It's tough outside school for teachers
Despite government efforts to promote teaching outside the classroom, principals and teachers are handicapped by their workloads and a lack of training and resources, a survey has found.
According to the survey, conducted in January by the Ho Koon Nature Education cum Astronomical Centre and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 16 per cent of the educators in 53 schools said whole-life learning had caused extra work, 8 per cent cited inadequate training for teachers as a problem and 7 per cent said schools did not have enough resources.
Other problems included a lack of effective teaching strategies and appropriate teaching materials.
Kwok Chi-tai, the centre's head, said he had not come across any teachers who did not have problems with this type of teaching.
One common problem was catering for students with a range of abilities, including preparing different worksheets for them. Brighter students might consider certain questions or activities too simple while the less bright might be unable to cope with the more difficult tasks.
In response to the finding that 8 per cent of the surveyed said students' abilities were below par, Mr Kwok said some students were not proactive enough to take the initiative to learn. Some did not pay much attention during school outings.
Mr Kwok said whole-life learning, which enabled students to acquire cross-disciplinary skills through one or a range of activities, such as visits to art or science museums, would be more effective if teachers were less overwhelmed by the pressure of education reforms.
He added that the Education and Manpower Bureau should provide more training for teachers and promote co-operation between schools to facilitate the sharing of resources. Some subject teachers might feel uneasy when they had to lead an activity in other subjects, such as when a science teacher introduced exhibits in an art gallery to the students.
'Teachers should demolish the barrier between different subjects,' he said and suggested schools step up training for teachers once they knew the area they wanted to focus on in whole-life learning.
