Secondary Education Curriculum Guide
Booklet 5
Embracing Learner Diversity
Prepared by
The Curriculum Development Council Recommended for use in schools by the Education Bureau
HKSARG 2017
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Booklet 5 Embracing Learner Diversity
This is one of the 11 booklets in the Secondary Education Curriculum Guide. Its contents are as follows:
Contents of Booklet 5
5.1 Background
5.2 Purposes of the Booklet
5.3 Catering for Learner Diversity at Different Levels 5.3.1 System Level
5.3.2 School Organisation Level 5.3.3 School Curriculum Level 5.3.4 Class/Group Level
5.4 Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) 5.4.1 Types of SEN
5.4.2 Whole-school Approach 5.4.3 Curriculum Adaptation
5.4.4 Learning and Teaching Strategies 5.4.5. Assessment
5.4.6. Resources and Support Services 5.5 Gifted Students
5.5.1 Gifted Education (GE) in Hong Kong 5.5.2 GE in Practice at the Secondary Level 5.5.3 Resources and Support
5.6 Non-Chinese Speaking Students and Newly-Arrived Children 5.6.1 Supporting Non-Chinese Speaking Students
5.6.2 Supporting Newly-Arrived Children Bibliography
2 3 3 7 7 11 14 16 16 16 18 19 22 25 27 27 31 38 39 39 41 43
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5.1 Background
• In every classroom, there are students who grow and learn at different paces and in different ways. We believe that all students are capable of learning and can make progress in their learning although they may differ in various ways, including their prior learning experiences, abilities and disabilities, cultural backgrounds, learning interest and preferences.
• To embrace learner diversity, we need to cater for and address not only students’
diverse learning needs, but also their different growth needs. It requires the use of effective strategies, and the provision of varied learning experiences and multiple avenues for students to achieve success and maximise their potential. Schools are advised to create an inclusive environment that embraces, nurtures and educates all students regardless of their differences in backgrounds and abilities.
• Embracing learner diversity requires collaborative efforts of different stakeholders, including the Education Bureau (EDB), school leaders, teachers, parents and students, and a supportive and inclusive culture developed in the school community. We need a whole-school approach, together with joint efforts made at different levels, ranging from the system to the school organisation, the school curriculum (including Key Learning Area (KLA) and subject curricula) and the class/group levels, to formulate and implement policies on how best to address students’ learning and growth needs, to design and use appropriate strategies for learning, teaching and assessing students’ progress and performance, and to provide opportunities for students to experience success.
• Embracing learner diversity is a key issue in all secondary schools in the planning and implementation of the school curriculum. To embrace learner diversity, teachers have to understand the characteristic of different groups of students such as special educational needs (SEN) and non-Chinese speaking (NCS), and provide learning experiences which focus on their positive attributes, address their learning needs and create ample opportunities for all students to reflect and learn.
• Over the past few decades, the Government and schools have taken concerted efforts to support students with diverse learning needs. There are resources from the EDB to support schools with intake of students with SEN and students who are gifted. Greater diversity in the demographic make-up of Hong Kong is now observed in schools with an increasing number of newly arrived children (NAC) from the Mainland and NCS students, so there are additional resources for schools to help these students adapt to our education system.
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• This booklet provides information and recommendations on supporting SEN, gifted, NAC and NCS students in particular. Apart from this booklet, please refer to Booklets 3 and 4 for more recommendations on effective learning, teaching and assessment strategies to address issues related to learner diversity in general.
5.2 Purposes of the Booklet
• To explore strategies to embrace learner diversity in secondary schools
• To reiterate how to cater for learner diversity at the system, school organisation, school curriculum and class/group levels
• To provide recommendations on how to supportstudents with special educational needs and students who are gifted
• To introduce the available support services for non-Chinese speaking students and newly-arrived children and provide suggestions to cater for their learning needs
5.3 Catering for Learner Diversity at Different Levels
• All students are entitled to opportunities for learning experiences that support their whole-person development as well as opportunities for realising their potential.
• Catering for learner diversity is a significant and challenging consideration in determining the objectives, contents, expectations and strategies for learning and teaching.
• Catering for learner diversity is not about minimising the difference in student ability and performance but about enabling all students, whether they are gifted or with learning difficulties, non-Chinese speaking or from the Mainland, to learn and perform to the best of their abilities, and about using appropriate strategies to help individual students to learn better and make improvements through identifying and building on their strengths.
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• Diversity is not something to be tackled but rather something to be celebrated.
By embracing diversity among students, teachers would value diversity as an asset, making it an opportunity for enhancing their repertoire of teaching skills as well as professional capacity and development. Diversity among students should also be regarded as an opportunity to facilitate peer learning and development of students’ generic skills and potential in different aspects.
Debunking the Myth:
“Catering for learner diversity is about treating each learner the same and minimising the difference in student achievement.”
In education, fairness or equity does not mean treating every student in the same way or providing each student with the same kind of instruction or learning support. As students differ in many ways, including their needs, interests, backgrounds, experiences, learning styles, aspirations and levels of readiness to learn, we need to understand, respect and respond to their individuality and uniqueness.
With learner differences in mind, we have to differentiate our instruction and provide students with different avenues to acquire the learning content, to process or make sense of new information and ideas, and to apply and demonstrate their learning. In so doing, we aim to realise each student’s potential and narrow the learning gap, i.e. the gap between a student’s actual achievement and his or her potential for achievement.
To equate catering for learner diversity with the narrowing of an achievement gap could be problematic, as the latter, which generally refers to effort made to minimise the difference in achievement between groups of students, implies that all students are expected to achieve the same learning targets or reach the same performance standards.
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• Below are the major considerations for embracing learner diversity:
- Provide a welcoming, inclusive and learning-friendly environment;
- Create opportunities for all to succeed;
- Understand, accept and respect learner differences;
- Use assessment for learning to understand more about students’ learning progress, needs, interests, styles and ability levels;
- Adopt responsive teaching, i.e. teaching that addresses students’ needs and interests;
- Set respectful learning tasks, i.e. tasks that take into consideration students’
interests and ability levels and are appropriately challenging;
- Differentiate the learning content, process, product and environment; and - Celebrate success.
• In general, learner diversity can be catered for at the system level, the school organisation level, the school curriculum level and the class/group level. Figure 5.1 illustrates the inter-relationships across different levels.
In an ILFE (inclusive, learning-friendly environment), everyone shares a common vision of how children should work and play together. They believe that education needs to be inclusive, gender- fair (girls have the same rights and opportunities as boys) and non- discriminatory, sensitive to all cultures, as well as relevant to the daily lives of children and their families. Teachers, administrators, and students respect and celebrate their different languages, cultural backgrounds, and abilities.
UNESCO, 2015
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Figure 5.1 Catering for Learner Diversity
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5.3.1 System Level
• To cater for learner diversity, different means of support are provided at the system level to strengthen teachers’ professional capacity. As illustrated in Figure 5.1, these measures include:
− Guidance and exemplars provided in various curriculum guides and on relevant EDB webpages;
− Funding and professional support (e.g. staffing, grants and school-based support services);
− Professional development opportunities (e.g. courses, seminars, workshops and networking activities) to strengthen teachers’ professional capacity to cater for learner diversity; and
− Infrastructure and facilities (e.g. enhancement of schools’ information technology infrastructure).
5.3.2 School Organisation Level
• At the school organisation level, school leaders, middle managers and teachers need to collaborate to identify available resources, prioritise their use and plan how to maximise support for students with different needs (e.g. enlisting the support of teaching assistants/other helpers, varying the size and types of student groupings and making use of external support services).
• Schools may find the following measures useful in creating supportive conditions at the organisation level to cater for learner diversity:
− Building a positive school ethos that values diversity and respects individual differences, as well as promoting shared beliefs and values;
− Devising a whole-school policy to foster all-round development of students and provide different avenues for them to achieve success and realise their potential;
− Widening subject choices including Applied Learning (ApL) courses;
− Setting up a task force to co-ordinate the promotion and sharing of effective pedagogy and assessment strategies to cater for learner diversity;
− Putting in place a flexible timetabling arrangement;
− Strengthening communication with parents (e.g. discussing student progress);
and
− Fostering community partnerships to provide students with opportunities to participate in a wide range of learning activities and use community resources to support their learning.
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• Schools and teachers could refer to the key components of the curriculum and assessment frameworks at the senior secondary level such as the subject choices available and modes of assessment recommended, and make good use of these components to address student needs.
• Among the strategies mentioned above, it is advisable for secondary schools to make good use of the provision of ApL courses at the senior secondary level to help students with different aspirations and abilities to articulate to multiple pathways.
Choices Provided under New Academic Structure (NAS)
Under the NAS, students can study a wide range of elective subjects chosen from 20 academic subjects, a wide selection of ApL courses and six Other Languages. These electives, coupled with Other Learning Experiences (OLE), enable schools to provide a curriculum tailored to students’ diverse interests and aptitudes.
ApL, in particular, provides a balance to academic learning and students at all ability levels may take ApL courses as elective subjects. The design principles of ApL courses are the same as those of other school subjects, focusing on the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes. ApL offers studies linked to broad professional and vocational fields, with equal emphasis on practice and theory. It aims to enable students to understand fundamental theories and concepts and to develop beginners’ skill sets, career- related competencies and generic skills through application and practice. Through the learning experience in vocational contexts, students explore their career aspirations and orientation for lifelong learning.
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Example 1: Value Diversity and Respect Individual Differences – Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment for
Non-Chinese Speaking (NCS) Students
Resources available in and around a secondary school with an intake of a small number of NCS students are pulled together to provide holistic support to their learning based on the belief that the creation of a supportive and inclusive learning environment would enhance the well-being of all students, irrespective of their cultural backgrounds.
Besides the additional funding from the EDB, the school draws resources from the community, parents and even students themselves. For example, there is a variety of community activities organised by non-governmental organisations to engage their NCS students in meaningful learning experiences and to provide a language- rich environment. Their parents who are with diverse cultural backgrounds are also involved in multicultural activities such as sharing their countries’ food and customs in the festival celebration events. These learning activities enhance the sense of belonging of the NCS students and their parents, and facilitate their adaptation to the local settings.
The school also believes that all students have strengths and abilities in learning so everyone should be treasured as an asset to the class. At the class level, NCS and Chinese-speaking students are grouped together on many occasions. Each of them has to contribute in the learning tasks or take turns to help other members learn in the area that he/she is considered more capable. Some elder students volunteer to help the newly arrived NCS students revise for dictations or to read story books with them during recess or lunch break. The volunteers also benefit in the process of serving others as they have done more revision on their schoolwork.
“Realising everyone’s full potential” is one of the school’s major concerns.
Towards this end, the school is actively engaged in professional development activities with a view to exploring effective strategies at the organisation, curriculum and class/group levels.
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How Learner Diversity is Generally Addressed in Schools
• Schools in general attach great importance to catering for learner diversity in their development and resource planning. Most of them are making appropriate use of external and internal resources to design and implement strategies to cater for students’ diverse learning needs, such as the use of:
- curriculum adaptation;
- different grouping arrangements to facilitate instruction and learning and to enhance peer support among students;
- remedial and enrichment programmes to strengthen support for students at both ends of the ability spectrum;
- split/small-class teaching to give students more individual attention and support and to provide more opportunities for student interaction;
- technology to enhance motivation, facilitate learning, promote collaboration and support learning outside the classroom; and
- different modes of assessment to enable a better understanding of students’ learning progress and to inform learning and teaching.
• In some schools, external support is sought to build teachers’ professional capacity and to provide a wider range of learning experiences to meet students’ diverse needs.
Applied Learning Chinese (for NCS students)
Applied Learning Chinese (for NCS students) (ApL(C)) has been introduced to senior secondary non-Chinese speaking students since the 2014/15 school year. The ApL(C) results are reported as “Attained” and “Attained with Distinction” in the HKDSE. In addition to the HKDSE qualification, ApL(C) is also pegged at the Qualifications Framework Levels 1 – 3. ApL(C) enables students to learn practical Chinese for daily life and work, and obtain a recognised alternative Chinese language qualification for further studies and work.
ApL(C) is designed from the perspective of second language learners and provides a simulated applied learning context for students to learn Chinese through different modes of activities. In the language learning process, students apply reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in an integrative way and learn the target language in different contexts.
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5.3.3 School Curriculum Level
• Both the junior and senior secondary curricula should be broad and balanced, comprising the five essential learning experiences and covering the eight KLAs, in order to lay a solid foundation for students’ further studies, future careers and lifelong learning. With respect to the co-ordination of whole-school curriculum planning, schools are encouraged to plan their curricula strategically and promote collaboration between KLA/subject panels to address the diverse needs and interests of their students.
• Curriculum differentiation is of utmost importance in addressing learner diversity.
The central curriculum1 can be adapted according to students’ interests and abilities through adjusting the content
to be covered and designing different topics or units of varied levels of difficulty for students. For example, the foundation and non- foundation topics in the senior secondary Mathematics curriculum can help cater for the needs of students with a wide range of abilities. Students who are more interested in Mathematics can study
one of the two modules in the Extended Part, in addition to the Compulsory Part of the curriculum. Another example is the senior secondary English Language curriculum. Schools are advised to offer different elective modules with reference to their students’ needs, interests and abilities.
• A range of strategies can be adopted to cater for the diverse learning needs of students, to maximise the development of the more able students and to help the less able ones learn more effectively. For example, teachers may design enrichment activities for the more able students and adopt different groupings to help the less able students. Teachers can help realise the potential of students by learning about their strengths, facilitating the development of their multiple intelligences and providing multisensory experiences that match their preferences.
• To complement the learning experiences provided by KLAs and ApL, schools are encouraged to offer a wide range of life-wide learning (LWL) activities and Other Learning Experiences (OLE) to cater for students’ different needs, interests and aspirations. For example, instead of organising a large-scale community service activity for all S4 students, a variety of small-scale community service activities can be designed in accordance with students’ different interests, prior experiences, orientations and capabilities. These activities could include visits to care homes for
1 Central curriculum refers to the school curriculum recommended by the Curriculum Development Council. Please refer to the Glossary of this Guide for further details.
“Differentiated instruction is student- aware teaching. It is guided by the premise that schools should maximise student potential, not simply bring students to an externally established norm on a test.”
Tomlinson, 2008
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the elderly near the school and service programmes which provide opportunities for students to offer help to disadvantaged families or to clean up public beaches.
• Different assessment strategies, especially assessment for and as learning, can be adopted to inform and improve learning and teaching. Assessment practices can be adjusted with the use of different modes of assessment to find out the strengths and weaknesses of students. With a good understanding of students’ performance and needs, teachers can decide on the appropriate learning and teaching strategies to use and modify assignments to assess students of varied ability levels.
Applied Learning Courses –
Achievement Realised through Application and Practice, Leading to Multiple Pathways
Students taking a combination of ApL courses and elective subjects benefit from learning opportunities with a good balance of theory and practice, which broaden their knowledge base for further studies and career development. Some examples of the diverse articulation pathways are as follows:
A student who has taken the ApL course in Chinese medicine is admitted to a Bachelor of Chinese Medicine programme.
A student who has taken the ApL course in marketing is admitted to a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management programme.
A student who has taken the ApL course in film studies is admitted to a Higher Diploma in Film and Television programme.
A student who has taken the ApL course in hospitality services is admitted to an Associate Degree in Business (Business Management) programme.
A student who has taken the ApL course in aviation enters the workforce as an aircraft maintenance craftsman trainee.
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Provision of Applied Learning for Students’ Diversified Choice
Students can broaden their horizons and enhance their all-round development through taking elective subjects and ApL courses from different domains, e.g.
- a student who has taken the ApL course in film studies and the elective subjects History and Chemistry in combination benefits from the wide knowledge base in different domains and the learning activities that cultivate creativity; and
- a student who has taken the ApL course in Chinese medicine and the elective subjects Chinese History, Geography and Biology develops higher order thinking skills and better understanding of the relationship between different areas of studies, and widens the learning experiences through a combination of subjects from different domains.
Students can enhance the breadth and depth of their studies through taking elective subjects and related ApL courses, e.g.
- a student who has taken the ApL course in marketing and the elective subjects Business, Accounting and Financial Studies and Economics enriches the learning in all these subjects through opportunities to integrate
t d d l d d t di f th b i i t
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5.3.4 Class/Group Level
• At the class level, teachers should plan lessons flexibly to suit the needs of their students. They should make decisions about instruction based on the understanding of their students’ interests, progress, prior learning experiences and learning styles so that the instruction as well as the learning experiences provided can facilitate students’ acquisition of knowledge and development of generic skills, positive values and attitudes. The following strategies can be considered:
− Providing an inviting and secure learning environment that embraces and respects learner differences, engages students in setting and reviewing learning targets, promotes peer support and assessment, and encourages active learning, risk-taking, student collaboration and reflection;
− Gathering background information about students, including their interests, strengths and weaknesses, through personal contacts in and out of class, and more importantly, through ongoing formative assessment;
− Helping students understand their strengths and weaknesses, guiding them to set expectations which are reasonably high and attainable, and providing opportunities for them to achieve and experience success;
− Encouraging students to take the initiative in planning their learning, assume responsibility for their own learning, carry out their learning plans, take calculated risks and learn from mistakes;
− Adapting the curriculum to vary the level of difficulty and the content to be covered based on students’ different needs, interests and abilities so that the focus of support for students whose attainments fall below the expected level can be on consolidating and building on the knowledge they have previously acquired; and for students who reach high levels of achievement, more challenging work can be assigned;
− Varying the teaching approach, questioning technique and the amount and level of support provided (e.g. providing additional support such as using diagrams and other visuals to facilitate understanding, asking open-ended questions and varying the amount of prompting, using concrete examples to illustrate concepts for the less able students and symbolic language for the more able ones);
− Adopting multiple means of presentation to cater for different learning styles (e.g. integrating different approaches to presenting information to address the needs of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners);
− Using a variety of e-learning tools and resources to enable learning to take place beyond the classroom, to engage different types of students, and to enrich their learning experiences;
− Helping students develop information literacy skills to support their learning
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(i.e. skills to identify the need for information; to locate, organise, evaluate and present information; to use information effectively to construct knowledge; and above all, to use information ethically and responsibly);
− Developing learning communities where teachers can provide focused support for those in need and where students support each other’s learning as individual differences can enrich the interaction among students and promote classroom learning; and
− Being responsive to student performance and needs that may not be expected in the classroom and giving constructive feedback that supports learning and improvement.
• At the group level, teachers can consider the following strategies:
− Varying instructional grouping arrangements, e.g. adopting cross-level subject setting so that students can learn and be assessed at an appropriate level;
− Using flexible grouping arrangements and assigning different tasks to different students, individually or in small groups, in accordance with their abilities, interests and learning styles; and
− Adopting co-operative learning to develop positive interdependence among students, their individual accountability for learning, as well as their communication and collaboration skills.
• To provide further support for students, enrichment/remedial classes, pull-out programmes/activities and peer learning groups can be employed. The level of support provided can be adjusted to cater for the diverse needs of students and the differences in their abilities. IT resources including educational software packages and websites can be used to provide different levels of challenge for students and promote self-directed learning. Schools may also consider extending school hours to provide other extension or enrichment programmes.
(For more information on pedagogical approaches as well as learning, teaching and assessment strategies, please refer to Booklets 3 and 4.)
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5.4 Students with Special Educational Needs (SEN)
• SEN are only some of the many types of learner diversity in ordinary classrooms.
Students with SEN in secondary schools are entitled to the same opportunities as all other students for equal participation and learning, and should have the same range of learning experiences such as LWL opportunities, subject choices and OLE so that they can realise their potential.
• The EDB will, subject to the assessment and recommendation of specialists and with parents’ consent, refer students with more severe or multiple disabilities to special schools for intensive support services. Other students with SEN who can benefit from the mainstream curriculum may attend ordinary schools.
• Schools and teachers should address the learning needs of students with SEN and adopt accommodating measures to facilitate the development of their potential.
5.4.1 Types of SEN
• Generally, there are eight types of SEN as listed below:
− Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)
− Intellectual Disability (ID)
− Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
− Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)
− Physical Disability (PD)
− Visual Impairment (VI)
− Hearing Impairment (HI)
− Speech and Language Impairment (SLI)
• For detailed information regarding each type of SEN and the respective intervention strategies, please refer to Chapter 2 of the Operation Guide on The Whole School Approach to Integrated Education (IE Guide)
(http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/edu-
system/special/support/wsa/ie%20guide_en.pdf).
• Students with SEN can be different in their abilities and may require different environments and conditions for adaptation. They may also need different types and levels of individualised support based on their specific condition.
5.4.2 Whole-school Approach
• A whole-school approach is essential in catering for learner diversity. Through whole-school participation, teachers and other school personnel can work as a team and share responsibilities in catering for students’ diverse learning needs, including
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SEN. With the acceptance and support from schools, peers and parents, students with SEN will have a stronger sense of belonging and a better environment for effective learning.
• The school could:
− formulate policies to offer opportunities for all students to realise their potential;
− create an inclusive culture for students to understand and accept learner differences and develop mutual understanding, trust and respect; and
− deploy various resources flexibly to facilitate early identification and provide intervention for students with SEN.
5.4.2.1 Student Support System
• Schools should consider the following to support students with SEN:
− Set up a student support team with relevant school personnel and led by the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) to assist principal and vice- principal(s) in planning, co-ordinating and implementing the whole-school approach in supporting students with SEN. Principles and procedures for curriculum planning and adaptation, internal assessment policy and support measures for learning and teaching should be discussed in the course of school policy planning and formulation.
− Establish mechanisms for early identification and intervention for students with different learning needs, so that timely support can be provided and their potential maximised.
− Involve parents of students with SEN in the planning of their children’s learning, and seek understanding and support from parents of other students.
− Build cross-sector partnerships and solicit external support. For example, plan various training activities with other related professionals and specialists and invite a special school cum resource centre to provide support services.
(For details regarding suggestions for the setting up of a student support system and SENCO, please refer to Chapter 5 of the IE Guide and Education Bureau Circular No. 9/2017 respectively.)
5.4.2.2 Professional Development
• The school could:
− devise teacher professional development plans on addressing SEN and encourage teachers to attend structured training programmes;
− arrange school-based professional development programmes to equip teachers
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with knowledge and skills in supporting students with SEN; and
− promote experience sharing among teachers and different professionals and specialists.
5.4.3 Curriculum Adaptation
• The curriculum could be adapted to meet the needs of students with SEN with consideration given to the differences in their pace and style of learning.
• Schools could adopt a whole-school approach to helping all teachers make appropriate curriculum adaptation so that students with SEN have full access to the broad range of learning opportunities. Reference could be made to the following principles:
− Curriculum adaptation is not equivalent to trimming. Instead, it is about tailoring the learning objectives, content, materials, teaching strategies and learning environment for different subjects according to the learning needs of students with SEN.
− The support provided may need to vary from subject to subject, even for the same student, or in accordance with what is needed in a specific learning context.
− The focus should not be placed on students’ disabilities. Instead, consideration should be given to these students’ learning abilities and needs, such as their progress and way of learning.
− Schools should set realistic expectations with regard to the academic, social and affective development of students with SEN, while striving to provide a broad range of learning opportunities to maximise their potential.
• As to the strategies for curriculum adaptation, schools should consider the following:
− Differentiate the learning objectives and core learning contents of each KLA curriculum, so that students with SEN can find an appropriate starting point for their own learning.
− Understand the starting point of students with SEN and determine the scale of curriculum adaptation.
− Help students identify learning objectives, achievement targets and expected level of performance according to their prior knowledge, abilities and learning needs.
− Provide systematic accommodations that deal with the teaching content, learning process and outcomes.
− Design learning materials and worksheets of different levels of difficulty or formats to minimise obstacles to their learning.
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− Draw up Individual Education Plans (IEP) for students with SEN who are in need of intensive individualised support, and review the plans through regular meetings between teachers, parents, professionals and students themselves.
Example 2: Supporting Students with ID
Teachers of a secondary one class work collaboratively to support a student with ID.
To improve the students’ participation in the classroom, the teachers adapt the curriculum of each subject through extracting and selecting core learning contents which are closely related to the student’s daily life. In addition, multisensory teaching strategies such as visual, auditory and tactile means are adopted to help the student understand the content better.
5.4.4 Learning and Teaching Strategies
• Teachers need to understand students’ learning styles and adopt various teaching and remedial strategies to reinforce their participation in learning and enhance learning effectiveness. For exemplars on support measures and strategies for each type of SEN, please refer to Chapter 2 of the IE Guide.
• 3-tier support model:
− Schools should adopt the 3-tier support model (see Figure 5.2) to provide appropriate support and remove barriers to students’ learning.
Figure 5.2 3-Tier Support Model
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Appropriate classroom teaching strategies include:
- fostering a pleasant learning atmosphere in the classroom, creating opportunities for experiencing success, and enhancing students’ self- image, thereby increasing their motivation to learn;
- grouping students for co-operative learning and project work to facilitate their interaction with peers; arranging peer support if group work is needed for completion of assignments (e.g. project learning);
- designing various learning activities to maintain students’ interest in learning, develop their multiple intelligences and generic skills, and allow them to express themselves in various ways; providing more time and opportunities for hands-on practice to consolidate learning;
- giving simple, specific, concrete and step-by-step instructions and examples to facilitate understanding and provide scaffolding, and adopting multisensory and small-step teaching approaches;
- adjusting the time for completion of assignments and the amount required, and allowing students to highlight, circle or underline instead of writing out the text; and
- being accommodating and, without altering the content and objectives of the task, providing support (e.g. giving writing frames) to students with SEN who need extra support to complete the same task as other students.
Learning support include:
- Devices and tools: Provide assistive devices and appropriate learning tools (e.g. hearing aids for students with HI; magnifiers and low-vision aids for students with VI; larger grids for students with SpLD and PD;
checklists for students with AD/HD; picture cue-cards for students with ID, ASD and SLI).
- Group and peer guidance: Help students organise study groups and peer circles to enable students with different abilities to learn together and support each other.
- Enhancing learning strategies and skills: Teach students learning strategies such as reading strategies, questioning techniques, methods of organising notes, collecting and using learning resources to help them learn to learn. Teach them to organise learning content and set priorities.
Strengthen their time management and test-taking skills, and equip them with adequate IT skills for e-learning.
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Example 3: Supporting Students with ASD
A secondary student with ASD has strong ability in visual identification.
Her teacher adopts visual organisers and thinking tools such as mind maps and concept maps to help consolidate her learning. As the student is good at mathematics, she is assigned to be the peer tutor for lower form students to teach them how to solve mathematical problems. With the teacher’s facilitation, she is gradually able to apply the social skills learnt in the training group to get along with the lower form students and becomes a popular mathematics ambassador. She also has more confidence in the learning of other subjects.
IEP
- For students in need of intensive individualised support (Tier 3), IEP can be designed after thorough discussion with parents and professionals.
IEP contains long-term education goals, major short-term learning objectives, relevant teaching strategies, success criteria, persons responsible for implementation and dates of regular review.
- IEP should cover additional support in classroom settings for academic learning as well as additional training outside lessons. The class teachers and subject teachers concerned then execute the plans and provide appropriate support while home-school co-operation is needed for their implementation at home.
- Where appropriate, the student concerned can be invited to participate in the planning process of the IEP. It will help him/her better understand his/her strengths and weaknesses, motivate him/her to have higher self- expectations and make effort in achieving the goals, and enhance his/her sense of ownership in learning. For details on IEP, please refer to Chapter 6 of the IE Guide.
Example 4: Involving Students in their IEP
Experience suggests that involving students in the planning process of the IEP is a pivotal step to successful implementation of the plan.
A secondary school invites a student to attend part of every IEP meeting to foster his ownership in the process. Before the meeting, the student is well-informed of the functions of an IEP and his role as an equal participant in the meeting. His views on his learning strengths, needs, concerns and goals are well considered in the IEP meeting. He is also involved in the process of reviewing the goals, objectives and progress, so that he knows what he is going to work on.
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5.4.5 Assessment
• The objectives of assessment are to explore students’ strengths and advancements, to raise their motivation and interest, to enhance their learning, and to display their learning outcomes to celebrate their progress in learning. Appropriate assessment tasks should be designed to address students’ SEN.
• Various forms of assessment should be employed to capture a comprehensive picture of students’ performance and capabilities, e.g. School-based Assessment (SBA), Student Learning Profile (SLP).
• Formative assessment
− Formative assessment refers to the ongoing assessment of students’ learning and their progress in the learning process. It can help teachers adjust their teaching methods, the lesson content and learning objectives and provide students with opportunities to experience success so that their motivation to learn can be sustained.
− Schools should conduct various types of formative assessment that take into consideration students’ SEN.
− Other than written presentations, assessments can be in the form of oral tests, project learning, learning profiles, presentations with pictures or charts, etc.
All these can be adopted to collect evidence of learning and enable students to demonstrate their learning progress.
Example 5: Supporting Students with SpLD and VI
In one school, a secondary student with SpLD demonstrates great difficulty in generating ideas, retrieving words and combining sentences into organised paragraphs when handling writing tasks. His Chinese teacher allows him to first record his writing assignments on a voice recorder and grants additional time for him to transcribe them with the help of classmates and/or family members. The teacher also encourages the class to work in small groups to conduct brainstorming, revising, editing and proofreading. When marking his writing, the teacher focuses on the quality and key messages of the content and avoids deducting too many marks for wrong words or poor handwriting.
Another school allows flexibility and makes accommodations for a visually impaired secondary student to learn and demonstrate her ability. The student is provided with equipment to enable her to enlarge the details of graphs for easy viewing. The notes and worksheets are also enlarged. At times when she has to practise making measurements, she is provided with additional time to complete her assignments. Additional training on the use of Chinese input methods is also provided to equip her with skills to present answers and thoughts with a computer.
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• Special examination arrangements
− The learning progress of students with SEN should be assessed in the same way as other students to maintain the fairness and the objectives of summative assessment while special arrangements are made to accommodate their specific needs.
− For subjects not requiring assessment of language skills, different ways of answering questions for tapping thinking rather than writing skills and practical work to replace written/oral descriptions of steps and procedures could be considered.
− Students must be given appropriate opportunities to practise using the special arrangement(s) (e.g. using a screen reader) before the examination.
Example 6: Supporting Students with SpLD
For students with SpLD having severe word reading difficulties, the school concerned may consider reading the questions to them or providing them with a screen reader which is a text-to-speech software application.
For students with SpLD who also suffer from developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) and whose writing speed is extremely slow or handwriting is illegible, the school may consider allowing them to use the computer as a tool for writing, and arranging another person to write down their answers.
Example 7: Supporting students with ASD
The performance of students with ASD is often affected by their obstinate behaviour, such as refusal to answer questions when they have difficulty in understanding what is expected of them or when they cannot finish their examination papers within the specified time because of repeated corrections for neat writing. The teachers responsible for invigilation should pay attention to their behaviour, be more accommodating and offer guidance to them patiently when necessary. Assessment instructions must be simple, direct, clear and with concrete examples. Long questions can be chunked into small guided parts. If necessary, diagrams and signs which are familiar to students can be included in examination papers to help these students identify the various parts, understand the questions and the procedures of testing.
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• SBA
− As suggested by the HKEAA, schools can provide special arrangements in accordance with the type and severity of students’ SEN to enable them to complete assignments or activities in an appropriate environment and to be equitably assessed.
− For example, teachers may flexibly arrange the frequency of submitting SBA assignments in such a way that some students could focus on a smaller scope each time, or allow choices of presenting the Independent Enquiry Study (IES) in either written or non-written (e.g. video) form.
Special Arrangements for Internal Examination
Please refer to the following hyperlinks for the principles and suggestions on internal examination arrangements for students with SEN.
English version:
https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/major- level-of-edu/special-educational-needs/supporting-
resources/SpecialExamArrangement_20181210_en.pdf
Chinese version:
https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/curriculum-development/major- level-of-edu/special-educational-needs/supporting-
resources/SpecialExamArrangement_20181210.pdf
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5.4.6 Resources and Support Services
5.4.6.1 Resources
• Reference materials and resource kits:
- The EDB has prepared a number of guidelines and resource kits to help teachers support students with SEN. Some of them are listed below for reference:
- Reference materials
認 識及 幫助 有特殊 教育 需要 的兒童 –教 師指 引 (2001) (Chinese version only)
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/about-edb/publications- stat/publication/sen_guide.pdf
Operation Guide on The Whole School Approach to Integrated Education (2014)
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/edu- system/special/support/wsa/ie guide_en.pdf
Special Arrangements for Internal Examinations for Students with Special Educational Needs (2015)
https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/major-level-of-edu/special-educational- needs/supporting-
resources/SpecialExamArrangement_20181210_en.pdf
Whole School Approach – Principles and Strategies for Assessment (2004) http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-
development/major-level-of-edu/special-educational- needs/supporting-resources/assessment_e1.pdf
Whole School Approach – Principles and Strategies for Setting Homework (2004)
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/major-level-of-edu/special-educational- needs/supporting-resources/home_e1.pdf
- Resource kits
勇寫無懼‧讀創高峰 – 中一至中三讀寫教材光碟(綜合修訂版) (2011) (Chinese version only)
《詞彙策略輕鬆學 閱讀寫作添歡樂》詞彙學習資源套 (2017) (Chinese version only)
https://www.hkedcity.net/sen/sli/training/page_516792c825b719067b0a0 000
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跨越障礙 如何輔導有讀寫困難的中學生 (2009) (Chinese version only)
http://www.hkedcity.net/sen/spld/basic/page_53cce5d9903443d44c0000 00
讀寫易：初中中文讀寫輔助教材 (2010) (Chinese version only)
• Special Education Resource Centre (SERC)
− The EDB has set up a resource centre for special education teachers, and generated a data-base and a network providing different resources and information for special education personnel.
− Information about the SERC is available at:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-
system/special/resources/serc/index.html
5.4.6.2 Support Services
• Ordinary Schools – Whole School Approach to Integrated Education
− The 3-tier Support Model
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/special/support/wsa/3-tier- model.html
− Teacher Professional Development on Catering for Students with SEN
− Professional support services (e.g. school-based educational psychology service, speech therapy service, student guidance service, school network support)
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/special/support/wsa/pro- support/index.html
− Parent and public education
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/special/support/wsa/public- edu/index.html
• School Partnership Scheme
− Special schools and ordinary schools are invited to serve as Special Schools cum Resource Centres (SSRC) and Resource Schools on Whole School Approach (RS-WSA) respectively.
− Special Schools form partners with ordinary schools and share with them their knowledge and practices in supporting students with SEN. The partnership aims at empowering ordinary schools to cater for students’ diverse needs through cross-fertilisation of expertise and networking.
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• Special Schools
− Under the current education policy, the EDB will, subject to the assessment and recommendation of specialists and with parents’ consent, refer students with more severe or multiple disabilities to special schools for intensive support services. For details, please visit the “Education Bureau – Special Education” webpage:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/special/support- subsidy/special-school/index.html
5.5 Gifted Students
5.5.1 Gifted Education (GE) in Hong Kong
Dual purpose of GE in Hong Kong
- Gifted education (GE) in Hong Kong should not be interpreted as educational provision only to serve a small number of highly able students. Rather, it is to serve the needs of all students to fully realise their potential.
- GE in Hong Kong thus embraces the dual purposes below:
Gifted education for all – Provide rich learning experiences through diversified programmes and provisions to nurture students’ potential; and
Education for the gifted – Provide special learning experiences for identified gifted students to enhance their performance and achievements.
Definition of Giftedness
The Education Commission Report No.4 (1990) advised the adoption of a broad definition for gifted children who are described as children with exceptional achievements or potential in one or more of the following:
- a high level of measured intelligence;
- specific academic aptitude in a subject area;
- creative thinking;
- superior talent in visual and performing arts;
- natural leadership of peers, i.e. with high ability to move others to achieve common goals; and
- psychomotor ability, i.e. outstanding performance or ingenuity in athletics, mechanical skills or other areas requiring gross or fine motor co-ordination.
Understanding the needs of gifted students
Teachers should understand the specific learning and developmental needs of gifted students, so as to offer appropriate guidance to individual gifted students to stretch their potential.
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By adopting the Three-Tier Implementation Model (see Figure 5.3), we hope to:
- prepare gifted students to embrace the challenges of the 21st century by maximising their potential;
- help gifted students set high self-expectations and support them in striving to excel for self-actualisation and the well-being of humankind;
- prepare gifted students to engage in productive and fulfilling life and work by developing their positive values and attitudes, in addition to equipping them with skills and knowledge, through the provision of enrichment and extension activities;
- empower gifted students to read and write effectively to develop high cognitive academic language proficiency as well as research skills;
- develop gifted students’ ability to use information effectively to construct knowledge and enable them to see the importance of the ethical use of information; and
- extend the multiple talents of gifted students in science, technology and mathematics through integrative learning and application of knowledge and skills.
(Remarks: These goals are suitable for all students. For gifted students, differentiated strategies should be adopted properly to address their specific needs, and thus, to prepare them for higher achievements.)
Positioning and Implementation of GE in Hong Kong
- Provision for gifted students is virtually a means of catering for learner diversity.
- Schools are encouraged to adopt the Three-Tier Implementation Model (see Figure 5.3) to plan and implement their school-based provision.
For more reference materials on the characteristics of gifted students, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-
development/major-level-of-edu/gifted/guidelines-on-school-based- gifted-development-programmes/app_2-eng_3641.pdf
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Figure 5.3 Three-Tier Implementation Model for the Implementation of GE
Recent landmarks in the development of GE in Hong Kong:
- Since 2007: The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE) has been set up to further strengthen Level 3 off-school provision for gifted students nominated by schools, and to enhance support for their teachers, parents and research.
- Since 2012: A Professional Development Framework in GE has been developed to state explicitly the professional development pathway for teachers who are interested in GE.
- Since 2013: Different stakeholders from the tertiary sector have been networked in a GE alliance to exchange views for enriching the provision for gifted students. A student programme database has been established to provide a one-stop information bank for gifted students.
- Since 2016: The School Self-enhancing Tool (SSET) has been developed to provide a reference tool for schools so that they can review and improve their school-based GE provision.
- Since 2016: The Gifted Education Fund (GE Fund) has been set up to generate investment returns to support the operation of the HKAGE.
- Since 2017: The Advisory Committee on Gifted Education has been set up to advise the Secretary for Education on the use and management of the GE Fund.
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Identification of gifted students
- The purpose of identification is to select the target students for appropriate placement in gifted provisions. The key principles for identification include the following:
Use multiple criteria appropriately to identify groups of students for provision.
Recognise that the tools being used for identification are a means and not an end in supporting gifted students; hence it is important to adopt an on- going identification approach.
Adopt flexible and inclusive identification methods, with special attention given to the ways in which students of different gender, cultural or family backgrounds, and students with learning disabilities, may demonstrate their giftedness.
- Examples of identification models include nominations from teachers, parents and/or self, academic and non-academic achievements, student portfolios and their performance in competitions.
Gifted underachievers
- It is important to recognise that not all gifted students are obvious achievers.
Many are actually underachievers and their potential is masked by factors such as frustration, low self-esteem, lack of challenge, perfectionism, being afraid to accept failures and low teacher/parent expectations (Richert, 1991).
- Schools play a significant role in enhancing gifted underachievers’ sense of self-respect, awareness and application of self-reflection in the learning processes, which often helps reverse underachievement.
- Learning support at Level 1 is crucial for gifted underachievers because they may be late bloomers who can catch up with other gifted counterparts if they have more opportunities and support to nurture their giftedness in regular classes.
- Some gifted students may also have learning disabilities at the same time (twice exceptional). Special attention should be paid to these students so that their talents could not be masked by their learning disabilities.
For more details on identification tools, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of- edu/gifted/guidelines-on-school-based-gifted-development-
programmes/appendices.html
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Reflective Questions
What is the school-based provision for gifted students in your school in the academic and other domains?
What is your school’s vision and mission in realising and developing the potential of higher ability students?
5.5.2 GE in Practice at the Secondary Level
Based on current practices, the following strategies and follow-ups are deemed essential for effective implementation of GE in secondary schools.
Acknowledging and sharing of the need for gifted education amongst all staff within the school.
- The rationale and goals of school-based gifted education are explained to all staff through various means such as professional development programmes, sharing from GE experts and fellow teachers from other schools.
- This is to establish consensus among all staff about the importance and need for school-based provision for gifted or more able students so as to prepare them for subsequent implementation of GE programmes.
Setting up a designated Gifted Education Team (GET)
- A designated team can plan holistically the school-wide provision and co- ordinate the implementation and further development.
- Headed by a senior and experienced staff member (e.g. a GE Manager or Co- ordinator), the GET can involve the curriculum leaders, KLA co-ordinators and student guidance personnel to ensure comprehensive coverage of provision.
- The GET should be responsible for formulating the school-based GE policy;
steering and monitoring the implementation of the policy; evaluating the various tasks and programmes prescribed in the policy; and advising school management on further development or the implementation of new initiatives.
- The GET plans strategically different professional development programmes to equip teachers for the provision of school-based gifted education.
- The GET engages different stakeholders (e.g. the parents) in different relevant aspects of the school-based gifted education.
Formulating a school-based GE policy
- A school-based GE policy fosters the development of a common language and consensus among teachers on how to cater for gifted students holistically in the long run.
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Establishing a talent pool: rationale and practice
- A talent pool is a group of selected students ready to be nominated to attend Levels 2 and 3 gifted programmes.
- These students are selected based on certain criteria covering their intellectual ability, creativity, commitment to tasks and achievement.
- According to Renzulli and Gaesser (2015), there are three important considerations before schools attempt to form a talent pool of gifted students:
Professional development to enhance teachers’ understanding of the characteristics of gifted students and the identification tools;
Decision on the size of the talent pool in view of the availability of resources; and
The types of programme that can be offered to those students in the pool.
Planning for holistic curriculum development
− To plan school-based provision holistically, both the vertical dimension (i.e.
from Level 1 to Levels 2 and 3) and the horizontal dimension (i.e. from generic to domain-specific) of programme development should be taken into consideration, and so should the changing school/societal needs or the focal points of the ongoing renewal of the school curriculum. For example, IT in education, STEM education and values education are essential elements to be included for the comprehensive development of school-based GE programmes.
− The vertical dimension
Level 1 provision – Differentiation in the regular classroom
High quality differentiation in Level 1 provision can address the diverse needs of students in the regular classroom in regard to the learning and For an example of a school-based GE policy and the key elements it
comprises, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/major-level-of-edu/gifted/secg/Link-2.pdf
For the eight tips for building a school-based talent pool, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/
major-level-of-edu/gifted/secg/Link-3.pdf
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teaching environment, process and the products of learning in different ways.
- Level 2 provision – Pull-out programmes for gifted students
Pull-out programmes should serve as the extension or enrichment of the regular classroom learning for gifted or higher ability students.
For the guiding principles and examples of differentiation in the regular classroom, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/major-level-of-edu/gifted/secg/Link-4.pdf
For more examples of curriculum differentiation in different KLAs, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum-development/
major-level-of-edu/gifted/secg/Link-5.pdf
For the resources of gifted programmes at level 2, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/major- level-of-edu/gifted/resources_and_support/l_and_t/index.html
Equalizer
Dr Carol Tomlinson, one of the leading scholars of gifted education, suggested that teachers not only have to consider the students’ ability when designing differentiated learning activities and assignments but also their learning style and readiness. She has developed a graphic tool called
“Equalizer” which comprises eight dimensions describing the activities and assignments. These dimensions may vary from concrete to abstract, slow to fast, simple to complex, basic to transformational, single faceted to multifaceted, small leaps to great leaps, more structured to more open, less independent to more independent. Please refer to the book How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (2nd edition) for more information about the Equalizer.
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- Level 3 provision – Off-school enrichment
Enrichment programmes offered by professional bodies/universities/ non- governmental organisations including the HKAGE serve to provide opportunities for more advanced learning to further stretch the gifted students with promising performance in Level 2 programmes.
- Level 1, 2 or 3 only serves as a particular entry point for school-based GE provision. It is not necessary for schools to start from Level 1, and then proceed to Levels 2 and 3.
− The horizontal dimension
Teachers need to support gifted students in mastering different generic skills in regular classroom learning or pull-out programmes so that they can employ the skills to pursue excellence in disciplinary and transdisciplinary studies in order to enhance learning effectiveness in different domains.
Affective education for gifted students
- Generally, gifted students tend to demonstrate a number of common affective characteristics which include hyper-sensitivity to views and comments, exhibition of perfectionism and concerns of ethics of the world around them.
Addressing their affective needs would have great impact on their adjustment to the school environment, career and life planning as well as time- management.
For the resources of gifted programmes at level 3, please visit the following website:
http://edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of- edu/gifted/resources_and_support/competitions/index.html
For some authentic examples that illustrate the different entry points for school-based GE provision, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/curriculum- development/major-level-of-edu/gifted/secg/Link-7.pdf
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- To address the affective needs of gifted students, schools should give due attention to the nurturing of the seven priority values and attitudes (i.e.
perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national identity, commitment, integrity and care for others) as well as other qualities such as self-esteem and empathy, in their vision and mission, school policy, and design of the school curriculum including life-wide learning activities.
- For more information on the affective characteristics, reasons for underachievement of gifted students and possible intervention strategies, please refer to the booklet Addressing the Emotional and Behavioural Problems of Gifted Students in Regular Classroom (資優生情意輔導攻略) (Chinese version only) published by the Gifted Education Section of the EDB.
The booklet is available at:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/curriculum-development/
major-level-of-edu/gifted/resources_and_support/ge_resource_bank/
files/affectiveEdu/AE_SurvivalKit.pdf
STEM education for gifted students
- Hong Kong students have long been performing well in international studies, assessments and competitions in sciences, technology and mathematics domains. Schools should therefore build on the strengths and provide necessary support to students with good potential in these areas.
- Gifted students generally enjoy taking up challenges and tackling authentic problems of the world. Promoting STEM education can provide the essential platform and necessary opportunities for gifted students to strengthen their ability to integrate and apply knowledge and skills across different subject disciplines through solving daily life problems with practical solutions and innovative designs.
- STEM education also promotes entrepreneurial spirit amongst students.
Many gifted students are also creative, and can apply their talents, advanced knowledge and skills to design innovative products that can be of commercial value. With support from relevant professional bodies, the commercial sector or even the government, these products can be patented and the gifted students can become young entrepreneurs.
- For more information on STEM education for gifted students, please visit the following website:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/major-level-of- edu/gifted/resources_and_support/l_and_t/gs_st/index.html
