Background of the Reform
After the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, Hong Kong is undergoing unprecedented economic restructuring. The Hong Kong economy is shifting from labor-intensive industries to knowledge-based industries. Hong Kong promising future is now heavily depending on excellent services provided to the world, namely financial services, legal services, accounting services and tourism. Although there are many differences between all these service sectors, one thing is in common, they are all about knowledge and services.
With the new opportunities, new challenges are also emerging. The success of knowledge-based economy very much depends on talents who are creative and innovative. How to cultivate talents pose new challenges to the education sectors, especially secondary and tertiary sectors which mainly provide opportunities for young people to develop their skills and knowledge needed in the society.
In view of the new challenges, the Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) propose new reform (New Senior Secondary or NSS) aims at providing the best education to the new generations. The 3 years (junior secondary) + 3 years (senior secondary and a public examination at the end of it) + 4 years (university education) (334) is the latest initiative under the NSS reform; it restructures the length of junior and senior secondary education and also the university education. The new structure enables all students to have at least six years secondary school education and also, provides accessible tertiary education to students.
When the 334 commences at 2009, it is expected that the school curriculum and the way it is taught and assessed will address the full range of students' abilities and interests. Some of the students will study academic oriented curriculum to prepare themselves for tertiary education. On the other hand, a brand new education stream will be offered to students who are inclined to career development; it is Career-Oriented Studies (COS).
Traditional Schooling and COS
In the past, Hong Kong education system is heavily driven by examination. Many curriculum and instructions are exam-oriented. Students study hard in order to pass the stringent HKCEE and HKALE. Under such a high stakes context and when teachers do not have enough time to teach everything in the syllabuses, the examinations effectively becomes the curriculum and instruction becomes exam preparation, it is sad to see, but it is a prevailing phenomenon in Hong Kong. The practice in Hong Kong is very succeed in producing talents and experts who can solve recurrent problems in a very fast and accurate manner, but nowadays, we demand experts who can adapt to new environment and solve novel problems.
Students who study in order to prepare for high stakes exams may easily be frustrated by the continuous failure in the tests, it is especially true for those who are not competent in memorization or test strategy. Greeno (1997) points out the limitation of this kind of instruction, by presenting abstract representations in isolation from their meanings; the outcome can be that students learn a set of mechanical rules what can support their successful performance on exams requiring only manipulation of the notations, not meaningful use of the representations, students just share the interpretive conventions that are intended in their use. Bransford, Barron & Pea, et.al., (2006)'s finding also reveals such instruction in schools guides students to acquire schemas of particular problem types in order to increase problem solving efficiency by turning non-routine problems into routine problems. They suggest in order to develop students' adaptive expertise, learning environment should include activities rich with reflection and metacognition that engage them in knowledge building rather than merely knowledge telling.
COS
COS is going to be introduced into the senior secondary schools to diversify the learning opportunities under the newly launched 334 curriculum. It is intended that students of different abilities, especially those who will benefit from a strong practical orientation in their learning should gain from COS to enrich their learning experiences. Apart from COS curriculum, they should integrate their knowledge with languages, Mathematics and Liberal Studies.
The COS curriculum emphasizes on several skills, such as thinking skills, people skills, values and attitudes, and career-related competencies, with the aims at preparing students for work, further studies and life-long education. The core courses will be offered in six areas of studies, it includes applied science, business management and law, creative studies, engineering and production, media and communication and services. All these courses are closely related to the future development of Hong Kong economy.
While COS is not designed as pre-vocational training, its emphasis on applied learning. It is believed that splitting COS courses into theory and practice elements would be counterproductive for integrated applied learning. Testing the theory element in isolation through a public examination will also create too great a burden for the students (EMB, 2006). The assessment will balance the continuous assessment conducted throughout the duration of the course with end-of-module or end-of-course assessments. There will be three levels of performance in the COS courses: 'unattained', 'attainment', and 'attainment with distinction'. Students who meet the requirements of the threshold exit level in a COS course will have attained the competency standard and will receive the QF (Quality Framework) credit points for that achievement.
COS and Evidence
EMB surveys (2006) of employers show that the most valued skills in the modern workplace are (1) the abilities to communicate, (2) adapt to uncertainty and change, (3) work in teams and (4) solve problems and it also reflects the core value and goal of the COS curriculum.
In the following paragraphs, with reference to evidence from the domain of educational psychology, I will examine to what extent the COS curriculum can fulfill the requirements of modern workplace; the examination includes Knowledge and Skills Development and Transferal of Skills and Knowledge.
Most of the COS subjects is taught by relevant field professionals and many of the subjects require students to build knowledge through apprenticeship in real working environment, fields such as creative studies (e.g. Fashion Design, Image Design), media and communication and services (e.g. Tourism, Bakery and Western Cuisine, etc) shared some characteristics which makes apprenticeship much favorable than other kind of instructions. It is the subject knowledge requires cognitive performances involve socially shared intellectual work and they are organized around joint accomplishment of tasks, so the elements of the skill take on meaning in the context of the whole. Also the subjects depend on assumptions that knowing, thinking and understanding are generated in practice, in situations whose specific characteristics are part as it unfolds.
COS provides students with contexts which have meaning in their daily lives and during the practice in the context, they can learn and integrate relevant knowledge and skills, for example, students studying cosmetology acquire knowledge about biology as it relates to human physiology, muscular systems, skin structure and related diseases and disorder; and knowledge about chemistry when they understand the reactions and safe use of chemicals in beauty treatment, the structure is very much the same as other subjects, such as tourism, fashion design, etc. Subject knowledge is no longer fragmented; they are integrated with other knowledge and skills; these skills are supported by theory work and knowledge (EMB, 2006).
Learning through apprenticeship was assumed to be concrete, context-embedded, intuitive, limited in the scope of its application, mechanical, rote, imitative, not creative or innovative and out of date, but views have changed. Learning through apprenticeship is now related to 'understanding in practice' and different from 'the culture of acquisition'. 'Understanding in practice' is about learning with engagement in doing something.
According to situated learning theory, learning to participate in these kinds of interactions enables students' succeed over a broad range of situations and also students' development of participation in valued social practices and of their identities as learners. Lave (1990) points out that learning in traditional school, schooling is viewed as the institutional site for decontextualizing knowledge so that, abstracted; it may become general and hence generalizable, and therefore transferable to situations of use in the 'real' world (Lave, 1990). Learning like all practice, is improvised, but there are two reasons why that practice may not be what the teacher intends to teach. It is because the more the teacher, the curriculum, the texts, and the lessons 'own' the problems, the harder it may be for students to develop the practice. 'Owning problems' and 'understanding' are closely related in a conception in which learners' appropriate knowledge into their improvised everyday practice. Lave continued to explain the idea of apprenticeship, or learning in practice, reverses this relation by making central the encompassing significance and meaning, students have the opportunity to develop about things they are learning. During this kind of learning process, students can redefine themselves as knowledge-creators, knowledge users and problem explorer, they owe the problems and they can actively seek solutions to problems. When we take students' abilities into account, practical oriented students can find much more meanings in their study and try to relate knowledge to their work and vice versa.
Experience of other country
In Australia, it is similar with Hong Kong; initiatives are constantly being developed to assist school students' transition into work. In 2001, the Australia Federal Government decided to introduce a new initiative: school-based apprenticeships and traineeships.
In Australia, apprenticeships are generally in older established trade areas such as fitting and machining, carpentry or hairdressing, while traineeships are a more recent phenomenon and are most commonly in non-trade areas such as retail, hospitality and business services. The later form of learning is very similar to the Hong Kong COS curriculum. Students participating in this program can acuminate knowledge and skills accredited by the Australia Qualifications Framework (AQF).
Smith and Wilson (2004) conducted the first large-scale research to study the school-based apprentices and trainees in late 2001. The overall result gained from the analysis of the 641 responses was that undertaking the program seemed to be a highly positive experience for the majority of those involved. With the comparison with ordinary part-time work, students in the program scored higher on a number of important indicators, it includes enjoyment of the job, attention of a supervisor, working with adults rather than other teenagers, and level of responsibility. It provides a very model and framework for Hong Kong to follow and develop its own COS curriculum which is to be fully implemented in 2009.
The characteristics of COS subjects and students make apprenticeship much desirable than other kind of instructions and learning methods during the learning process. Under the instruction in authentic working environment, it enables teachers to present the materials as whole rather than fragmented pieces of information. The learning process can match with the nature of the subject nature.
Limitations of Apprenticeship
Solve problems and adapt to uncertainty and change is one of the main theme of COS, it requires one can transfer knowledge to novel problems in an effective and efficient way. Uncertainty and change implies the problems representation may radically differ from what one learns inside school.
Anderson, Reder and Simon (1996) suggest contextualized knowledge is the way the material is studied. If the student elaborates the knowledge with material from a specific context, it becomes easier for them to retrieve the knowledge in that same context, but perhaps harder in other contexts. One general result is that knowledge is more context-bound when it is just taught in a single or specific context. Also, if knowledge is wholly tied to the context of its acquisition, it will not transfer to other contexts. Without assuming extreme contextual dependence, one could still claim that there is relatively little transfer beyond nearly identical tasks to different physical contexts. It reveals the limitation of some of the COS curriculums (e.g. tourism, design), the COS subject is cohesive within one subject domain, it enables students to integrate many relevant knowledge into the domain, but across the COS subjects, students are free to choose whatever subjects they prefer or being offered by their schools, the linkage between different subjects are weak and the transferability of skills and knowledge across domain is in question. The evidence poses some questions to what the COS curriculum intends to achieve: Adapt to uncertainty and change.
Case based instruction as a way to learn Problem Solving
Gentner, Loewenstein and Thompson (2003) conducted three studies in order to investigate whether case-based learning that facilitates abstracting problem-solving schemas from examples and using them to solve further problems. They suggest that case-based instruction is the principles of a domain which are taught through discussions of rich concrete examples that embody key points. Because cases and examples are concrete, students are more engaging and more easily understood than abstract, domain-general principles. The understanding gained through these specific cases can then be transferred to novel situation.
The finding also suggests case based instruction leads participants to better learning by fostering representation in terms of a more general and complete relational schema. They concluded that such schema is more likely to be retrieved when an analogous situation is encountered than are concrete representations formed when learners study examples separately.
COS curriculum emphasizes on applied learning, transferability of knowledge becomes its centered focus. Case based instruction is widely adopted as the main teaching method in most of the COS courses mainly because the students' abilities, orientation and subjects' characteristics, the subjects include business management and law, engineering and production, media and communication and services (EMB, 2006). Case based instruction facilitates COS students to develop knowledge in theories concerning their field of study. It not only intends to encourage students to think deeply about the subjects, but it also encourages students to utilize knowledge outside the subject and integrate other relevant knowledge and schema as a comprehensive solution. The integration of different subjects are essential since today working environment requires people to react and think horizontally and create new solutions to problems.
Limitations and Critical Elements Involve
Case based instruction is a learning method widely used in business, law and medicine; it can be divided into two forms, case studies and case comparison. Case studies are different from case comparison. Case studies relatively concern about surface elements of a problem, but if learners who compare cases (case comparison) will develop a more general problem solving schema that primarily captures the common structure of the cases. When solving problems in new contexts, people capture the common structure should be able to recall and apply schemas derived through analogical encoding better than prior individual examples (Gentner, Loewenstein and Thompson, 2003). According to the EMB proposal (2006), it suggests case based instruction will be widely adopted as a way of learning, there is no mention about the nature of case based instruction. If case studies are adopted, it alone may not be the best way to promote the goal of COS curriculum 'solve problems' since by just learning surface elements about a problem, the transferability of knowledge and skills is limited.
In the same study, the result shows case comparison promotes schema abstraction and transfer, but the research participants were university students in Northwestern University and its effectiveness related to secondary schools students are unknown since two groups of students may differ widely in terms of mental abilities. Although evidence suggests case comparison promotes problem solving abilities, the result is mainly from higher education sectors. When we take COS students' abilities and orientation into account, students opt for COS are mainly practical oriented, some of them are academic underachievers. They may not interest in abstract reasoning. There are also many variables affecting the effectiveness of case studies and case comparison, such as motivation, abilities to find similarities and differences, abilities to think in an abstract manner. Without careful materials design of the case based instruction, this method alone may not achieve the optimal result.
Group Working and Abilities to communicate / Work in teams / Solve problems
COS learning provides ample chance for students to work in teams or to have group discussions in order to accomplish certain tasks and projects. One of the COS curriculum objectives is to develop students' abilities to communicate, work in teams and solve problems. Also, the targeted professions which COS students may enter after graduation require students to possess these abilities, therefore paramount concern are being placed on the development of these abilities, but what is the best way to achieve the goal?
Constructivism holds that knowledge or meaning results from individual's interpretations of their experiences in particular contexts. However, experience refers not only to direct experiences, but also to learning that occurs through interaction with others. Literatures suggest group working (include. group discussion) is conducive to students' learning through several ways. First, the age peers speak at a level that other students can understand. Second, peers are more likely to challenge one another than to challenge an adult (teacher). Third, they take feedback from others seriously. Fourth, they are motivated to reconcile contradictions and finally, communication between children is less threatening than is corrective advice than adults (Webb and Palincsar,). Group working provides chance for students to practice and develop skills related to communication and work in teams.
Chui (2006) suggests with his findings that group discussions give students the greatest latitude and hence likely yields the most students cross discussions, disagreements, new ideas, wrong ideas and justification. It can benefits for later students' later development in numerous ways, such as higher subsequent achievement, development of better strategies, positive beliefs about learning, and improved communication skills, it is especially true in those discussions that are led by students rather than by teachers.
Limitations and Critical Elements Involve
Although group working (includes group discussion) provides chance for students to practice and develop skills related to communication and work in teams, the complexity of group working process can not be underestimated. There are many variables affecting the effectiveness of group work, such as group structure, group process, goal of group, etc. Group working also varies in their structures (e.g. cooperative or competitive goal structures); different kind of goal may result in different kind of learning as well. Undesirable elements during the process (e.g. elaboration, interpretation, explanation, and argumentation) may greatly affect what COS intends to achieve or even may have negative impact on students.
Chui (2006)'s research on effective group problem solving by comparing results with different kind of interactions among high school students shows several elements are important for effective problem solving, it includes correct evaluations of wrong idea and correct contributions, justifications which can facilitate rational discussions, polite disagreements. The finding shows groups with more elements, like correct contributions, justified their ideas, evaluated other group members' ideas, proposed wrong ideas and asked questions, raise the likelihood of a correct, new idea and tended to solve problem correctly.
Put the evidence into the COS curriculum, COS students are not provided skills training in group working. When COS provides students with ample opportunity to work in group, most of them are student-led discussions, but do not equip them with necessary and desirable skills in carrying out the task, harms may occur, such as students disagree others rudely or impolitely may lead group members to respond rude disagreements by retaliating with rude disagreements. It not only hampers the learning process, but also jeopardizes the development of students' abilities to communicate, work in teams and solve problems. Also, with tight 180 hours teaching schedule, to facilitate the development of desirable elements poses serious challenge to COS teachers.
Conclusion
COS program is a profession-oriented training for senior secondary school students. The teaching materials are designed to meet the needs of the profession. It provides opportunity for students to accumulate knowledge and combines knowledge with vocational goals; it is no deny that the rationale of the reform could offer more choices for students' with different abilities or career aspirations.
In this article, I examine the characteristics of the COS subjects and its relationship between the learning process and the goal of COS curriculum, and the advantages or limitations over different ways of teaching and learning This examination suggests apprenticeship as a way of learning may give much advantage over other kind of way of learning concerning the nature of the subjects, but the scope of transferal of skills and knowledge may also be limited by this kind of learning process. On the other hand, case studies and group working provide students with desirable context for students to develop skills in communication, teams work and group problem solving, but the desirable outcomes are not automatic by just providing them the context or opportunity, there are many technical problems need to be tackled in order to achieve the goals.
There are several ways could be considered in order to enhance students' learning throughout the process, for example, under the area of studies of COS (e.g. services: tourism, hospitality, western cuisine, etc), curriculum can be designed to integrate knowledge or skills across subjects and domains. At the same time, additional classes can be designed for students, so that they can develop skills and value in receiving or giving feedbacks, ways to express and evaluate ideas.
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