Journal of Basic Education

Abstract

Our goal in this paper is to address two interrelated questions. Firstly, what features of educational reforms and the strategies used to promote them are perceived as problematic by school personnel? Secondly, what practices did schools introduce which facilitated school improvement? Our analysis draws on a study we are currently conducting which is designed to examine the impact of the Target Oriented Curriculum in Hang Kong primary schools. Policy makers tend to portray reforms as singular entities which take precedence over earlier reforms and require a series of rational steps to move from precept to practice. They tend to regard the reform as a product perfect and final in itself and blame the non-implementation on teachers. Schools and teachers, on the other hand, adopt very different perspectives and their concerns usually do not overlap with those of policy makers. The pattern that emerged from our study indicated that teachers interpreted reforms in terms of their prior experiences and understandings and learnt in ways consistent with those described by social constructivists of human learning.

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