Name of the innovation: Chinese Punctuation (CN010)
China, Hong Kong
Population 1
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PART I: INNOVATION DESCRIPTION
A1. Descriptive Background Information
CN010 was a primary school located in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Most of
the students come from a neighboring public housing. In this pedagogical innovative
practice, the teachers made use of self-developed software and a series of software
developed by The University of Hong Kong to help a class of P.6 students learn
Chinese punctuation. Students played the role of active learners in the learning
process, with ICT as tools for demonstration, drill and practice.
B. Summary of the Innovation
Goals and Origin
This innovation was implemented in the formal Chinese curriculum of CN010 which
lasted for about 8 lessons. 3 teachers were involved in designing the activities of this
innovation. 2 of them were the teachers who actually taught in the class and the
remaining one was the teacher who developed the software. This practice was
supported by the Education Department, as an action research project done under the
“Target-Oriented Curriculum” advocated by the Education Department of HKSAR.
With a consultant from The University of Hong Kong, the 3 teachers started
developing the activities in 1998. The following were the goals of the practice:
1. To help students understand the usage of punctuation at the sentence level.
2. To help students understand the usage of punctuation for improving the cohesion
of the passage.
3. To help students to apply their understanding of punctuation into their spoken
Chinese.
4.
To encourage self-learning with the use of ICT
Pedagogical Innovation
The innovation was characterized by the awareness and effort of the teachers to cope
with the common mistakes of students in using punctuation with ICT. The teachers
claimed that the importance of punctuation marks was always being undermined,
considering the lack of availability of teaching materials. Therefore, they developed a
series of teaching materials ( self-developed software, in which there was a poem
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illustrating the usage of the punctuation marks with interesting animations and
sounds), with a consultant of The University of Hong Kong invited by the Education
Department as a government-supported project. Besides, the teachers also made use
of a series of drill and practice software developed by a research team of The
University of Hong Kong in these lessons. While the students played an active role in
the learning process.
The teacher would give a pre-test and post-test to assess students’ learning outcome.
The test results show that most students did improve and one-third of them even had
more than 10% improvement of the test results.
ICT Use
ICT acted as different tools in the practice. Firstly, it acted as teachers’ demonstration
tool when they taught the students the usage of punctuation. It also acted as students
self-assessment tool and drill and practice tool, when they worked with the software
on their own.
Instructional Organization
The practice had been implemented in CN010 for 3 years. It was implemented into
the formal curriculum of the Primary 6 Chinese language subject.
PART II: ANALYSIS
A. MESO-LEVEL CONTEXT OF THE INNOVATION
A1. School Background
CN010 was a primary school located at the New Territories District of Hong Kong. It
was found in 1985. Most of the students come from a neighboring public housing. In
2001, CN010 got a Certificate of Merit in the Outstanding School Award Scheme,
organized by the Quality Education Fund of the Hong Kong Government. In this
scheme, 184 schools (9% of total number of schools) in Hong Kong were nominated
in the four domains of (1) Management and Organization, (2) Teaching and Learning,
(3) Support for Students and School Ethos and (4) Students’ Attainment. 21 schools
received 24 awards. CN010 got a merit in the domain of teaching and learning.
A2. School Culture
Vision on teaching and learning of the school
The followings are the school’s missions:
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“Aligning with the Hong Kong Government’s educational policy and the
mission of Po Leung Kuk (a charity organization which found the school),
the school emphases “love”, “respect”, “dignity”, “integrity” and “moral”,
“wisdom”, “health”, “cooperation” and “aesthetics”. It aims at offering
quality education. The school aims at offering a quality environment for
students to learn, to develop a positive moral value and attitude towards
life.”
History of innovation of the school
CN010 had over 15 years history in implementing ICT into the school. In 1986, the
school started to teach students “Logo” as an extra-curricular activity. In 1998, the
school started to offer Computer subject to Primary 2 and 3 students. They had these
computer lessons once per week and they learnt some basic computer operational
skills or software in these lessons, including typing, Word Pad and Paint Brush etc. In
2001, the school started to offer Computer subject to Primary 4 to 6 students. The
students would learn the operational skills of Internet browsers, homepage
construction software and PowerPoint. Apart from the Computer subject in the formal
curriculum, there were other computer courses offered for the senior primary students
as extra-curricular activities at present.
The school would open the computer room for students to use after school in order to
allow more computer access to students.
The followings are some other innovations carried out in CN010:
1. School-based Curriculum:
The school started to develop its school-based curriculum in 1985-86. The first
subject which had its school-based curriculum was Computer, with its first developed
teaching package “How to apply geometry”. As the principal shared with us:
“(We started to have school-based curriculum) in 1985-96…We have had schoo
l-based curriculum in Computer since the 80’s.”
2. Project-based Learning:
Project-based Learning has been conducted in CN010 before the implementation of
ICT education in Hong Kong (1997). However, with the implementation of ICT, the
nature of the project work in CN010 has changed. The students are now working on
some more ill structured, open-ended and cross-curricular questions. They make use
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of ICT tool in searching information and compiling of their reports.
3. On-line Discussion Forum:
In the on-line discussion forum, the teachers would put some newspaper articles on
the intranet of the school and invite students to comment on it. The students can either
put their reflections online or e-mail them to their teachers.
The leadership style of the principal
The principal perceives herself as the leader in implementing ICT in CN010. She
emphasizes the staff in school has to work as a team in order to face challenges and
conduct new kind of teaching activities. Besides, she was very generous in sharing the
experiences of CN010 with other schools or Education Department of Hong Kong
Government, as she shared with us:
“(In implementing ICT,) I play the role of a leader”
“I will let my teachers share their experiences with other schools…I am
willing to share the experiences of our school and our teachers with the
public. Sometimes, other schools would request a visit of our school…I
would allow the teacher to work for the Education Department as well.”
“I never decline the teachers’ request of purchasing any equipment. I try
to support them financially. I try to encourage them to learn (how to use
ICT in teaching) and let them know our rationale.
“The principal has be supportive and the teachers will following. This is
the only this to achieve (successfulness). The (collaborative) atmosphere
among teachers should be strong. They have to have the spirit of working
as a team. If the collaborative atmosphere among the staff is very weak
and they just take care of their own work, it would be very difficult to
conduct new rationale and pedagogical approaches.
Practice related to teacher professional development
As stated by the Principal, all teachers in CN010 have passed the Basic Information
Technology Benchmark set by the Hong Kong Government. Besides, the school also
provides some in-house training courses to the teachers on some specific software,
such as PowerPoint. These courses were offered by the ICT competent teachers of the
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school. Sometimes they would show and share their self-developed software such as
PowerPoint presentation files with their colleagues. The principal expressed that there
was a high participating rate of these courses and nearly all teachers attend these
in-housing training sessions:
“We have school-based training courses for the teachers. The (more
ICT competent) teachers would show their work to the colleagues in
this sessions. They would also shared their PowerPoint files with
others…All teachers participated in these courses.”
Practices related to teacher collaboration
As expressed by the principal, strong collaboration among the teachers could be found
in CN010. Two-third of the teachers formed themselves into different curriculum
development groups concerning different areas, such as “Quality Curriculum”,
“Computer Education”, “Environmental Protection Curriculum”, “English
Development Plan” and “ICT in Education”. The target of these groups was to
develop curriculum with different themes, in which ICT was emphasized. Therefore
the school can achieve its aim of implementing ICT into 25% of its curriculum.
A3. ICT in the School and Beyond
Visions on ICT in the school
The Principal shared the vision of ICT in CN010 in the interview:
“Our vision is that ICT can be integrated into various subjects and all
teachers know how to make use of it in their teaching.”
Infrastructure
There were 71 computers in CN010. There were a Computer Lab, Electronic Library
and Multi-media learning laboratory.
Use of ICT in teaching in the school as a whole
Using ICT in teaching and learning was not unusual in CN010. The other 3 teachers
who were not involved in the present innovation also used to make use of ICT in their
teaching, including the teaching of Chinese Language and General Studies. They
would also facilitate their students to conduct cross-curricular projects with the uses
of ICT.
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Teachers’ competence in ICT use
All teachers of CN010 passed the Basic Information Technology benchmark set by
the government.
Students’ Computer Club
There was a Computer Club with about 100 members in CN010. These 100 Primary 3
to Primary 6 were being selected by their teachers, according to their ICT skills. The 3
teachers who were responsible for the Computer Club would teach these students
some advanced ICT skills, such as web site construction. These students would work
as helpers after school in the computer rooms. The helpers would work in pairs and
offer technical help to other students who were in need.
A4. ICT support structure in school
Setting up an IT team
There was a computer team with 15 members and 1 technician in CN010. The leader
of the ICT team, had a Master’s degree in Computing. She mentioned that most of the
workload fell into herself and the technician, while others are the ones offering ideas
in implementing ICT. Her major work included developing software according to the
requests of other teachers and the technician had to provide technical help to other
teachers.
ICT Resources Available
There were 71 computers in CN010. There were a Computer Lab, Electronic Library
and Multi-media learning laboratory.
Support from the government
The ICT coordinator mentioned that, she could only do the job of offering technical
help to other teachers until the government granted $550000 for the school to employ
a technician in the second semester of 2001. Thereafter, she would offload the
technical work to the technician and put more effort into the development of software.
Support from Parents-Teachers Association
CN010 has a Parents-Teachers Association which was established in 1996. While the
principal act as the advisor, there are 15 executive members in the association,
comprising of 3 teachers and 12 parent representatives.
From different interviews, the research team could find that the parents of CN010
played an supportive role in helping their children to learn through ICT. Firstly, some
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parents joined the computer training sessions with their children as the spontaneous
extra-curricular activities of the school. The principal also expressed that the parents
of their students were supportive in helping their children in conducting project work
with ICT. Besides, there is an IT group in the aforementioned Parents-Teachers
Association. This group helped to carryout the work of documentation. They would
help to develop ICT teaching materials for the teachers in the future. The IT
coordinator told us that she had organized some training sessions for the executive
members in Parents-Teachers Association to learn some ICT skills, such as the
operations of the school intranet, word processing and PowerPoint.
B. MACRO-LEVEL CONTEXT OF THE INNOVATION
B1. National and State Policy
The principal and teachers considered the government to have helped them a lot in
ICT implementation in the school.
The ICT coordinator can offload her work of offering technical help to the newly
employed technician with the government grant.
The principal also mentioned that with the government grant, they could equip their
school with more ICT devices. Although she was pleased with the government’s
support and understand that the government cannot grant the school with the financial
resource of equipping every classroom with a computer at present, she believed the
government should grant them with that amount of money in the future as it is
necessary for the school to have a computer in every classroom in successful ICT
implementation.
“I think they (the government) has provided us with many resources. They provide us
with what we need…They cannot provide us with a computer in every classroom
now…but if we have to have a smooth ICT implementation, it is necessary for the
school to have a computer in every classroom. ”
C. THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE INNOVATION
C1. Curriculum Content, Goals and Assessment
Subject Matter and Topic(s) Addressed
This case describes a series of lessons aimed at helping a class of P.6 students to learn
punctuation marks in Chinese Language. In this practice, the teachers make use of a
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self-developed software and a series of software-developed by The University of
Hong Kong to help students to learning Chinese punctuation. While the students
played the roles of active learners in the learning process, ICT acted as the tool for
demonstration, drill and practice.
Curriculum Goals and Change
This practice was supported by the Education Department, as an action research
project done under the “Target-Oriented Curriculum” advocated by the Education
Department of the Hong Kong Government. With a consultant of The University of
Hong Kong invited by the Education Department, the 3 teachers started to develop the
activities in 1998. Following were the goals of the practice:

Help students to understand the usage of punctuation at the sentence
level.

Help students to understand the usage of punctuation to higher the
cohesion of the passage.
Help students to apply their understanding of punctuation into their
spoken Chinese.
Help students to understand the notion that with the use of ICT, they
can undergo self-learning and make good uses of resources.


The topic addressed by the practice, Chinese Punctuation, was an area which its
importance was usually overlooked by the Hong Kong teachers, as reflected by the
lack of teaching resources available. It was a topic which was taught by the teachers
spontaneously in CN010 before the implementation of the practice in the Chinese
Language curriculum in 1998.
The innovation involved about 4 lessons. The following is the activity flow of these
lessons:
Lesson The teaching activity
1.
Pretest
2
Use of ICT
Teacher presented information Teacher’s Presentation Tool
about Chinese punctuation
with the self developed
PowerPoint presentation.
Teacher presented information Teacher’s Presentation Tool
about Chinese punctuation
with the self developed
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3
4
PowerPoint presentation
Teacher presented information Teacher’s Presentation Tool
about Chinese punctuation
with the self developed
PowerPoint
Students work with the Student’s Drill and Practice Tool
software developed by the
University of Hong Kong on
their own
Post-test
Concerning the assessment, the teacher would give a pre-test and post-test to assess
the students’ learning outcome. According to the test results of the students, it could
be found that most students did improve and one-third of them even had more than
10% improvement of their test results.
C2. Teacher Practices and Outcomes
Teachers’ background
The 3 teachers who involved in the practices were all experienced teachers. The 2
teachers who actually taught in the lessons were the curriculum panel head and the
Chinese subject panel head. The teacher who developed the software for them was the
computer subject panel head.
Required Key Teacher Competencies
Teacher A, the curriculum panel, stated that teachers should possess basic ICT
competencies and pedagogical skills to carry out this practice:
“You have to be good at teaching. If you are good in teaching and you
can explain clearly and does not rely on the software.”
Role of the Teacher
Teacher A claimed that her role did not change much in these lessons. She used to
teach students with different learning activities. She perceived ICT in teaching and
learning as a way to bring activities into classroom:
“I think my role does not change much. In my lesson, there are usually a
lot of activities.”
Impact of the Innovation on Teachers
The teachers expressed that, from this experience, they learnt a lot from the consultant,
such as the rationale of Chinese teaching, target oriented curriculum and action
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research.
Teacher Collaboration
There were 3 teachers involved in designing the activities of this innovation. 2 of
them were the teacher who actually taught in the class and the remaining one was the
teacher who developed the software. In the 4 lessons we visited, the 2 teachers taught
alternately, according to their availability. They would inform one another what they
had done after the lessons. Therefore, the changing of teacher did not affect the
progress of the practice negatively.
C3. Students Practices and Outcomes
Role of Student
Students expressed that they were impressed that instead of sitting quietly, they could
work on their own with computer and this made their learning much more interesting.
“I think in traditional lesson. The teacher may tell us some jokes and may
write something on the blackboard. This is boring. But this time we can use
computer to learn Chinese punctuation marks. I think learning become
more interesting.”
Impact of the Innovation on Student Outcomes
The teachers found that their students made great improvement in their knowledge on
Chinese punctuation, by comparing their pre-test and post-test.
The students agreed with their teacher and expressed they found themselves were
more competent in using Chinese punctuation. The students expressed they could
learn how to cooperate with other students as they were given chances to discuss with
their partners in the classroom activities.
C4. Kinds of Technology and Ways They are Used
As expressed by the students, ICT played as an important tool that allows them to
have chance to work on their own.
The ICT devices used in the project and their ways of supporting students’ learning
were:

The PowerPoint file developed by the teachers functions as teachers’
demonstration tool to provide multimedia effects to stimulate students.
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
1 Data Projector supported the teachers to do presentation and to show students’
work for whole class discussion.

40 Computers and the drill and practice software developed by The University of
Hong Kong serves as a tool for students to do the exercise on their own.
C5. Problems and Solutions Related to the Innovation
Some factors are being identified to be key elements for successful implementation of
the innovation, which can be taken as buffer against the occurrence of potential
problems related to the innovation. There is a cooperative culture in CN010. Indeed,
the described innovation involved the cooperation and collaboration among the three
involved teachers. Teacher A offered another example which illustrated the
cooperation and sharing atmosphere among the school teachers in the school:
“We have many in-house computer training (offered by our colleagues).
Some colleagues are very competent in ICT. We following their
instruction and learn much.”
Teachers A further mentioned that if other school would like to carry similar
innovation, that is, to develop their tailor-made ICT teaching materials, the schools
have to possess the following criteria:
1)
2)
3)
teachers who are capable in using ICT
teachers who were competent in pedagogy
enough ICT resources
C6. Sustainability
The teachers have high expectations to sustain the described practice. Indeed, the
practices have had at least 3 years history in the P.6 formal Chinese curriculum of
CN010. The teachers would like to extend it to the lower year groups. They had
already prepared the materials for Primary 1. However, for teaching materials for
Primary 2 to 5, due to their lack of resources, they would like to seek support from
external organization such as the universities.
“I am quite satisfactory with the set of material for P. 6. For the junior
students, we would like to make a set for them too. It is better if we
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have a consultant to help us. It would be perfect if there were some
technicians (from the universities) to help us to design the software for
the students to have fun. Fun is something necessary in the learning
process. The more the number of software, the more the chances for the
students to learn. There is no textbook which focus on Chinese
punctuation in the market…We have made another set for Primary 1. If
the universities are interested in it, we can develop the materials for P.2,
3, 4 and 5 together.”
C7. Transferability
This practice can transfer to another school in two senses. Firstly, the other schools
can adopt the ways of ICT being used in the practice: teachers’ presentation tool and
students’ drill and practice tool. The kind of transfer can be easily done in Hong Kong,
as most of the schools has its computer laboratory. Besides, there is a “Hong Kong
Education City” website offered by the Hong Kong government, in which the teachers
can download and share their ICT teaching materials here. However, if the other
school would like to fully adopt the innovation, that is, they would like to develop
their own teaching materials. Apart from the time and effort they have to pay, they
should at least possess what teacher A mentioned: (1) teachers who were capable in
using ICT, (2) teachers who were competent in pedagogy and (3) enough ICT
resources in schools.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Classroom and Computer Room Layout
Figure 1: Classroom Layout Figure 1: Classroom Layout
Figure 1: Classroom Layout
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