Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 3, Issue 1, Article 10(June, 2002) Teresa T S WONG A Case Study of School-Based Science Curriculum Development: Overview of Project Approach and Process of Implementation Previous Contents Next

The SBSCD Process

A SBSCD process model was designed for this project and its details are refined throughout the actual practice. The main phases for the SBSCD are planning, implementation and evaluation. The planning phase consists of three stages: 1. The school's pre-selection of SBSCD objectives; 2. A 'situational analysis' stage adapted from Sockett's (1976) and Skilbeck's (1984) curriculum development models for examining any factors relating to the formation of the school's existing science curriculum design; 3. Formation of a SBSCD action plan by teachers and the Curriculum Development Team. During the implementation phase, curriculum developers and the participating teachers are engaged in a series of collaborative process in which the curriculum developers provide both practical resources and logistic supports, as well as carefully observes all planned activities carried out according to the action plan. During the evaluation phase, individual interviews, meetings and an evaluation survey are conducted with teachers, in order to discover causes and effects from the interaction between the schools and the HKSAW Curriculum Development Team. This final phase also aims to find out teachers' awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of their own teaching after the SBSCD, and to adjust the schools' future SBSCD directions.

The Planning Phase
Stage 1-Pre-selecting Objectives
When inviting schools for joining the project, these prospective schools have revealed the following general concerns for their existing science curriculum: 1. There are little resources for measuring students' skill and attitude development within their learning in science. 2. Teachers often need special guidance on applying the science syllabus as the basis for constructing science investigation studies. 3. Many of the current primary schools' General Studies teachers are not trained in the science domain. Therefore, they need support for upgrading their professional knowledge and confidence in teaching science related topics. 4. Science teachers wish to develop science curriculum that can meet their school's overall aims while keeping themselves inline with the education reform directions. 5. The schools would like to improve upon the collaborative effort within their science departments. 6. Teachers have been heavily depending on the teachers' manuals accompanying the subscribed texts as their sole resource, and thus wish to expand upon the possible scope of educational resource.

To elicit schools' early thinking in shaping their own SBSCD project, each school is given the following suggested list of objectives, where they can choose up to three of them to implement:

• To develop students' and teachers' knowledge and skills in science investigation through experiments, and project learning.

• To enhance students' creative thinking through their own works.

• To enhance students' problem solving and collaborative abilities through group work activities.

• To build extension activities that increase students' exposure in science knowledge beyond the central curriculum.

• To enhance students' analytical thinking through hands-on activities.

• To arouse students' appreciation for learning by incorporating daily life examples and applications in teaching and learning activities. 

• To discover and enhance students' various strengths and abilities through cross-curricular activities or student works.

• To use information technology to enhance the science teaching and learning experience.

• To improve teaching and learning through the use of formative assessment and alternative assessment formats.

The above objectives list was compiled with consideration of the schools' general concerns and the appropriate settings for implementation within the timeframe of this project. Also, emphases were made based on the education reform incentives specific for school-based curriculum development in science (Curriculum Development Council, 2000a; 2000b).

For this project, schools may choose to participate in selected topics within a science unit of a single grade (e.g. P4 Electricity & Life Unit) or to participate in one single science event (e.g. School Science Day) for their curriculum development. The following subject units from the Hong Kong General Studies and Integrated Science syllabi were provided for the schools to choose as their content foci: Electricity & Daily Life (P4), Life Reproduction (P5), Forces & Simple Mechanics (P6), Forces (S2).