*********************************************************
The Curriculum Development Institute of the Education and Manpower Bureau will provide 645 Professional Development Programmes (PDPs) in the 2007-08 school year to cater for the various needs of more than 50,000 heads and teachers of secondary and primary schools and pre-primary institutions in Hong Kong in delivering curriculum reform for the benefit of students.
"The planning of the programmes this year has taken on board the feedback collected in previous years, and the objectives, contents, delivery modes and duration of the programmes are designed to suit the different needs of teachers," a bureau spokesman said today (June 29).
For primary schools and pre-primary institutions, the bureau has particularly strengthened the programmes on the sharpening of teachers' understanding and mastery of curriculum planning and implementation, as well as consolidation of teachers' mastery of effective learning, teaching and assessment strategies to enhance children development and learning. These PDPs will provide the necessary knowledge and skills that facilitate school-based curriculum development.
For secondary schools, the programmes will focus more on interfacing with new senior secondary (NSS) education, especially on understanding and interpreting the curricula, assessing student learning, learning and teaching strategies as well as enriching knowledge. These PDPs will be conducive to the successful migration to NSS.
The information is well received by schools as it helps the development of annual staff development plan for schools and individual teachers - a form of support to teachers and schools to sustain reform in basic education and to prepare for the new academic structure to be introduced in 2009.
Essential information of some student activities provided by different organisations is appended for the first time this year to facilitate early planning of student learning activities related to Key Learning Areas and Life-wide Learning in schools to achieve the learning goals set out by schools.
The overview of the PDPs and student activities for the 2007-08 school year can be accessed on the CDI website http://emb.gov.hk/cd. The printed version in the form of booklets will be delivered to schools in July.
Further details of each PDP will be uploaded by stages onto the Training Calendar System (TCS) of the future Education Bureau (http://tcs.edb.gov.hk).
Ends/Friday, June 29, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:07
NNNN
