Bulletin Spring 1976
(b) meaningful studies of educational issues in the local community in particular. For this M.A. (Ed.) programme, courses in six areas are offered: Curriculum Development, Educational Technology, Educational Measurement, Educational Psychology, Educational Administration, and Guidance and Counselling. Candidates are required to submit a thesis in addition to doing course work. He is also writing and revising several books, including "American Education: Thoughts and Systems", "Adolescent Development", and "Educational Psychology". (4) A joint research project is being undertaken to study the relative effectiveness of Chinese and English as media of instruction in secondary school learning. Results of the Certificate of Education Examination will be used as the criterion to measure school achievements. Elective Undergraduate Courses In view of the high percentage of graduates joining the teaching profession, the School of Education started in 1973-74 courses in Education as electives open to undergraduates, to provide them with an introduction to professional training. The courses offered are Introduction to Education and General Teaching Methods. Research Faculty members of the School, individually and jointly, devote much effort to research. Among the research projects recently completed are: "A Study on the Predictive Power of Admission Procedures" and "An Analysis of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination Papers". Other research projects which are in progress or being planned are given below. (1) A project on the development of a battery of aptitude tests is in progress. These tests are designed to provide an integrated and standardized assessment of differential abilities among secondary school students. (2) A recent trend in the education and training of educational workers has been a recurrent emphasis on the use of case materials. Bearing in mind the need to cite concrete examples in class instruction and to engage teachers in dialogue over issues such as student discipline and student counselling, case studies are being prepared which relate to adolescent development and adjustment. These materials will eventually be edited and made available to the public in the form of monographs. (3) One staff member is conducting a short-term research project on "The Trends and Problems of Education in Ta iwa n ", and a long-term project on "Chinese Family, Education, and Personality". (5) A longitudinal study is being planned with the cooperation of heads of two subsidized primary schools to make an objective assessment of the activity, approach in Primary School teaching. The research activities will focus on the comparison of overall achievements, in both cognitive and affective terms, of pupils entering Primary 1 and Primary 4 in September 1976 in two schools that have adopted different approaches to classroom teaching. (6) With the recent emphasis on curriculum development, it has become essential to produce better instructional materials. A start has been made towards compiling a new series of Chinese textbooks for Forms I to V, in which unit teaching will be introduced, integrating language with literature, and providing for the study of language through the study of literature. (7) Research papers on "Effective Communication in Teaching and Learning", and "Non-verbal Communication in Education" are being prepared. These will discuss the communication process between the teacher and his students, and the nonverbal communication aspects such as facial expression, body language and spacial arrangements in the classroom. (8) The School of Education, in collaboration with the Social Research Centre and with financial support from the University, is conducting two studies. The first is entitled "A Retrospective Study of the Impact of a Foreign Sojourn". The purpose of the study is to investigate the long-term effects of living and studying abroad as seen by the individual looking back. The purpose of the second study, entitled "Coping and the Successful Sojourn", is to examine the aspects of personal experience which enable the individual to gain the maximum benefit from living and studying abroad. 10
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