Page 6 - Mini-Module 12

Issue‐enquiry approach

According to the New Senior Secondary Curriculum and Assessment
Guide (Secondary 4‐6): Liberal Studies (Provisional Final Draft)
(Curriculum Development Council (CDC) and the Hong Kong
Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA), 2006),

“the learning and teaching of Liberal Studies is structured
around enquiry into a range of contemporary and perennial
issues. Students should be helped to appreciate the
changing, complex and controversial nature of these issues
and encouraged to pose questions and look for answers. As
students explore the issues, they are encouraged to bring
in their own experiences and have access to first‐hand
information. Students should learn to see issues and
information from multi‐perspectives and evaluate different
points of view.” (p.94)

Taking this stance, the issue‐enquiry approach starts with an issue or
problem, with students engaged in self‐directed learning and teachers
being the facilitators in the learning process. Students are expected to
analyze the merits and demerits of alternative views, develop concepts
and attitudes on the basis of evidence, and make reasoned judgments.
In general, the cognitive processes in knowledge construction
underpinning this issue‐enquiry approach are guided by constructivist
view of learning and instruction.

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