Group Project Work with Undergraduate Veterinary Science Students

This paper evaluates the experience of second year undergraduate veterinary science students performing group project work. The goals of the study were to encourage deep learning and to develop specific 'life skills', such as decision making, teamwork and communication skills. The results were compared with two similar studies by using a similar survey form to collect student responses. Overall, the students appeared to enjoy the group project and developed new learning skills, although the issue of passengers (poor contributors) was not fully eliminated.     

The Hong Kong School Curriculum and the Political Transition: Politicisation,contextualisation and symbolic action

This paper uses a historical perspective to analyse the impact on the school curriculum of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. Whilst the transition has relaxed the criteria used by the state to select school knowledge, it has occurred at a time when the selective and allocative role of schooling has become paramount. Consequently, the transition has had a significant impact on the intended curriculum as a result of attempts by the departing colonial government to reform the curriculum. However, these reforms have had a limited impact on the implemented curriculum, which has been more strongly influenced by the emergence of a market in which schools compete for academically more able pupils.     

Bringing life to engineering: Biological engineering at the graduate level

Biological engineering will be important for the future application of advances in biology to solve problems facing humankind. The philosophical foundation for broad undergraduate biological engineering programmes has previously been given, but biological engineering graduate programmes, where specialization normally occurs, have remained undefined. While specialization will continue in these graduate programmes, efforts must be made to relate research and teaching results to: (1) the analogical systems approach; and (2) the derivation of biological information to produce new general engineering techniques. Finally, a set of graduate-level core courses is suggested.