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Comments

Compared with the situation before the 5-year ICT education strategy and the implementation of the new mathematics curriculum, teachers are in general familiar with personal use of computer and more aware of possible use of educational software. Computer-based curriculum resources are available from government, textbook publishers, and independent sources over the Internet. Moreover, with teacher’s computer and projecting devices now normally equipped in a standard classroom, a teacher should find less technical difficulty if she wants to include the use of computer for her demonstration in a mathematics lesson.

Generally speaking, the current provision of facilities, resources and training for basic competence does help many mathematics teachers in Hong Kong to overcome the threshold in classroom use of ICT. However, we would like to make at least two comments towards the end of this short account of the development of ICT in the mathematics curriculum of Hong Kong. Firstly, we admit that, disregarding their sources and origins, the teaching and learning materials (including the exemplary ones) should have made various impacts on classroom practice which is yet to be investigated in further research. But it is noteworthy that most of these resource materials are delivered in the form of end products, supposed to be ready-made for teachers or students. Usually there are not any plans for continuing development that would have encouraged and capitalized on teachers’ reflective uses. Secondly, it is arguable that the now common usage of ICT in local mathematics classroom is quite different from those pedagogical strategies such as learner-centered approaches and exploratory or investigative work promoted in the curriculum documents. Lee, Wong, & Mok (2003) interviewed a few keen users of ICT who had been pioneers and actively involved as trainers in early ICT training programs for mathematics teachers. It is interesting to know from their interviews that they regard their classroom use of ICT as mainly teacher-dominated. With deeper analysis of their account of ICT use, we come to notice that “through enacting the reform, they were able to come up with pedagogical strategies which integrated the exploratory and interactive element of ICT programs imported with the teacher-dominated approach to teaching, and adapted to the constraints within which the teachers were operating” (Lee et al., 2003, p.130). It is certainly a great challenge for us teachers and educators in Hong Kong to reconsider the local curriculum needs, constraints and professional development to bring about genuine empowerment of teachers and students with ICT.

References

Curriculum Development Council (1999). Syllabuses for Secondary Schools: Mathematics (Secondary 1–5). Hong Kong: Printing Department. Also available on the web at http://cd.ed.gov.hk/maths/en/CA/CA_Guides_e.htm .

Curriculum Development Council (2000a). Report on Holistic Review of the Mathematics Curriculum. Hong Kong: Printing Department. Also available on the web at http://cd.ed.gov.hk/maths/document/document.htm .

Curriculum Development Council (2000b). Mathematics Curriculum Guide (P1–P6). Hong Kong: Printing Department. Also available on the web at http://cd.ed.gov.hk/maths/en/CA/CA_Guides_e.htm .

Curriculum Development Council (2000c). Information Technology Learning Targets: A Guideline for Schools to Organize Teaching and Learning Activities to Develop Our Students’ Capability in Using IT. Hong Kong: Printing Department.

Curriculum Development Council (2001). Learning to Learn: Life-long Learning and Whole-person Development. Hong Kong: Curriculum Development Council.

Lee, A.M.S., Wong, K.L. & Mok, I.A.C. (2003). Implementation of ICT in the mathematics teaching in Hong Kong: Teacher conceptions and evolving classroom practices. Information Technology, Education and Society, 4(1), 117-133.

Mathematics Section, Education Department (2001). Teaching Package on S1–5 Mathematics: Use of Information Technology. Hong Kong: Education Department. Also available on the web at http://cd1.emb.hkedcity.net/cd/maths/en/ref_res/material/TM%20index.htm

Tung, C.H. (1997). The 1997 Policy Address: Building Hong Kong for a New Era. Hong Kong: Printing Department.

Tang, K.C. & Wong, K.L. (2002). Building a web-based statistics calculator and exploring new opportunities for learning bivariate analysis. In Yang, W.C., Chu, S.C., Alwis, T., and Bhatti, F.M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Seventh Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics, Multimedia University, Melaka, Malaysia, pp.542-551.

Wong, K.L., Lee, A.M.S., & Tang, K.C. (2003). FLASHing mathematics into the young minds: Possibilities and limits of a web-based courseware. In Yang, W.C., Chu, S.C., Alwis, T., & Lee, M.G. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Eighth Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics (Vol.1), Chung Hua University, Taiwan, pp.230-239.

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