***************************************************
The Curriculum Development Institute (CDI) of the Education Bureau will provide about 700 Professional Development Programmes (PDPs) in the 2009-10 school year to cater for the needs of more than 50,000 school heads and teachers of secondary and primary schools and pre-primary institutions in Hong Kong in implementing the curriculum reform for the benefit of students.
As informed by the interim survey on the Curriculum Reform in 2008, the PDPs to be offered in the 2009-10 school year will cover themes that are given priority in the curriculum reform (such as promoting reading across the curriculum, catering for learner diversity, managing curriculum interface issues between secondary and primary schools, strengthening curriculum leadership and management for effective implementation). A number of thematic seminar series such as "Enhance Students' Competencies against Psychotropic Substances Abuse" and "Explore Shanghai Expo and Understand our Motherland" programmes for secondary schools will also be organised to sustain and deepen the positive impact of curriculum reform in schools.
For primary schools and pre-primary institutions, the bureau has particularly strengthened the programmes on sharpening 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 students' development and learning. These PDPs will provide 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 prepare schools for successful implementation of the NSS curriculum.
The PDPs have always been well received by schools as they help schools to plan their annual whole-school as well as individual teachers' staff development plans. They support teachers and schools to sustain reform in basic education and to prepare for the new academic structure to be introduced in coming September.
Information on some student activities provided by different organisations is appended 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 2009-10 school year can be accessed on the CDI websites (www.edb.gov.hk/cd/pdp/sec) and (www.edb.gov.hk/cd/pdp/pri) for secondary and primary programmes respectively. The printed version in the form of booklets will be delivered to schools shortly.
Further details of the PDPs will be uploaded by stages onto the Training Calendar System of the Education Bureau (http://tcs.edb.gov.hk).
Ends/Monday, July 6, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:23
NNNN
