Impacts of a school based curriculum project on teachers and students: A Hong Kong case study

SBCD activities are considered beneficial to the professional development of the teachers. It is particularly argued for quite some time that involvement of teachers in an enquiry based or action research mode of thinking processes is intrinsic to the needs of teacher development This study has attempted to investigate first the impacts of involvement in the implementation of a curriculum project upon teachers and students, and second, with an analytical framework of SBCD from Marsh, it is argued that successful implementation of SBCD activities depends on the appropriate conception of the innovation in a number of contextual variables which exert influence on the achievement of the innovation objectives. Background School based curriculum development is a term which captures a wide range of activities in relation to what teachers are doing about what the ir students are learning, how effective learning is and why learning is essential to them (Skilbeck 1984; Eggleston 198). SBCD is not new to the developed countries, which have experienced quite different turns in which parties within the system are in greater control of the curriculum decision-making. In England and Wales, for example, there has been a long tradition among schools in particular in primary sector to organize learning activities by teachers for pupils of diverse interests and abilities. This decentralized model of the school curriculum planning has received little challenge until 1988 when a national curriculum framework was legislated (Elliott 1994). In Australia, however, situations turned against a centralized system of control prevailing in the 50s and 60s, with an increase in the devolution of curriculum responsibilities to the schools in the 70s and 80s (Kennedy 1992). In the USA, the national curriculum development projects conducted in the 50s and 60s in response to the criticism of the falling standards in school performance were found having little impact on classroom teaching and learning (O.E.C.D 1998). Despite all these diverse and sometimes contradictory developments across countries and the fact that teacher’s involvement in curriculum decision making has taken different forms, SBCD has often been seen as a means towards an end, i.e. an instrument for effective implementation of centrally developed curriculum innovations