Bulletin Number Two 1986

The School of Education Introduction At the end of the academic year 1984-85 ， the School of Education celebrated the completion of two decades of service in professional education. The School was the first unit in the University to offer graduate professional programmes, and has over the years expanded in order to keep pace with increasing demands for postgraduate teacher education and educational research. At the time of its inception, the School, with its temporary office and classrooms on the second floor of the Liu Chong Hing Bank Building in Mong- kok, Kowloon, only offered the One-year Full-time Diploma in Education Programme and had twenty- one students and seven teachers. In 1967, aTwo-year Part-time Evening Programme was introduced for in-service secondary school teachers. In May 1973 ， the School moved to the Teaching Block of Chung Chi College on the University campus, and in the same year it offered the Master of Arts in Education Programme, and introduced micro-teaching methods in training students of the Diploma in Education Programme, using educational technology to help stu­ dents grasp classroom teaching technique. A Two-year Part-time Day Programme leading to the Diploma in Education was launched in 1976 to increase the intake of in-service secondary school teachers for professional training, holding classes on Saturdays and summer school holidays. To provide training for non-graduate lecturers in the Government Schools of Education, a two-year part-time Certificate in Teacher Education Programme was initiated in 1981. At present there are over thirty teaching staff at the School, which offers a variety of courses to nearly eight hundred students each year. To date, over three thousand professional Diplomas in Education and more than ninety Master of Arts in Education degrees have been awarded. .Educational institutions must be flexible in their approach to the changing needs of the com munity they serve. In Hong Kong the current focus of attention is on development of the upper secondary and tertiary levels in response to A Perspective on Education in Hong Kong —Report by a VisitingPanel, published by the Government in May 1983, which emphasized the need to upgrade the quality of serving teachers and identified as apriority the diversification and provision of a wider range of educational oppor tunities at tertiary level. The School's programmes and curriculum, outlined below, indicate the ways in which the School is responding to these objectives. Programmes The School offers a variety of professional education courses which are tailored to meet the needs of both intending and serving teachers in secondary schools in Hong Kong. The Diploma in Education Programme, which is offered on both a full-time (one-year) and part-time (two-year) basis, provides an initial professional quali fication for university graduates who intend to teach or who are already practising teachers in secondary schools. The Certificate in Teacher Education Pro gramme, which is a two-year part-time course, is designed to promote professional development amongst non-graduate teaching staff in the govern ment Colleges of Education. The Master of Arts in Education Programme provides an opportunity for experienced teachers who have already received professional training to further their professional development in specialized areas of educational research. The Curriculum The hallmark of a profession is good pro fessional practice supported by a sound theoretical underpinning and a commitment on the part of practitioners to ongoing professional development. The curriculum of the Diploma in Education Pro gramme is designed to ensure that graduates are equipped to become members of the teaching pro fession and therefore to provide students with an appropriate balance of theory and practice together with a foundation on which their further professional and career development can be built. All students take courses in Educational Thought, Sociology of Education, Psychology of Learning and Teaching, Psycho-Social Development of the Adoles cent, Guidance in Schools, and each student takes a course in theory and methodology in either one or 14 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS