Contents Chapter 1

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Chapter 1 Introduction

 As part of the School Development and Accountability (SDA) Framework developed by the Education Bureau (EDB) in 2003, schools undertake self-evaluation through the

“Planning-Implementation-Evaluation” (P-I-E) cycle to promote quality education, in line with the spirit of school-based management. Using External School Review (ESR) and Focus Inspection (FI) as quality assurance mechanisms, the EDB provides schools with recommendations for improvement with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of school self-evaluation (SSE) and facilitating their sustainable development.

 In the 2017/18 school year, the EDB continued to adopt an approach, which is “school- specific and focused” and evidence-based, to conducting ESR in 45 primary schools, 36 secondary schools and 10 special schools (Appendix 1), and FI in 87 primary schools and 107 secondary schools (Appendix 2). This report presents the key findings of the inspections, including SSE; professional leadership and teachers’ professional development; curriculum and assessment; classroom learning and teaching; and support for student development. It also discusses the developments of various educational initiatives which more schools are placing a premium on, which include values education, self- directed learning and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Exemplars are also included in this report for schools’ reference.

 According to the findings of the post-ESR school survey of the 2017/18 school year, the participating schools have responded positively to the review. In general, they find that the ESR teams were able to review schools’ major concerns in a school-specific and focused manner, identify schools’ strengths and their areas for improvement in specific ways, which has helped them reflect on their work effectiveness, and set future targets and formulate plans. The EDB hopes that by reading this report, schools can have a better understanding of their overall performance and progress in various areas of work and initiatives. Schools should also refer to the exemplars and suggestions for improvement to continue to enhance their development and increase the effectiveness of learning and teaching.

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Chapter 2 Key Findings of External School Reviews and Focus Inspections

2.1 Effectiveness of School Self-evaluation

 Based on their experience in implementing the SDA Framework and the ESR report recommendations from the previous development cycle, schools respect the principles of school-based management, and have established a clear self-evaluation mechanism and incorporated self-evaluation into their daily operations. Most schools set their development directions in accordance with trends in education and the needs of their students. They generally view the development of values education, self-directed learning, and catering for learner diversity as their major concerns. Most schools are capable of steering subject panels and committees to review their work regularly so as to keep track of its progress and monitor its effectiveness.

 In schools with better overall planning, all teachers are given the opportunity to participate in self-evaluation conducted by different subject panels and committees. Together they review the work effectiveness of the previous development cycle, as well as discuss areas that require attention and improvement. Adopting an evidence-based approach, they establish clear goals and devise appropriate strategies to facilitate the school’s sustainable development. Placing great emphasis on the inter-relationship between students’ learning and their development, individual schools purposefully integrate the major concerns of these two domains and encourage different subject panels and committees to collaborate with each other to formulate complementary policies to achieve overall work effectiveness.

However, some schools lack thorough planning. For example, their major concerns and implementation strategies for two development cycles are almost identical, suggesting a lack of progress. Major concerns and goals that are vaguely defined also provide little guidance for setting priorities. Without a clear development agenda and consensus, subject panels and committees can only continue with their usual routines or implement discrete strategies according to their own interpretations. These schools should further develop their understanding of self-evaluation as a concept and their techniques in putting it in practice.

 Support and supervision from school management and middle managers are crucial for the implementation of development plans. In a small number of schools, management and heads of subject panels and committees are able to maintain close communication with teachers. Through meetings, thorough observations and student performance analyses, they are able to attain a sound understanding of the effectiveness of the school’s development plans and promptly provide substantial feedback and support to teachers.

However, some schools fail to provide timely supervision and support to subject panels and committees. This curbs the progress and effectiveness of the implementation of their development plans.

 In the area of evaluation, most schools use the self-evaluation tools developed by the EDB and themselves to collect data from different sources and review work progress. A small number of schools are able to evaluate the effectiveness of their work with reference to the goals set; clearly identify achievements and areas for improvement; and execute appropriate follow-up actions. However, quite a number of schools merely focus on reporting work progress without thoroughly analysing their data, or they concentrate on evaluating certain tasks without taking into account the need for assessing the effectiveness

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of the major concerns as a whole. As a result, the function of evaluation to inform planning is hampered.

 SSE plays a decisive role in effectively implementing and deepening the school’s commitment to different development areas. Looking ahead, schools need to improve their strategic planning. In addition to establishing appropriate and focused major concerns, schools should set a reasonable implementation timeline and goals for different phases.

They should guide all subject panels and committees to formulate appropriate implementation strategies and collaborate to enhance overall work effectiveness. Adopting an evidence-based approach, schools should further review whether they have effectively reached their objectives in promoting students’ learning and development, so that they can establish valid targets and strategies for the next stage of development.

Exemplars

Adopting an evidence-based approach to school self-evaluation to inform strategic planning

The school has established a special committee to coordinate self-evaluation and to co-plan alongside other teachers various measures, through different committees, subject panels and other exchange platforms. The school adopts an evidence-based approach to developing its school development plans, as well as annual plans and reports. Taking into consideration trends in education and its own context, the school carefully analyses the data obtained from various stakeholders, and actively explores ways to improve development approaches and implementation strategies. To inform planning, it impartially examines the effectiveness of school management, classroom pedagogy, students’ learning, and work related to their affective development. In recent years, the management has strived for further improvement by guiding subject panels and committees to reflect on whether they have accomplished their intended outcomes, and re-adjust their targets and strategies based on the findings.

Under the management’s leadership, teachers implement life planning education as well as work pertaining to the major renewed emphases (MRE) recommended in the Secondary Education Curriculum Guide (Curriculum Development Council, 2017). Through these undertakings, they review the plans and measures for supporting students’ academic and non-academic development in tandem, integrating and revising them where appropriate, so as to further enhance students’ whole-person development and prepare them for the future.

To promote continuous improvement in development planning, the school makes good use of various resources and actively solicits professional support to further enhance teachers’

professional capacity and foster a collaborative culture amongst them.

Although the school’s major concerns for two consecutive school development cycles are related to self-directed learning and enhancing the quality of teachers, it has managed to develop progressively by revising goals and strategies in accordance with their self- evaluation data. This is evident in, for example, the school’s extension of its target from developing students’ learning skills to developing their self-learning attitudes and capabilities. Such a re-adjustment reinforces the school’s efforts in implementing life planning education. Further, it contributes to enhancing students’ learning motives, strengthening their abilities to set their own goals, cultivating self-directed learning attitudes and self-management skills, so that they are better equipped for the future. In terms of improving teachers’ professional competence, the school suitably modifies the contents of

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its training programmes in accordance with the school’s direction for development. Overall, the school’s development aptly matches the needs of teachers and students, and aligns well with recent trends in education.

Closely analysing research data and implementing specific follow-up measures

To evaluate how effectively their major concerns are implemented, the school makes reference to the data collected through different self-evaluation tools, such as the Stakeholder Survey and Key Performance Measures. It also develops a school-based questionnaire targeting the objectives of school development focuses and student needs. Thus, the school manages to track and discern the changes that take place among students of the same cohort across different school years, the strengths and weaknesses of students at different year levels, and areas for improvement for the entire student population. For example, one of the school’s major concerns is to enable students to become active learners. Using the school- based questionnaire, teachers are able to understand their students’ perceptions towards self- learning attitudes, their learning habits and ways they apply learning strategies. In response to the findings, the school develops suitable follow-up measures. For example, it steps up its efforts in developing students’ information skills after identifying that it is an area for development. On the whole, the school effectively makes use of self-evaluation for continuous self-improvement.

2.2 Professional Leadership and Teachers’ Professional Development

 The effectiveness of the school’s professional leadership is key to sustaining its development and enhancing teachers’ performance. Keeping up with the latest trends in education, the school management deploys different resources, including funding from the EDB and support from external professionals and other key stakeholders, to ensure a diversified learning experience for students, and to enhance support for their growth, so as to facilitate their whole-person development. Schools attach importance to teachers’

professional development. Through collaborative lesson planning, peer lesson observation and school-based professional development, teachers are encouraged to share their learning and teaching experiences. To align with their development focuses and to cater for staff needs, many schools solicit external professional support services or arrange visits to fellow schools to help their teachers acquire new knowledge and broaden their horizons.

 Under effective professional leadership, all teachers take part in the planning of the school’s major concerns. Together they work to achieve consensus on the priorities and goals of development. In the process of implementation, close communication is maintained at all levels. School management and middle managers capably monitor the work progress and deployment of resources, offering timely feedback and recommendations in support of the development focuses of different subject panels and committees. However, to enhance work efficiency and accountability, a small number of management staff need to clearly define the responsibilities and reporting lines of different functional committees. Some middle managers are inclined towards routine work, and need to redeploy their focus to the school’s major concerns and play a more active role in terms of strategic planning, coordination and supervision. They should also work together to ensure the school’s development focuses are properly implemented. In secondary schools, the role of the coordinators of Key Learning Areas (KLAs), especially KLAs that comprise several

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subjects, should be reinforced. They need to exercise leadership by steering subject teachers to review the KLA’s overall curriculum planning, ensuring a smooth transition between key stages, and promoting cross-KLA collaboration, in order to provide a broad and balanced curriculum for students.

 In enhancing teachers’ professional knowledge and abilities, the more effective schools manage a good grasp of teachers’ needs and are therefore able to strategically help them strengthen their professional capacity. A good example is when a school management empowers and develops teachers with good potential by assigning them executive management tasks, or asking them to assist in planning and co-ordinating development items, so as to hone their leadership and decision-making skills, and also prepare for future succession planning. Some schools plan strategically, according to their own development focuses and teachers’ needs, to enhance curriculum leadership, professional development to cater for students with special educational needs (SEN), as well as classroom management skills. In other schools, curriculum leaders help boost teachers’ pedagogical skills and assessment literacy by guiding them to continuously refine their learning and teaching strategies and assessment design in accordance with students’ learning needs.

However, quite a number of schools need to exert greater effort in promoting teachers’

professional development. This includes strengthening the connections between lesson preparation, lesson observation and lesson evaluation; setting clear expectations and focuses for collaborative lesson planning and peer lesson observation to ensure members of the panel share the common goals and to boost professional sharing; and encouraging teachers to put into practice the observations and insights they have shared and drawn from exemplary teaching experiences. Schools should also help teachers thoroughly understand the concept of curriculum development, enhance their knowledge and skills to support student development, thereby empowering them to implement appropriate and effective strategies.

 On the whole, there has been an increase in awareness and effort with regard to promoting teachers’ professional development in learning and teaching. Assisting teachers to apply what they have learnt is key to work effectiveness. It is, therefore, vital for schools to enhance knowledge transfer and management, strategically guiding teachers to assimilate the experiences gained from external professional support services. Taking into consideration the school context and students’ characteristics and needs, teachers are encouraged to conduct in-depth discussions about factors influencing the effectiveness of learning and teaching. Through continuously trialling, adjusting and deepening teaching practices, teachers contribute to the sustainable improvement of the quality of learning and teaching. Further, schools should appreciate the importance of professional development in facilitating student development. For example, they can help class teachers understand their role in supporting student development and master guidance and discipline skills so that they can provide suitable counselling services to students.

Exemplars

Effectively improving middle managers’ leadership skills and continuously refining learning and teaching strategies

The school management is fully aware of the importance of developing a learning community among teachers. In addition to staff development days and sharing sessions, the

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principal and two vice-principals use various other platforms for communication and professional exchange with subject panels and committees. They review documents, undertake lesson observations and attend meetings of subject panels and committees to understand the development plans and needs of different panels and committees. Not only do they ask thought-provoking questions and give suggestions, they also provide relevant support in a timely manner, which enables teachers to continuously reflect and learn, and effectively perform their role as professional leaders. As the capabilities of middle managers progressively improve, the principal strongly encourages them to take the initiative to make suggestions conducive to the school’s development, enhancing the team’s leadership and decision-making abilities.

The school’s curriculum development team synthesises common elements of a quality lesson, notably self-directed learning, e-learning, and catering for learner diversity, to assist different subject panels to refine the design of their lessons according to their own context and needs, thus enhancing the overall effectiveness of learning and teaching. To promote professional sharing among teachers, collaborative lesson planning sessions for various core subjects are built into the school time-table, and cross-subject lesson observations are encouraged. Teachers can generally make effective use of the co-planning sessions, vigorously discussing students’ performance, and ways to improve learning and teaching strategies, as well as the design of tasks and activities.

Providing ample opportunities for professional exchange to foster teachers’

professional development

The school provides opportunities for professional development in various forms, such as lesson observation by school managers, collaborative lesson planning and open lessons. The school also designates highly experienced teachers of Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics to be “expert teachers”. They offer counsel and guidance to peers to enhance their professional capacity, and organise professional development activities that dovetail with the school’s development focuses. The school also provides appropriate support to new teachers by assigning teacher-mentors to help them with regard to class and curriculum matters. Arrangements are also made for these new teachers to assume the role of assistant class teachers in their first year. They work hand in hand with the experienced class teachers, effectively gaining a good understanding of their work. The management makes use of various channels, notably “a meeting with the principal”, to promote professional exchange with teachers and help them set up goals for individual development.

To facilitate professional development through continuous learning, teachers are encouraged to read a variety of educational materials and share their thoughts and opinions. In recent years, the school has been actively engaging external professional support to bring teachers up to speed with the latest trends in education and relevant learning and teaching strategies.

Collaborative lesson planning and lesson observation are regularly conducted to aid refining the school-based curriculum. Through sharing and exchanges, teachers are able to explore and develop strategies that address students’ learning difficulties and enhance lesson effectiveness. By observing the learning and teaching strategies that different subjects adopt and their exemplary practices, teachers gain insight into ways of improving their own instructional design and paradigm.

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 Schools are generally able to provide a variety of learning experiences that align with their mission, trends in education and students’ needs. Apart from lessons, most of them offer a varied range of opportunities to facilitate life-wide learning (LWL), including co-curricular activities, service learning, and exchange programmes outside Hong Kong. Such support expands students’ capabilities and interest in learning, develops their potential, and nurtures positive values and attitudes, thus contributing to fostering their whole-person development.

 The curricula of primary schools are generally broad and balanced. Most secondary schools offer sufficient elective subjects at senior secondary level, including Applied Learning courses, to cater for students’ interests and needs. Some secondary schools, however, fail to provide a balanced curriculum to achieve this effect at junior secondary level, thus preventing students from building a firm knowledge base. For example, the lesson times for some KLAs, such as Technology Education and Arts Education, are less than those recommended in the Secondary Education Curriculum Guide (2017). Further, some schools bring forward the teaching of senior secondary curriculum topics to junior secondary level. This involves subjects such as Chinese Language (one example is the twelve prescribed classical Chinese texts), Liberal Studies and Economics. As a result, the essential learning elements of some KLAs at junior secondary level are not adequately covered.

 Most schools have set up a special committee, which is led by the vice-principal or curriculum leader, to be responsible for planning and coordinating curriculum development.

While effective in handling administrative work, the committee could have done more in guiding subject panels and committees to effectively use and draw conclusions from assessment data to facilitate professional sharing and inform strategic planning. Some curriculum leaders lack systematic planning and clear goals when implementing the school’s major concerns. This causes different interpretations by different subject panels of development focuses such as self-directed learning and e-learning, and as a result, different subject panels and committees have found it difficult to synchronise and complement each other’s work. In some secondary schools, although the role of KLA coordinator has been set up, it is not performed to its full effect. This is because the coordinators mainly focus on the work of liaising with different subject panels, rather than enhancing curriculum planning among KLAs and ensuring a smooth transition between key stages. On the whole, there is room for curriculum leaders to advance their capacity for planning and coordinating curriculum development. To enforce holistic curriculum planning, they need to work on cross-curricular collaboration, and strategically incorporate the MRE from the Curriculum Guide into schools’ development plans.

 Many schools see catering for learner diversity as a major focus area for continuous development, and have thus invested considerable resources to set up after-school enhancement and remedial programmes, notably English courses for newly-arrived children (NAC) and cross-boundary students, in order to help them build a firm foundation for the language. To facilitate effective learning and teaching, most schools stream their students according to their academic abilities and implement small group teaching. They also adapt their assessments to cater for students with SEN. For example, these students may undertake assessments separately from the rest of the class, are given additional time and/or have the question paper read to them. A small number of schools even adapt their

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curriculum and assessment according to students’ abilities. They introduce enrichment elements to their curriculum, or develop learning tasks which include challenging questions as well as clues and support, so as to extend and deepen learning for the more able students and increase the motivation and confidence of the less able ones. On the whole, the plans and measures which schools have adopted are rather comprehensive. However, schools still need to strengthen the evaluation of their measures on catering for learner diversity.

Further, the degree of success to which such initiatives are delivered varies widely among teachers in lessons. It is important for schools to continue to enhance teachers’ capacity and competence by promoting professional development and encouraging them to share and adopt exemplary practices.

 The 2017/18 school year sees a greater number of schools implement gifted education systematically with reference to the EDB’s three-tier implementation mode. In implementing Level 1, that is school-based whole-class teaching, some schools integrate elements of higher-order thinking skills and creativity into pedagogical and assessment design. At Level 2, schools select the more able students for focused training or to participate in school-based pull-out programmes, such as programmes that promote creativity, problem-solving, sport and art, to further develop their talent and potential.

Schools also nominate exceptionally gifted students to attend Level 3 off-school training programmes and participate in local or international competitions. Some schools select students from the talent pools they have formed based on students’ strengths and aptitude to participate in relevant courses or contests. In general, schools should consider enhancing their overall planning for Level 1 (school-based whole-class teaching), and further students’

personal-social competence development in order to fully cover all three key elements of gifted education.

 While schools with a higher intake of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students have set up special committees to develop their school-based curriculum to cater for their language learning needs, schools with fewer NCS students have also assigned teachers to do such work. Most schools are able to use the EDB’s Chinese Language Assessment Tools for Non-Chinese Speaking Students to assess the language proficiency of NCS students and adopt corresponding measures for effective language learning, such as cross-class subject setting, cross-level subject setting, or pull-out small group teaching. Also, putting more able NCS students together with local students in the same class allows for a more linguistically rich environment. With reference to the EDB’s Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework and taking into account their NCS students’ language level, most schools adapt their school-based curriculum, including setting learning targets and content to help NCS students learn Chinese language systematically. Schools also enlist outside professional support from, for example, the EDB and tertiary institutions, to help develop their school-based curriculum and enhance teachers’ professional capacity. To provide multiple pathways for NCS students, some secondary schools let them enrol in Applied Learning Chinese (for NCS students) courses or work with tertiary institutions to develop a career-related Chinese Language curriculum for Secondary 6 NCS students so as to enrich their Chinese language learning, help them meet employment requirements, and set future career goals. Some schools, however, have somewhat low expectations of NCS students. They either offer them a simpler Chinese Language curriculum or focus on helping them obtain other internationally recognised Chinese Language qualifications. The learning materials they use do not align with the requirements of the mainstream Chinese Language curriculum. For example, the schools use past examination papers of the aforementioned qualifications as supplementary

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learning materials, and discourage NCS students from fully integrating into regular Chinese Language lessons, thereby hindering their progress in developing proficiency in Chinese.

It is true that schools generally are able to assess NCS students’ language level at the beginning and end of the school year. Nonetheless, more in-depth analyses of the findings should be carried out to effectively inform curriculum planning, learning and teaching.

 Schools have clear homework and assessment policies, which generally cover both summative and formative assessments. Some schools undertake to consult parents’ views, conduct continuous review and make timely changes to their policies, such as re-adjusting the amount of homework and reducing the number of summative assessments. In general, schools are able to use a diverse range of assessment modes, such as self-assessment, peer assessment, parent assessment and online assessment, to gauge students’ performance and provide them with feedback for their effective learning. In schools with better performance, the learning tasks set are connected to students’ daily life experiences. Students are thus able to apply what they have learnt in class, exercise their creativity, and develop problem- solving and critical thinking skills. In some schools, graded learning tasks, or tasks with built-in scaffolding, clues and challenging questions, are designed to cater for learner diversity. A small number of schools assist students to set individual learning goals and plans, as well as reflect on and revise learning strategies, which is conducive to promoting Assessment as Learning, and develop students’ self-directed learning abilities. Individual primary schools place much emphasis on the transition between kindergarten and primary education. They adopt various measures, such as adjusting the weighting between summative assessment and coursework marks, avoiding tests and examinations in the first term of Primary 1 and using the class workbook as a tool for formative assessment. All these measures help reduce the pressure from tests and examinations, enabling students to adapt to learning at primary level and catering for their mental development. However, some schools still rely on exercises that encourage mechanical drilling and copying, which undermine interest and negatively affect learning. Further, some teachers offer feedback that is too brief, failing to provide clear suggestions to help improve students’ performance.

 Schools are generally able to make use of the assessment data to understand students’

learning performance and discuss follow-up measures. However, quite a number of schools or subjects only manage to conduct brief analyses of students’ pass rates and learning attitudes, but fail to distinguish their learning difficulties and causes of their unsatisfactory performance. Their follow-up measures are confined to engaging students in additional exercises, holding extra lessons and revisiting relevant topics, without any attempt at utilising assessment data to inform curriculum planning, and learning and teaching strategies.

 On the whole, schools should further develop teachers’ assessment literacy. This includes using formative assessment and assessment data to accurately analyse students’ learning difficulties and initiate focused follow-up work, reinforcing the link between “learning, teaching and assessment”, and fully utilising assessment as a tool for improving learning.

During the assessment process, teachers should attempt allowing students greater autonomy for self-directed learning so that they can monitor their own progress, self-reflect continuously and make timely adjustments to learning goals and strategies. As students demonstrate the abilities to become self-directed learners, the school will be able to achieve the purpose of Assessment as Learning.

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10 Exemplars

Actively implementing gifted education with comprehensive overall planning

With reference to the EDB’s three-tier implementation mode, the school actively implements gifted education to develop students’ higher-order thinking skills, creativity and personal- social competence. Level 1, that is whole-class teaching, is effectively implemented across subjects to facilitate students’ higher-order thinking, including Directed Reading Thinking Activity in Chinese Language, attribute listing in English Language, enumeration in Mathematics, and comparing and contrasting in General Studies. Through stimulating writing activities such as designing a new festival, the language subjects encourage students to express their creativity. Aspects of affective learning such as understanding and expressing one’s feelings, interpersonal relationships, and attitudes and values, are also incorporated into the coursework of various subjects to enhance students’ moral and affective development. The school runs Level 2 pull-out gifted education programmes after class, covering areas such as scientific enquiry, academic studies and leadership skills.

Considerable careful thinking has gone into those programmes designed and taught by teachers, as evident in the use of coding to develop students’ computational thinking and problem-solving skills. A peer programme has also been created, where Primary 6 students are entrusted to train their Primary 5 peers into “little leaders”. To develop their leadership skills, students are assigned different service roles. For example, some of them serve as the school’s ambassadors on Open Day, performing duties such as greeting the guests, guiding them on a tour around the school, and introducing different exhibits. The school nominates exceptionally gifted students for Level 3 off-school specialist training, such as the Mathematics and Science gifted programmes run by tertiary institutions or The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, to further develop their potential.

Providing appropriate Chinese Language learning support to NCS students to improve their language proficiency

The school puts NCS students and local students in the same class, with the aim of integrating NCS students into classroom learning and providing them with more opportunities to learn in Chinese. The curriculum is designed in such a way that it takes NCS students’ learning needs into consideration. For example, Primary 1 focuses on learning the strokes, stroke order and structure of Chinese characters, providing a solid foundation for character recognition. In both Primary 1 and 2, readers with grammar-related elements are included as part of the curriculum to encourage extended reading. With teachers’ appropriate use of readers in literacy instruction, students gain in Chinese grammar knowledge and develop their interest in reading. Much thought has been put into the teaching of writing. To allow students first-hand experience in real-life situations, teachers purposefully organise different pre-writing activities, such as visits and Games Day. Depending on their abilities, students are given writing frameworks and engaged in a step-by-step writing process to help them develop their ideas.

To more effectively support the less able NCS students, the school conducts a remedial Chinese Language programme after school. It diagnoses the language abilities of NCS students, using the EDB’s Chinese Language Assessment Tools for Non-Chinese Speaking Students. It also makes sure that the classes are taught by the school’s Chinese Language teachers themselves, since they are familiar with their students and are therefore able to effectively tackle their learning difficulties and help consolidate their fundamental language

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knowledge. The school has been working closely together with the EDB and tertiary institutions to develop the remedial programme described above with reference to the Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework. Its curriculum design, and the learning and teaching strategies adopted, take into account students’ abilities and needs, and are therefore conducive to bridging them to the mainstream curriculum.

NCS teaching assistants are also made available to offer support in class. Lunch-time pair- reading, in which a senior level local student coaches an NCS student to read a text aloud, encourages language learning through peer support. According to the assessment data, the language proficiency of NCS students has improved. In all, with its sound curriculum development, clear rationale for learning support and appropriate implementation strategies, the school aptly caters to NCS students’ Chinese language learning.

Implementing self-directed learning to facilitate Assessment as Learning

To implement Assessment as Learning and promote self-directed learning among students, the school has launched a programme called “Dr. Self-learning Junior”, which allows students to set learning goals according to their own interests and abilities. Some of their targets are academically-oriented, for instance, enhancing language skills; others are related to personal interests, such as K-pop dance and dried flowers making. Prior to the programme, teachers guide students to consider what they are interested in and what is worth exploring, aside from introducing different self-learning strategies, such as online research and interviews. Students formulate plans to attain their own personal learning goals. In the process, they review their progress regularly, making timely adjustments to their strategies to achieve positive learning outcomes. They also adopt various approaches to solve any problems they encounter and strive for continuous improvement through self-reflection. The programme works effectively, as students are engaged throughout and demonstrate the ability to use appropriate strategies for self-directed learning.

Making good use of assessment data to inform curriculum planning, and learning and teaching

The school excels at setting learning and teaching development goals by making good use of assessment data. According to the findings from both internal and external assessments, students’ performance in reading and speaking for both language subjects has proven to be relatively weak. The school therefore sees developing students’ learning skills as its major concern, with particular emphasis on the areas of reading, speaking and communication.

Subject-based reading is promoted across subjects. For example, language subject panels collaborate with the library to assess the reading skills of students from Primary 1 to Primary 4. Based on their performance, students are given books suitable for their level. To help them systematically develop their reading skills, small group instruction is employed during reading lessons. All subjects provide opportunities for students to develop their speaking skills in class, such as answering questions in complete sentences or giving an oral report after a group activity. Different platforms are also used to offer occasions for students to perform and build confidence and communication skills. These include lunch-time talent shows, drama performances and an end-of-year performance.

The school carefully reviews students’ performance in internal and external assessments to understand their learning difficulties. Panel heads share the findings in panel meetings, and

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devise specific follow-up measures to address the problems students encounter. For example, in view of students’ weak performance in answering current affairs questions, teachers broadcast news programmes during lunch time to raise their awareness of current affairs. Remedial support through small group reading is also made available for Primary 1 students with relatively weak reading skills. To help students who have difficulty in identifying triangles, other shapes formed by three curves and quadrilaterals are used in the teaching process to help clarify the concept. On the whole, the school makes good use of assessment data to inform curriculum and teaching design.

2.4 Classroom Learning and Teaching

 In general, students have good learning attitudes and are interested in learning. They are attentive and well-behaved in class. They follow teachers’ instructions, answer questions and participate in classroom activities. Most of them demonstrate fair learning capabilities and understanding of what is taught by applying the knowledge and skills they have acquired. Some students are able to use self-learning strategies such as pre-lesson preparation and note-taking. However, students seldom take the initiative to ask questions and express their opinions in class. Their learning initiative needs to be strengthened.

 Teachers are friendly, approachable and have good rapport with students. Most lessons are well-organised with clear learning objectives, providing an environment where learning and teaching are conducted smoothly. Most teachers start the lesson by activating students’

prior knowledge or drawing on what students have learnt from their pre-lesson preparation work. Some teachers strategically tie in such work with classroom learning. For example, they provide students with a pre-lesson worksheet which aims to help them understand the purpose and procedures of an experiment, so that there is more time for them to participate in hands-on activities and discussions during lesson. After covering the target content, teachers usually organise classroom activities, such as group discussions, role plays and experiments, to engage students’ participation and consolidate their learning. Before the lesson concludes, most teachers provide a summary of what has been taught, or guide students to recapitulate the key points and reflect on what they have learnt. However, some teachers have issues with time management. For example, they spend too much time on lesson lead-ins or checking students’ prior knowledge. This leaves inadequate time for class activities, which means students have little chance for in-depth discussions to consolidate or extend what they have learnt. On the other hand, some teachers tend to conclude the lesson too hastily, leaving no room for students to reflect on the key learning objectives or how well they have achieved the objectives.

 Teachers’ delivery is clear and fluent. They use examples from everyday life and a variety of teaching resources to enhance students’ interest and help them understand the learning content. Some teachers make good use of information technology (IT) to facilitate students’

learning. For example, they use interactive geometry software to demonstrate the nature of the medians of a triangle to help students master abstract concepts. Teachers usually employ questioning to check students’ understanding and gauge how well students have learnt. However, quite a number of their questions are undemanding, giving little scope for students to explore the topics or issues in depth. For example, some Chinese Language teachers tend to focus on checking students’ comprehension of the content and vocabulary of reading texts, and overlook using higher-order questions to develop their capacity for literary appreciation. While most teachers seek to enhance students’ confidence by

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complimenting their performance and giving them encouragement, the majority of them fall short of providing concrete feedback specifically related to the key learning points to enable students to improve. Overall, to facilitate students’ learning, teachers need to strengthen their skills in questioning and giving feedback.

 Teachers raise students’ level of participation and promote peer interaction through activities such as group discussions, presentations, or experiments designed by students to verify scientific principles. However, some teachers have low expectations of students and therefore engage them in unchallenging tasks. There is also room for improvement for some group activities in terms of design and implementation. In such cases, learning effectiveness is hampered, as the activities allow little room for students to discuss or exchange ideas, or when insufficient time is given for students to conduct any in-depth discussion. Teachers should further improve the quality of group activities so that students can take part in discussions meaningfully. A small number of teachers should raise students’

safety awareness when conducting experiments. For example, students must adopt appropriate safety measures, such as wearing safety goggles when heating alcohol.

 Slight improvement is seen in the way teachers cater for learner diversity. Through questioning and monitoring, teachers gain insight into students’ learning progress and provide individual support. Teachers also use different media, such as pictures and videos, to cater for students’ different learning styles, motivate them to learn and increase their understanding of the target content. For the less able students, teachers provide them with clues and graded learning tasks or activities. Teachers adopt appropriate learning and teaching strategies for students with SEN, such as placing students with Attention Deficit/

Hyperactivity Disorder in a low distraction area in the classroom; providing sufficient time for students with speech and language impairments to express themselves; and assisting students with hearing impairment by rephrasing complex language that may be hard to understand. A small number of teachers flexibly adjust the content or pace of their teaching according to students’ progress. However, some teachers pay insufficient attention to passive students or do not have specific strategies to extend learning for the more able ones.

On the whole, teachers should utilise different strategies to cater for students with different learning styles and abilities, so as to effectively cater for learner diversity.

Exemplars

Effectively using questions, feedback and peer evaluation to achieve Assessment for Learning

Teachers use questions consistently in class. In addition to helping students construct knowledge, they use different levels of questioning, probing and prompting to encourage students to think deeply and express their own views, so as to help develop students’ higher- order thinking skills. Teachers are able to give students positive and specific feedback, taking into account their learning progress and challenges. For example, teachers use

“compliment cards” with commendations expressed in different ways to recognise the language proficiency level that students have achieved. Teachers also prompt students how to correctly represent different units of measurement. Their quality feedback not only increases students’ confidence in learning, but also helps them review and improve their performance. Teachers organise a presentation session after students have finished discussing in groups, which not only allows students to demonstrate what they have learnt,

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but also offers an opportunity for peer feedback. Further, teachers provide students with clear assessment criteria. Students can generally grasp these criteria and make use of them to evaluate their classmates’ group discussion outcomes. Such an approach facilitates students’ understanding of the key learning points, encourages reflection and helps them develop the habit of offering constructive comments on the work of others. It also effectively contributes to improving the atmosphere and effectiveness of learning in class.

Well-planned group activities that effectively cater for learner diversity

Teachers organise group activities in Chinese History lessons to encourage students to explore different topics and co-construct knowledge. These activities are carefully planned.

Besides providing students with clear instructions and cognitive support, teachers utilise mixed-ability grouping and assign students roles that match their learning abilities, such as collecting information and analysing the findings, to ensure they all collaborate to complete the task. During the process, students show they are able to cite relevant historical facts and incidents, and synergise their efforts to gain a better understanding of the topic. Such activities allow students with different abilities to demonstrate their talents. They help build the confidence of the less able students and develop the potential of their more able counterparts, thus effectively catering for learner diversity.

Enhancing students’ learning effectiveness through effective classroom activities and specific feedback

To facilitate learning, teachers allow students to use tablet devices and apps in class. These tools help students systematically analyse experiment results and draw conclusions, as well as enhance their understanding of abstract concepts in the subject. Teachers also guide students to critically appreciate a text. Through captivating students’ attention to the beauty of language, students learn various rhetorical and literary devices for describing scenes and objects. They are then given opportunities to apply what they have learnt through critiquing a text. In the course of the activity, teachers closely observe the progress of each group, provide specific support that suits students’ individual needs, and adjust the activity arrangements where appropriate. At the end, teachers ask students to present their work and give feedback or advice specific to the learning objectives. Students are therefore able to immediately reflect on their work, remedy their mistakes or clarify relevant concepts. On the whole, teachers manage to take into consideration students’ learning difficulties, and select suitable materials and topics to design activities to facilitate learning.

2.5 Support for Student Development

 In fostering students’ whole-person development, most schools are committed to providing a variety of activities aimed at cultivating students’ interest in areas such as arts and sport, so as to develop their potential and raise their sense of achievement. Quite a number of schools focus on advancing students’ self-management skills to facilitate the implementation of self-directed learning and life planning education. Values education remains a major concern for many schools. Through the learning experiences they provide inside and outside of school, teachers help students develop their moral character and

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positive thinking. In addition, they help foster their social development, including building interpersonal relationships and practising values such as care, respect and tolerance.

Learning is also extended beyond the school, as students participate in community services and learn to care about the needy in society.

 In order to comprehensively plan how to provide support for student development, schools need to have a confident grasp of students’ needs, as well as the relevant ideas and concepts.

Schools with better planning make use of quantitative and qualitative evaluation data to identify the attributes that students need to enhance and systematically plan related development work. This includes carefully setting relevant goals, taking into account the characteristics and needs of students at different stages of development, as well as formulating targeted strategies to support students’ development in accordance with their cultural backgrounds and special needs. Some schools also adhere to the principle of placing equal emphasis on “cognition, affection and action” in values education. They help broaden students’ knowledge and develop their empathy, and by means of practice and reflection, amplify their capacity for positive values and attitudes.

 Quite a few schools adopt a class-based system where the class teacher is mainly responsible for guidance and discipline, and delivering the curriculum for student development. As a class, students engage in activities that help them build peer relationships and cultivate their sense of belonging to the school. Schools with better performance emphasise the nurturing role of class teachers. They purposefully provide ample opportunities and time for class teachers to work and interact with students, so they can fully understand their needs. Class teacher periods are also efficiently utilised to help students develop positive values and attitudes. Individual schools attach importance to teachers’ professional development. For example, collaborative lesson planning sessions are set up as a means for teachers to build consensus on the student development curriculum, and to strengthen their understanding of its nature and role, as well as their skills in handling different topics. Carefully planned professional development sessions focusing on areas such as improving teachers’ guidance and discipline skills, and enhancing their understanding of life planning education, are also provided to cater for teachers’ needs.

 Apart from catering for the development needs of students, schools have established mechanisms to clearly identify and provide timely support for students with SEN. They engage the service of external professionals to support students’ development, as well as their affective and social development, by providing therapy, training and counselling.

Schools also offer activities tailored to students’ interests and characteristics to help them build self-confidence and realise their potential. Seeking to strengthen parents’ education, schools hold talks and workshops to increase their knowledge and understanding of how to care about their children. Schools also see the importance of creating an inclusive campus.

They help students with SEN integrate into school life through strengthening peer support, or encourage students with SEN to invite other students to join them for their art therapy sessions or sports games. All these facilitate understanding and cooperation among students, giving rise to a harmonious and caring campus.

 In schools with a considerable number of NCS students, the teachers are generally able to provide a diverse range of learning opportunities to suit their needs. This includes experiential learning activities such as singing Cantonese opera and visits to heritage trails in Hong Kong. These activities not only enhance students’ understanding of Chinese and Hong Kong culture, but also help them adapt to local life. Based on the different cultural

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backgrounds and interests of NCS students, various special co-curricular activities, such as cricket and folk dance, are organised. To enhance students’ understanding of different ethnic groups and foster an inclusive school culture, quite a number of schools hold different LWL activities, such as Multicultural Week and Spring Festival costume contest, which allow students insight into the cultures and lifestyles of different countries and promote mutual respect and acceptance. Some schools recruit students as inclusion ambassadors to assist in organising co-curricular activities in order to create more opportunities for them to get along with and learn from each other. Further, some schools develop their own school-based inclusion curriculum or infuse the value of “inclusion” into various subjects to develop students’ respect for cultural diversity.

 Overall, schools have accumulated substantial experience in supporting student development. However, quite a number of schools still need to put more effort into planning and evaluation. This is because the goals of their major concerns or development focuses are too broad for various subject panels and committees to grasp. In measuring the effectiveness of an initiative, there is the tendency in some schools to rely heavily on criteria such as students’ activity attendance and stakeholders’ level of satisfaction, without fully utilising other information and evaluation data. It is essential for schools to continuously improve student development support services. Alongside reviewing the implementation of individual tasks or projects, they should also examine their impact on students with reference to the goals of the school’s major concerns, which would allow them to better understand the development needs of students and work, and to improve the overall planning, organisation and coordination of any related work. Moreover, schools should help teachers master relevant concepts and skills so that they could effectively cater for students’ development needs through a whole-school approach.

Exemplars

Purposefully providing students with diverse learning experiences and opportunities for success

The school is committed to providing students with diverse learning experiences by introducing activities that cater for their interests, such as playing the keyboard, beatboxing and modern dance. Through these activities, students develop their interests and potential.

The Dragon and Lion Dance Team and the Robotics Team are two notable examples that fulfil this purpose. Several years ago, the school started the “one sport/one art per student”

scheme in Secondary 1, allowing students access to different sport and art activities. The training was provided by teachers, teaching assistants and external professionals. Together students learnt how to work as a team, demonstrate what they are capable of, and increase their sense of achievement. Despite the constraints of space and manpower, the school pressed on with the scheme and extended it to Secondary 2 the year before, thus allowing students to continue to develop their interests and abilities. The school also avails itself of the professional expertise of alumni members and parents by inviting them to assist in designing special rooms and serving as school team coaches. Opportunities to take part in performances outside school are offered, which students find beneficial. The Student Support Team organises different kinds of development training, interest groups, and recreational activities for students with SEN. A diverse range of programmes comprising learning and life experience activities are held during the summer holidays to help improve

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their communication and collaboration skills, as well as their capacity for participation in school life.

The school is set on providing students with opportunities and experiences to demonstrate their abilities, hard work and success. It creates additional service positions and roles to achieve this end. Through engaging students in serving others, hosting activities and participating in internal competitions, the school seeks to boost students’ self-esteem.

Different awards schemes are also made available to recognise students’ efforts in various domains. In one of these schemes named “Learning Rewards Journey”, students are encouraged to evaluate themselves in areas such as conduct, service, academic performance and activity participation, so as to earn rewards and through the process, be empowered to strive for their goals.

Implementing appropriate strategies to support student development and emphasising communication among different functional teams and class teachers’ participation To cater for students’ development needs, the school has reviewed and redesigned the school-based Moral and Civic Education curriculum. The teaching resources have also been updated to include a student reflection section to enhance learning. The Moral and Civic Education Team regularly conducts sharing sessions with class teachers of different year levels on the key teaching points of the package and relevant teaching strategies.

By means of the level meetings conducted by the “Campus Life Caring Committee”, the school facilitates information exchange among representatives of the Student Development Support Committee and class teachers of different year levels so that they can address students’ needs in a timely manner. To ensure effective implementation of the Moral and Civic Education curriculum, opinions from different stakeholders, including students, class teachers and discipline and guidance teachers, are collected and used to help the committee make adjustments to matters regarding curriculum and instructional design, and to strengthen the communication among functional teams.

Regarding life planning education, the Learning Support Team and the Career Guidance Team work closely together to effectively help students with SEN choose suitable career paths that match their strengths and interests.

2.6 Implementation of Schools’ Major Concerns 2.6.1 Values Education

 Many schools have identified values education as a major concern or priority task, which covers a wide range of values and attitudes. Compared with the year before, there has been a significant increase in the number of schools focusing on national identity (including Basic Law education). Schools mainly seek to cultivate in students positive values and attitudes through different avenues, such as morning assemblies, weekly assemblies, class- teacher periods, personal development lessons, life education lessons, and various other learning activities.

 Through different LWL activities, schools help students develop perseverance, proactivity and positive self-image. Schools mostly arrange guidance and discipline activities such as

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training camps and adventure-based training to help students learn how to face and overcome adversities and difficulties, and develop a positive attitude towards life. A small number of schools focus on students’ post-activity reflections for guiding students to consolidate the experience gained and consider how one might rise to the challenge. Such a process enables students to develop their perseverance and to improve themselves.

Schools also organise seminars to help parents understand the different ways of managing their children’s emotions and to encourage them to collaborate with their staff to enhance students’ perseverance. On top of a variety of activities that cover academic topics, sport, arts and students’ interests, schools offer students increased opportunities to serve others both inside and outside of the school, so as to help them better understand their strengths, realise their potential and boost their sense of achievement. Students are also given more opportunities to showcase their talents and achievements, such as performing in the local community and displaying students’ work on campus, which help them recognise their own worth and build a positive self-image.

 Schools focus on enhancing students’ self-discipline and self-management skills to develop their sense of responsibility and commitment. To achieve this purpose, discipline-and- guidance related activities are organised for students to practise the skills, and school-based award schemes are implemented to acknowledge students who demonstrate outstanding qualities and serve as role model, thereby inspiring a culture of mutual support and encouragement among peers. In a number of schools, students who have violated school rules are assigned a duty on or off campus along with self-reflection tasks. During this time, they reflect on and make up for their mistakes. As a result, the entire process serves to strengthen students’ self-discipline and sense of commitment. Some schools encourage students to set up goals in areas such as academic studies, moral character development and co-curricular activities, and constantly review and reflect on their learning experiences. To enhance parent-child communication, parents are invited to participate in school activities.

In doing so, parents help students strive to reach the goals they have set together and develop a sense of responsibility. Quite a number of schools also assign students different roles and create increased opportunities for them to organise activities, with a view to cultivating a spirit of serving others and a sense of commitment. On the whole, students are able to translate this objective into practice. To further develop students’ sense of responsibility, schools could adopt more strategies aimed at enhancing their intrinsic motivation and helping them internalise positive values and attitudes.

 To raise students’ civic awareness, most schools enhance students’ understanding of local communities and the society as a whole through different avenues such as morning assemblies and current affairs forums. Students are also given opportunities to participate in voluntary work outside school, such as visiting elderly people who live alone, distributing free meals in the community and serving as a tour guide in the district where the school is located. All these activities enable students to learn more about their communities, cultivate a caring and accepting attitude towards the needy, become more socially motivated, and reflect on their own contribution to society. In schools that perform well in the planning and implementation of external volunteer services, appropriate training is provided to students beforehand to help them understand the focus of the service.

Students also undertake post-service reflections or peer sharing to help enhance the effectiveness of volunteer activities. However, some schools restrict service learning merely to the school campus or involve only a small number of student participants. These narrow efforts are not altogether beneficial to helping students cultivate a caring attitude towards local communities and the society as a whole.

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 To strengthen the implementation of national education and Basic Law education, most schools provide professional development opportunities for teachers by engaging them in relevant courses or training sessions related to the Basic Law. In general, they deliver national education and Basic Law education through, for instance, the Personal, Social and Humanities Education KLA and General Studies. They also use or consult the EDB’s teaching resources related to the Basic Law to enrich students’ learning. However, some schools do not fully cover the Basic Law education elements at junior secondary level, and their overall curriculum planning therefore needs improving. In general, schools hold a variety of LWL activities on campus to enrich students’ experiences as well as enhance their understanding of, and interest in, Chinese culture. These include the flag raising ceremony, singing the national anthem, Chinese Culture Day, and running interest groups such as Chinese dance and Chinese ink painting. Schools also organise a range of activities to enhance students’ understanding of the Basic Law, such as the Basic Law quiz competition, visits to the Legislative Council or the Court of Final Appeal, student exchange programmes to the Mainland, and events organised by their sister schools.

However, a small number of schools could do more in terms of encouraging their students to reflect on their experiences after field trips or exchange programmes to consolidate their learning.

 In evaluating values education, most schools focus on reviewing the workflow and administrative arrangements of relevant learning activities at the end of the school year, with a small number of schools actually using students’ learning performance as a key evaluation criterion. Most schools rely on tools such as school-based surveys and teacher observations to evaluate work effectiveness. However, they fail to use and synthesise different sources of information, or utilise the EDB’s self-evaluation tools, to conduct reviews and analyses that enable them to understand students’ learning effectiveness.

Schools should carry out evaluations with an express focus on students’ performance and effectively employ the findings to inform their work plans for the next phase.

Exemplars

Effectively using a diverse range of learning and teaching activities to promote values education in Chinese Language

Appreciating the importance of cultivating positive values in students, the Chinese Language panel integrates elements from moral and national education into daily learning and teaching as well as learning and teaching materials. A notable example is their Secondary 6 elective module in relation to cultural studies, where students explore the theme of human relationships and ethics to deepen their understanding of Chinese culture and develop positive values. The school also develops their own module on “Feelings for Our Country”, which is supported by well-written materials, to enrich students’ understanding of Chinese history and culture, and heighten their sense of national identity. Similarly, aspects of moral education are incorporated into Chinese Language at junior secondary level. Through close reading of the set novels, students are guided to gain insight into the characters and morals behind the stories. Furthermore, the overall scheme of work for writing is comprehensive.

It details the text types, genres, and the number of times students at different levels are assigned various types of writing, whether it is topic-based writing or practical writing. It also lists how the key learning focuses of each writing task relate to students’ development