Course List

This course aims to enhance participants' understanding of Chinese Language teaching at primary level and to help them achieve quality teaching.  Major topics covered include: the rationale and content of the primary curriculum, the theory and practice of children’s character learning, reading, listening, writing and speaking; the design of teaching units and lessons; language teaching strategies; design of diverse activities, and language assessment.

This course seeks to equip teachers of English Language with the skills necessary for future self-development in the face of changing theories of language and language teaching/learning by offering a foundation in both areas, together with practical experience of classroom teaching, action research, self evaluation and the design, implementation and evaluation of the language curriculum.  The following topics are also covered:
( 1 ) the teaching of grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing;
( 2 ) preparing students for public examinations;
( 3 ) student motivation, cooperative learning and the roles of spoken and written discourse in the language learning process;
( 4 ) planning the language learning process and units within it; and
( 5 ) the needs of remedial and ‘mixed ability’ language learners.

This introductory course of primary mathematics pedagogy is designed to familiarise students with both the theoretical framework and the professional practice of becoming effective mathematics teachers. Through the notion of teachers as reflective practitioners, it will empower the participants with both the theoretical rigour and the passion for further professional development in their teaching career. More specifically, this course covers the following areas:
( 1 ) professional development of mathematics teachers,
( 2 ) objectives and framework of primary school mathematics curriculum,
( 3 ) planning of mathematics lessons,
( 4 ) strategies, methods and techniques of teaching mathematics,
( 5 ) use of physical and digital resources for teaching primary mathematics,
( 6 ) learning and teaching of selected topics in primary mathematics,
( 7 ) assessment and diagnosis methods for primary mathematics, and
( 8 ) mathematics-related activities. 

This course aims at equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes in teaching General Studies (GS) in primary schools. The course covers the following areas:
( 1 ) framework and content of the GS curriculum;
( 2 ) curriculum integration and interdisciplinary approach in curriculum planning;
( 3 ) basic theory of learning and instruction;
( 4 ) planning and practicing activity approach;
( 5 ) inquiry learning and teaching;
( 6 ) applications of ICT in GS;
( 7 ) practical teaching skills;
( 8 ) assessment in GS;
( 9 ) STEM education in GS. 

This course focuses on the following topics:
( 1 ) Music learning theories;
( 2 ) Teaching integrative music activities: Creating, Performing and Listening;
( 3 ) World renowned music education methods;
( 4 ) Hong Kong music curriculum, lesson planning and assessment ;
( 5 ) Recent trend in music teaching;
( 6 ) Fostering a positive learning environment for students;
( 7 ) Music subject administrative work etc.

This course aims at equipping students with the necessary knowledge and skills to be an effective and qualified visual arts teacher or even a panel head in primary school. As a qualified visual arts teacher, they should be familiar with the present visual arts curriculum and hence they can tailor-make and provide school-based curriculum to different students.

According to the Education Bureau of HKSAR, primary education provides a balanced and diverse school education that helps students build up knowledge, values and skills for personal growth. This course aims to foster local primary PE teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills with regard to the planning, implementation and evaluation of an effective and complete PE program that is relevant to the school situation and suitable for the local primary school students of various ages, capabilities, and interest. The content of this course consists of:
( 1 ) pedagogy of Primary Physical Education,
( 2 ) curriculum guidelines and planning of primary physical education,
( 3 ) the Laban's Movement Analysis Framework - fundamental movement skills,
( 4 ) basic knowledge on health and fitness,
( 5 ) motivation for participating in physical activities.
For nurturing educators in the 21st century, this course prepares them to be all-rounder for adapting the ever-changing teaching environment nowadays.

This course provides a brief introduction to primary mathematics pedagogy. It is designed for students who are interested in mathematics learning and teaching. More specifically, this course covers the following areas:
( 1 ) objectives and framework of primary school mathematics curriculum,
( 2 ) planning of mathematics lessons,
( 3 ) strategies, methods and techniques of teaching mathematics,
( 4 ) use of teaching resources for teaching primary mathematics,
( 5 ) assessment and diagnosis methods for primary mathematics, and
( 6 ) learning and teaching of selected topics in primary mathematics.  

This course aims at equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes in teaching General Studies (GS) in primary schools. The course covers the following areas:
( 1 ) framework and content of the GS curriculum;
( 2 ) curriculum integration and interdisciplinary approach in curriculum planning;
( 3 ) inquiry learning and teaching;
( 4 ) applications of ICT in GS; and
( 5 ) STEM education in GS.

This course seeks to equip the students with knowledge and techniques of theories of language and language teaching.  The following topics are also covered: development of Hong Kong society and language planning, language and culture, Putonghua curriculum development, instructional materials development, teaching of listening, speaking, reading and writing, design of learning task, design and use of teaching tools, evaluation of Putonghua proficiency, etc. Student must reach satisfactory proficiency in Putonghua before taking the course.

This course focuses on the following topics:
( 1 ) Music learning theories;
( 2 ) Teaching integrative music activities: Creating, Performing and Listening;
( 3 ) World renowned music education methods;
( 4 ) Hong Kong music curriculum, lesson planning and assessment etc.

This course aims at equipping students with the necessary knowledge and skills to be a qualified visual arts teacher in primary school. As a qualified visual arts teacher, they should be familiar with the present visual arts curriculum and hence they can tailor-make and provide school-based curriculum to different students.

This course aims at introducing the key concepts and techniques of curriculum development which involves designing, implementing and evaluating a curriculum.  In order to help student teachers understand the present curriculum development situation in Hong Kong and identify ways of improving it, current issues in curriculum development in primary schools will be discussed.

Contrary to common belief, student activities are not “supplementary” to school curriculum. They comprise an indispensable part of the school curriculum and often a significant part of students’ memories of school life. As the Hong Kong school curriculum reforms, greater significance is focused on extra-curricular, academic, cross-curricular, integrated curricular and life-wide learning activities. Organizing student activities is an integral duty of educators nowadays, and it is a pre-requisite that they know how to design and implement student activities that are both safe and meaningful. This course aims to equip students with knowledge and skills required in design and implementation of student activities. The ultimate goal is to enhance both the processes and outcomes of student activities in the school curriculum and meet educational expectations on student learning through activities. Another aim is to heighten students’ awareness of safety and insurance issues in risk assessment through class activities.

Knowing well about different teaching strategies can facilitate teachers’ professional development and enhance the effectiveness of their classroom teaching. This course provides students an overview of diverse teaching strategies and pedagogical orientations, such as information-processing model, personal model, social interaction model, behavioral model, constructivist teaching and transformative pedagogy. This course also offers opportunities for students to critically reflect on their pedagogical orientations and the common practices in their real-life teaching experiences, and explore how to improve classroom teaching in local contexts.

The advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) provides teachers and students with new teaching and learning opportunities. This course aims to equip participants with both pedagogical knowledge and technical skills to integrate ICT into the process of teaching and learning of subject matter in primary education. More importantly, participants will learn how to integrate their technological, pedagogical and content knowledge with reference to students’ characteristics and school contexts to design ICT-enhanced lesson. The underlying thinking capacity that this course emphasizes is design thinking, which helps the participants to become a designer of learning environments.

Curriculum evaluation is concerned with collecting evidence to make judgments about the value and quality of curriculum plans, implementation processes and learning outcomes. This course aims to facilitate pre-service or in-service teachers to improve teaching through better evaluation of school curricula. Topics include:
( 1 ) the concept and importance of school curriculum evaluation;
( 2 ) evaluating the quality of curriculum guides and textbooks;
( 3 ) evaluating the implementation of curricula in schools;
( 4 ) designing assessment tasks to evaluate student learning;
( 5 ) strategies for facilitating teachers to do self-evaluation;
( 6 ) methods of evaluating school-based curricula.

This course aims to train students in writing research papers.  Students are required to do research projects on approved topics individually or in small groups under the supervision of a lecturer. (For part-time students only, and with permission of the Faculty)

Schooling is an integral part of modern society. As active participants and contributors of this modern institution, teachers should have a thorough understanding of their roles in school organization and process of schooling. This course is designed to facilitate understanding of school organization and the nature of this process. It explores the nature of school organization and important dimensions of the schooling process from different perspectives:
( 1 ) At classroom level, in the form of teacher-student interaction;
( 2 ) At organizational level, in the form of school structure and culture;
( 3 ) At societal level, in the form of socializing and stratifying mechanism;
( 4 ) At cultural level, in the form of selection and transmission of knowledge.

This course aims to help prospective teachers to gain an understanding of the Hong Kong education system in relation to their occupational well-being and working environment. It is designed to provide prospective teachers with analytical tools to comprehend and review educational policies and their implementation. Educational issues and policies in Hong Kong will be analyzed from an international-comparative perspective and a local concern for efficiency and equity. With a brief historical background, the empirical analysis of policies will begin with the 1982 Llewellyn Report and then extend to other educational policy papers and reports. Topics for analysis may include:
( 1 ) the school system and the curriculum;
( 2 ) allocation, selection and examination;
( 3 ) technical and vocational education;
( 4 ) quality in school,
( 5 ) gender and class differentials in education; and
( 6 ) teacher education and qualification.

This introductory course aims to explicate the philosophical, historical, social, psychological & pedagogical foundations of citizenship education, particularly in the five key domains of human rights, rule of law, democracy, nation-state, and globalization.  Also, it serves to illuminate the limitations & possibilities of Hong Kong situations. The topics likely to be covered in the course are:
( 1 ) basic political concepts related to citizenship;
( 2 ) different approaches to citizenship education;
( 3 ) an examination of policy and orientation in Hong Kong school education in the light of a historical-comparative perspective;
( 4 ) citizenship in the formal curriculum; and
( 5 ) citizenship in the informal curriculum.

This course employs comparative approaches to analyze educational changes among Chinese societies.  An emphasis is placed on the investigation of major reform issues in the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan, and includes reference to the developmental experiences of Macau.  These issues are also of major interest to educational reformers in Hong Kong.  The course will include the following topics:
( 1 ) the pursuit of quality education;
( 2 ) curriculum reform and curriculum integration;
( 3 ) reform in teaching and teacher professionalism;
( 4 ) decentralization and school-based management; and
( 5 ) the expansion of higher education. 
By drawing insights from the reforms within and across societal contexts, the course aims to discern implications for the general reform movement as well as teaching and learning in Hong Kong.

As instituted: “This course aims to help teachers to reflect on their own values and on the ways they teach values, especially moral values, in school. Among other important considerations, students are asked whether teachers should teacher their own values in the classroom, and whether this is indeed inevitable. Taking education as a means aiming at nurturing human qualities for the sake of personal and social well-being, the course examines a range of values such as truth, beauty, goodness and sageness/ saintlness as embodied in ‘whole-person education’. The course holds that education is unavoidably value-laden and that moral values form an important core of the aims of schooling. During the course students will discuss the nature of morality and a number of important approaches to moral education, and then compare these to other types of values education. Students will also be asked to reflect upon how they understand their own personal and professional development in relation to values and moral education and how to enact their various roles in the school.” Topics included please see the lecture outline.

The school context in Hong Kong has become increasingly complicated. The social and policy environment after 1997 is exerting a great impact on education. Part of this impact is that teachers risk facing litigations or their rights being evaded if they are not careful and guarded enough in their daily school lives. In order to reduce these risks, this module will introduce some of the most significant legal issues that arise in primary and secondary schools and their implications for teachers. The module will: i) explore evolving legal standards on a variety of issues including employment, school safety, student discipline, student well-being, infringement of copyright, free speech, services for students with special education needs and non-Chinese learners, sexual harassment, and violence and bullying; ii) examine educational, political, ethical, and administrative questions that legal issues often generate; iii) draw on real cases and legal/policy dilemmas that teachers are facing; and iv) provide teachers with knowledge and skills they need to make sound decisions, advance important educational objectives, and minimize legal problems.

Teachers are expected to play an increasingly important role in the education reform process. Shifting expectations require teachers to have a firm understanding of how schools operate and how reforms affect their roles both in and outside of the classroom. To effectively reshape their work in line with growing expectations teachers must commit to career long professional development and consider strategies for maximizing their effectiveness, especially in terms of learning and teaching. This course is designed to help teachers to understand and shape their roles in a reform environment. In other words it aims to help teachers to become leaders of their own professionalism. It does this in two ways, first it helps teachers understand life in schools undergoing reform and the affect this can have on their professional life. Topics covered in this area include organizational culture, micropolitics, organizational behaviour and teacher leadership. The second thrust aims to nurture teacher awareness of their own professional growth and how they can maximize the latest opportunities available in this area.  Topics covered in this area include models of teacher development, stages of professional development, mentorship and internship, teacher appraisal and teacher professionalism.

The increasingly diversified student population in schools has contributed to a rising number of violent incidents and misbehaviors in schools. These have created considerable stress for teachers and administrators. This course is designed to help learners to understand the symptoms as well as the social causes of school violence and behaviors of at-risk students; and to develop whole school strategies for handling them. The course encompasses a series of authentic and virtual cases that reflect different types of student disciplinary and severe behavioral problems that occur within the school. Learners will be challenged to handle or resolve these cases from a multi-disciplinary approach and in ways that maintain inclusive and productive learning environments. Topics covered in the course include family background, the youth subculture, health risk behaviors, addiction behaviors and substance abuse, power relations between teachers and students, conflict management, crisis management, legal and ethical issues and community building.

Nowadays people are bombarded with information from various sources of mass media. Mass media is also closely related to an array of social phenomena like popular culture, fashion, youth problems, consumer society, political mobilization, globalization, and so on. These topics also attract young people because of their relevance to their daily lives. Mass media plays an important role in contemporary societies and they are both subject and means of education. Governments and educators around the world have increasingly paid attention to media education and media literacy. Locally, these efforts have also realised into various curricular initiatives and a number of media education projects. To address the growing needs in this area, the course aims to equip learners with basic ideas about media literacy and media education. This is particularly relevant to teachers in subjects like General Studies and language learning, as well as whose working in citizenship, moral, and values education.

This course is designed to help students reflect on the social context and education system which they have lived with. By applying the historical perspective, the course will explain the key features of education in different periods, and analyse the relations between the social development and the educational changes in Hong Kong since 19th century. It is intended to help them to have a broadened and more penetrating understanding the uniqueness of Hong Kong education.

This course aims to train students in writing research papers.  Students are required to do research projects on approved topics individually or in small groups under the supervision of a lecturer. (For part-time students only, and with permission of the Faculty)

This course attempts to introduce psychological theories pertinent to the teaching of students in primary schools.  With an emphasis on the application of theories in practice, the following topics are explored: Behavioral and cognitive theories of learning, memory and information processing, learning transfer, motivation, instructional objectives and effective learning environment.

This course provides an introduction to major theoretical orientations in understanding child development. The interplay of family, school and community as contexts of child development will be deliberated. The core of the course lies in different aspects of development (e.g., cognitive, moral, aesthetic, social, emotion and self) in childhood, which will be examined from both theoretical and applied perspectives. Special issues of current concern (e.g., gifted education and talent development; psychological disturbances and their intervention) will also be discussed.

This course aims to introduce to primary school teachers:
( 1 ) an overview of the basic principles and objectives of school guidance and counseling,
( 2 ) roles and responsibilities of the school guidance / counseling personnel,
( 3 ) selected theoretical frameworks in counseling psychology, and
( 4 ) some basic counseling skills.
The counseling process as well as contemporary trends in the field will also be discussed.

The course is designed to familiarize students with both the theoretical and the practical aspects of classroom management and school discipline in primary schools.  It also aims at assisting teachers to promote an optimum learning environment and to encourage the development of self-discipline among students.  Topics include: organizational perspective of discipline, roles and functions of students discipline, group dynamics, needs & problems of contemporary students, contextual model of student discipline, student-teacher relationship, school rules and organization policies, coordination between discipline and guidance, home-school partnership and whole school approach of discipline.

This course employs a cross-disciplinary perspective to introduce important issues in supporting students with special educational needs (SEN) in integrated school settings. First, we examine contemporary policy changes and controversies in special education and integration. We then discuss basic principles of identification and education of exceptional children. Curriculum and instructional issues will be deliberated. In particular, the types of SEN covered are Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), Intellectual Disability (ID), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), Physical Disability (PD), Visual Impairment (VI), Hearing Impairment (HI), Language Impairment (LI), and Giftedness and Talents (GT). Developmental characteristics and needs of these children in primary school years will be addressed, with a focus on enhancing teachers’ professional capacity in supporting them in the regular classroom.

The purpose of this course is to assist teacher to acquire knowledge of human sexuality, explore the sex education curriculum and methodology of sex education curriculum and methodology of sex education in primary school.  Topics such as definition of human sexuality, the bio-psycho-social aspects of human sexuality, theories of psychosexual development, sex and gender, values and attitudes related to sex, interpersonal relationship, sexually transmitted diseases, prevention of child sexual abuse and self-protection of sexual abuse are discussed. In addition, implementation of sex education in primary school and school-home partnership in sex education are also investigated.

This course is designed to provide in-service or prospective school teachers with measurement theory and  techniques for assessing educational achievements in school.
Topics include
( 1 ) basic concepts and principles of educational measurement and assessment,
( 2 ) procedures for construction and appraisal of objective-type and constructive-type test items,
( 3 ) use of standard achievement tests,
( 4 ) uses of unconventional, informal assessment methods,
( 5 ) methods of interpretation of test scores, and
( 6 ) issues in interpretation and uses of test results.

This course aims to train students in writing research papers.  Students are required to do research projects on approved topics individually or in small groups under the supervision of a lecturer. (For part-time students only, and with permission of the Faculty)