows two of the many effective ways to synergise values education and religious education by nurturing perseverance through mindfulness programmes, and the spirit of serving others and humility through a religious ceremony.

• As a part of values education, Basic Law education is inherent in the learning and teaching of PSHE subjects. The background of the principle of “one country, two systems”, as well as the importance, ideas and concepts of the Basic Law are part of the core elements/essential content for learning covered in PSHE subjects, including Chinese History, History, Geography, and Life and Society

at the junior secondary level. When teaching relevant topics, teachers of relevant subjects can adopt diverse learning and teaching strategies (such as e-learning;

experiential and participatory learning; and placing emphasis on making reasoned judgement) to make natural connection to the Basic Law to enhance students’ understanding from historical, economic, social, geographical, and political perspectives¹⁷.

Figure 4.1 Examples of Topics / Learning Elements of Junior Secondary PSHE Subjects Relevant to Basic Law Education

17 (For reference only) Based on the latest available curriculum documents of these four subjects, the total lesson hours involved in teaching topics relevant to Basic Law education in the PSHE KLA at the junior secondary level are about 51 hours. The lesson hours related to Basic Law education are derived from the study of Chinese History (an independent compulsory subject) (about 24 hours based on the most up-to-date Chinese History Curriculum Guide (Secondary 1-3) recommended by the CDC), Life and Society (about 15 hours), History (about 10 hours based on the most up-to-date History Curriculum Guide (Secondary 1-3) recommended by the CDC) and Geography (about 2 hours). For schools that do not offer Life and Society; or in cases where Basic Law-related modules or contents are not taught in Life and Society, or in their junior secondary school-based curricula, a 15-hour independent “Constitution and the Basic Law” module with ready-to-use learning and teaching resources (Chinese version only) has been developed for schools’ adoption (available at http://www.edb.gov.hk/pshe/constitution-basiclaw). These schools are required to teach this module as part of moral and civic education, or as a standalone module in the timetable, and/or part of the school-based curriculum in the PSHE KLA (e.g. Integrated Humanities) according to their school contexts.

As curriculum renewal is an ongoing process, schools should implement the most recent PSHE subject curriculum guides prepared by the Curriculum Development Council for providing Basic Law education at different key stages of learning.

The historical background of

the Basic Law and the principle of “one

country, two systems”

The Basic Law facilitates Hong Kong people to travel abroad

The historical and cultural ties

demonstrating Hong Kong has been part of the

territory of China since ancient times

The importance of promoting free trade and

safeguarding the monetary

and financial systems of the

HKSAR continually Geography

e.g. Tourists - Friends or Foes?

History e.g. Life and

Customs of Local Clans Chinese

History e.g. the Opium

War

Life and Society e.g. World Trade

Making natural connection to Basic Law-related contents

The EDB has produced different resources to support the implementation of Basic Law education in PSHE subjects at the junior secondary level, and provided online assessment question banks for students and teachers. For details, please refer to Example 3 “Values education: Basic Law education in the PSHE KLA at junior secondary level - Learning and teaching resources produced by the EDB”.

Since the 2013/14 school year, a secondary school has flexibly adopted learning activities from a learning package developed by the EDB to promote students’ understanding of the Basic Law in the learning contexts of Life and Society (Secondary 1 - 3). For details, please refer to Example 21 “Values Education: Promoting Basic Law education by adopting classroom activities in Understanding the Law, Access to Justice – Basic Law Learning Package (Junior Secondary)”.

• At the senior secondary level (S4 - 6), students will continue to learn about the Basic Law in the core subject of Liberal Studies as well as in relevant elective PSHE subjects such as Chinese History, Economics, Geography and History.

• In alignment with the PSHE KLA curriculum, values education, including Basic Law education, could also be promoted through different modes such as cross-curricular studies/activities, theme-based forums, exhibitions, competitions, summer camps, and non-local visits/exchange programmes conducted on the Mainland.

• Through organising relevant life-wide learning activities that are organically integrated with respective PSHE subjects, teachers can help students learn about the applications of the Basic Law in daily lives; develop the integrative use of generic skills, in particular critical thinking skills and problem solving skills; as well as cultivate positive values and attitudes, including the rule of law, justice, sense of national identity, democracy, freedom, human rights, equality and rationality.

• The effectiveness of values education relies very much on the interaction between teachers and students in an atmosphere of open-mindedness, inclusiveness and mutual respect. Teachers should create such an atmosphere in class so that students can learn to identify and understand different views and to reflect on their own personal values and attitudes.

• Teachers should demonstrate and provide opportunities for students to experience how positive values embedded in different contexts can be manifested, put into actions and upheld. While it is important for teachers to be open-minded and to embrace and respect different views, they should not hesitate to clarify misconceptions. There may be possibilities that a careless statement or tone of voice may cause dispute and antagonism in the course of discussion. When encountering such a situation, teachers should help students calm down, regain the focus of the discussion and guide the discussion towards a more fruitful direction.