ENG-1984 — Page 173

EDUCATION

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During the year, the Chinese Language Teaching Centre conducted 44 refresher courses and workshops and 28 seminars which were attended by over 3 000 teachers. Its teaching resources units were open to primary and secondary school teachers and group visits from schools were also entertained. Both primary and secondary schools benefitted from the centre's free dubbing services and over 900 recordings of teaching tapes were made during the year.

The English Language Teaching Centre organised a total of 67 seminars, workshops and talks for over 2 400 teachers. As well as providing schools with a free tape-dubbing service, the centre has a tape library containing about 700 English language tapes for schools to use as listening materials in their Wirefree Induction Loop Systems. The centre's reference library, which is open to teachers, has over 5 700 books on English language teaching and linguistics.

The Mathematics Teaching Centre in Kowloon continued to organise refresher courses for junior secondary mathematics teachers. Eleven courses on internal assessment and classroom teaching techniques were attended by 330 teachers. In addition, workshops on the effective use of teaching aids and games were conducted for serving teachers as well as student teachers. The Mathematics Teaching Centre on Hong Kong Island held eight courses for 240 primary school mathematics teachers. The training centred on the implementation of the new teaching syllabus recommended by the Curriculum Develop- ment Committee and on remedial teaching. As a resource centre, it was visited by 2 254 teachers.

The Science Teaching Centre was extensively used for conducting refresher courses, seminars, workshops and teachers' meetings. More than 3 300 primary and secondary school science teachers and laboratory technicians visited the centre for in-service courses and meetings and saw the display of new science equipment, teaching materials and science projects.

The Social Subjects Teaching Centre continued to serve as a training venue and resource centre for teachers of Social Studies, History, Economics, Geography, Economic and Public Affairs and Moral Education at primary and secondary levels. Teaching materials and audio-visual equipment relating to these subjects were on display and over 1000 teachers visited the centre during the year. At the same time, more than 20 workshops or seminars with over 1 000 participants from primary and secondary schools were conducted in the centre.

The Field Studies Centre, within the campus of the Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre, is an educational and resource centre for ecology and geography studies. During the year, 32 residential ecology and geography Courses were organised for 1 492 sixth formers. The course programme emphasises the importance of the practical approach in the study of ecology and geography and incorporates recreational activities to strike a balance with academic work. One special residential course was organised for students from Northcote College of Education and special one-day field courses were also organised for participants in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme Gold/Silver Level exploration course and training camp for student conservation leaders. Other activities organised by the centre included talks on countryside education, visits, and the collection, development and pro- duction of teaching and reference materials on field studies and environmental education.

Visual Education Centre

The Visual Education Centre makes available through its library a wide range of audio-visual aids for free loan to schools. The stocks consist of about 7 000 16mm films,