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East Meets the West: Influence of Chinese and the Western Values in Hong Kong New Senior Secondary Curriculum
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Abstract
After the end of colonial rule in 1997, the Hong Kong education system has been experiencing a policy reform on Senior Secondary Education (NSS) Curriculum commenced in September 2009 aiming to educate students as globalized Hong Kong citizens for the Western. Although previous scholars argued that it is hard to differentiate between domestic values and the Western values in account of curriculum development (Sewpaul, 2007), this study demonstrates an analysis using the dichotomy to investigate how local curriculum, especially in the post-colonial areas, embrace both the Western values and domestic values. Using content analysis on the NSS curriculum guides, this article evaluates the influence of the Western values and Chinese values in the NSS curriculum through investigating: (1) how the Western values and Chinese values was incorporated into the curriculum throughout its development (2) why some values are more significantly highlighted in the curriculum guide. Findings include that more Chinese values are involved in the curriculum documents. This may be because of the upholding of domestic values as a post-colonial city. The Western values which are academically related are greatly incorporated into the local curriculum.
Keywords:
Subject: Social Sciences - Education
Introduction
Previous social and cultural capital study
postulated that values are significant to shape societies which may also lead
to important societal changes. Such societal change can be reflected in school
curriculum (Tatto et. al. 2001). Meanwhile, the increased calls for two camps,
upholding local traditional values and adding elements of Western values into
the education curriculum, have heightened debates on the influence of domestic
values and Western values on local curriculum development in decolonized society
(Jung, 2018). The robust debates on the Western values versus local values in
curriculum reform has contributed to a shifting ethos, relevance and function
of local curriculum among decolonized society and within Hong Kong. In Hong
Kong, this debate has been heightened in the face of launching a new curriculum
reform-New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum. Whether the influence of Western
versus local traditional values should be captured as a positive-sum game in
order to respond to the globalized context.
Hong Kong experienced a long period of colonial
rule under the British government, before the hand-over to China in 1997.
Connecting to the Learning to Learn curriculum reform in 2000 and the
focus of student-centered rationale, the implementation of the New Senior
Secondary (NSS) Curriculum commenced in September 2009, aiming to facilitate
the development of a more flexible cross-discipline curriculum. At the same
time, after the colonial rule ended in 1997, Hong Kong experienced influence by
the trend of globalization (Jung, 2018; Forestier & Crossley, 2015; Tan
2016; Scholte, 2008). Hong Kong has been trying to internationalize using the
Western values to enhance the competitiveness in the higher education sector
(Jung, 2018) and education curriculum in primary and secondary education. In
this article we seek to evaluate the influence of the Western values and
Chinese values in the NSS curriculum through investigating: (1) how the Western
values and Chinese values were incorporated into the curriculum throughout its
development (2) why some values are more significantly highlighted in the
curriculum guide.
Background
In 2000, the document of the Reform Proposal for
the Education System was submitted to the Hong Kong Government by the
Education Commission. In 2003, the Education commission published “Review of
the Academic Structure of Senior Secondary Education, proposing the
adoption of a new 3-year senior secondary academic curriculum (Education
Commission, 2000). In September 2009, the implementation of the New Senior
Secondary (NSS) Curriculum commenced. Students acquired curriculum knowledge,
which is connected by eight KLAs (i.e. Chinese Language Education, English
Language Education, Mathematics Education, Science Education, Personal-Social
and Humanities Education, Technology Education, Arts Education and Physical
Education), through four core subjects, two to three elective subjects. The
curriculum content was broad and diversified, but specialized according to
students’ diverse abilities, interests and needs in order to foster students’
self- directed learning capabilities (Education Bureau, 2017).
In 2001, the curriculum report Learning to Learn
– The Way Forward in Curriculum Development (2001) suggested Moral and
Civic Education (MCE) to the secondary schools to promote five priority values
and attitudes (perseverance, respect for others, responsibility, national
identity and commitment) in the curriculum. Perseverance means overcoming
challenges and striving to achieve their goals; Respect for others is defined
as accepting individual uniqueness and maintaining peaceful relationships;
responsibility is to develop students' helpful attitude to peers, community and
the society; national Identity represents improvement of “understanding of the
Basic Law and the concept of one country, two systems” (Education Bureau,
2002); Commitment defines the persistence to complete one’s own duties
(Education Bureau, 2002). Although some schools incorporate the values into the
KLAs and subject learning, there was a lack of standardized guidelines
specifying the application of the five values into generic skills and
attitudes. In 2008, the MCE curriculum framework was revised by adding
integrity and care for others as the priority values and attitudes. Integrity
means maintaining trustful relationships; Care for others means showing sincere
concern for others’ needs (Education Bureau, 2017). In 2017, the updated
Secondary Education Curriculum Guide splendidly published the document of
“values education”stresses the importance of values education in achieving the
learning goal “to become an informed and responsible citizen with a sense of
national and global identity, appreciation of positive values and attitudes as
well as Chinese culture, and respect for pluralism in society” (Legislative Council Panel on Education, 2018).
Theoretical Framework
Education in the Western
Education in the Western has been defined as a
cultivation process of students to be capable of facing a rapidly changing,
globally interdependent world (Gardner, 2007; Jacobs, 2010). This then brings
into question the role of the local government and the rising importance of
Western education. Reflecting an interconnected world, scholars have been
discussing the aim of Western education. As Stewart (2010) suggested,
education in the Western is to prepare students to be capable of changes in the
international marketplace, science and technology, demographic immigration and
emerging economies; Cloud (2010) postulated to educate sustainability for
cultural preservation, economic and environmental development. Gento &
Gonazalez (2012) further breakthrough the discussion by pointing out that
education can act as a cultivating role optimizing the appropriate behavior for
the rapid change in society. Hence, education in the Western should emphasize
more on “the integral development of a human being in all his/her dimensions
and individual characteristics”, which value should be put as the key focus
(Gento & Gonazalez, 2012).
Chinese Values and the Western Values
Hong Kong has been influenced by Chinese Confucian
cultural traditions which values the Five virtues: benevolence (ren 仁), integrity, uprightness (yi 義), rite and propriety (li 禮), moral understanding (zhi 智), and trust (xin 信) (Knapp, 2009). Benevolence means
loving and aiding the others; righteousness means doing things and making
judgements properly; propriety means realizing the truth and becoming a perfect
person through rituals and courtesy; wisdom means acquiring knowledge;
trustworthiness means being sincere to others (Knapp, 2009). Didactic teaching
and learning is a significant way to realize these virtues and become a perfect
person. This also influenced learning modes in Hong Kong which put learning,
teaching and schooling the highest priority. Knapp (2009) further specified the
five virtues in different indicators (Table 1).
For instance, benevolence is paired with the indicators of “love the people
with specific and close relationships”, “taking full responsibilities, with
respect and deference”, “put themselves in others' places and overcome
selfishness”; integrity, uprightness is paired up with knowing how to act
appropriately in all circumstances, recognize non righteous things or
situations.
The Western values as foreign values are different
from the indigenous Chinese Confucian values. In 1972, UNESCO outlined a
framework of global values in six aspects (i.e. physical, intellectual, moral,
social & practical, aesthetic & artistic and religious) which aimed to
be promoted by different educational systems (Gento & Gonazalez, 2012).
From the empirical studies reviewed (Gento & Gonazalez, 2012), in general
the values of Western can be concluded into seven aspects:
(I) promotion of integrity, survival, physical
function and emotional balance,
(II) development of knowledge and conscience,
intellectual attitudes and strategies,
(III) promotion of responsible free behavior,
(IV) perception, enjoyment and promotion of
aesthetic manifestations,
(V) accommodation to configuration and functioning
of human groups and their cultural manifestations,
(VI) respect and accommodation of human beings to
their context and environment, and
(VII) development of the ability to survive and to
being successfully integrated in diverse contexts
As outlined above, based on the empirical studies
reviewed, we further listed out the indicators describing the aspects (Table 2). This constitutes an important
component for this study because these categories are used for the content
analysis performed.
Dichotomy between Foreign and Domestic Values
Since 2000, different countries have been starting
to integrate Western values into their local curriculum in cultivating students
to ensure their survival ability and attitudes of maintaining harmonic
relationship with the environment and humans (Gento & Gonazalez, 2012).
This is especially visible to societies that moved from authoritarianism to
more democracy (i.e. Mexico) and societies that moved towards decentralization
(i.e. South Africa) (Rubin, 2016). When the social system kept reconstituting
itself by integrating the foreign values into local curriculum, a dichotomy of
values between foreign and indigenous cultures appeared (Anderson-Levitt &
Alimasi, 2012). A social system’s semantics has to do with the observation and
description of the system-environment distinction, and with the explanation of
why and how the social structure is changing (Wu, 2009). Some scholars argued
that putting domestic values and non-domestic values as binary basis for
analysis may stereotype both the domestic and internationalized cultures (Ryan
& Kam, 2007; Vignoles et. al, 2016). However, The identification of value
influence can facilitate sufficient understanding towards the discourse of
local tradition and modernity in post-colonial regions, as the pedagogy is inhabited
from local traditions, and further entangled with colonial influence and later
the globalization influence (Cheng and Xu, 2011). This study will take the
approach of investigating how the NSS curriculum embraces both the Western
values and Chinese values.
Before the end of british colonial rule, there was
a dichotomy of “Previous” Western and Chinese culture or tradition in Hong Kong
(Jung, 2018; Forestier & Crossley, 2015): colonized by the British, the
Hong Kong education system borrowed from the English model, which was
influenced by Anglo-Saxon western culture (Jung, 2018). The Hong Kong Education
System was guided by the English model, but at the same time being
exam-oriented in nature and implementing didactic teaching practices influenced
by Confucian-culture traditions (Forestier & Crossley, 2015). After the
colonial rule ended in 1997, Hong Kong experienced a new dichotomy of
new-era-western and Chinese culture (Jung, 2018; Forestier & Crossley,
2015; Tan 2016; Scholte, 2008). The new dichotomy was influenced by the new era
of western culture which includes elements of western modernity (liberalism,
critical thinking, individualism) influenced values taught through education
(Forestier & Crossley, 2015). The new-era-western culture co-existed with
the pre-existing confucian cultural traditions in Eastern culture. Starting in
the 1990s, East Asian countries began to view their national economic
competitiveness to internationalize their higher education sector (Jung, 2018).
The eagerness of enhancing education curriculum also happened in Hong Kong.
With the pre-existing exam-oriented nature and didactic teaching practices
unchanged, Hong Kong attempted to borrow so-called “progressive” reforms that
championed child-centered approaches to learning from the new-era-western
culture (Jung, 2018). The following essay would take the Western values and
Chinese values as an analytical approach to investigate the development of NSS
curriculum.
Methodology
Data Collection
This article is based on the analysis that was conducted on the curriculum guides in understanding the nature of design of the NSS curriculum. Within the decade, three curriculum guides was published: The New Academic Structure for Senior Secondary Education and Higher Education (2005), Senior secondary curriculum guide - the future is now : from vision to realisation (secondary 4-6) (2009), and The Secondary Education Curriculum Guide (SECG) (2017) (Table 3). The New Academic Structure for Senior Secondary Education and Higher Education was the first curriculum guide open for discussion on the details of NSS curriculum; Senior secondary curriculum guide - the future is now : from vision to realisation (secondary 4-6) acted as a direction guide prior to the first year of implementation of NSS curriculum in 2009; The Secondary Education Curriculum Guide (SECG) was the latest curriculum guide in enhancing the curriculum with accord to Hong Kong context. The study will analyze based on the three documents.
Data Analysis
The content analysis is three tiered, underpinned by a conceptual analysis of the Western values and Chinese values using the categories emerging from the theoretical framework from Knapp (2009) on Chinese values (Table 1) and the Western values from Gento & Gonazalez (2012) (Table 2). The categories and indicators constitute an important milestone for this study because they facilitated the calculation of the frequency of the mentioned Chinese values and the Western values to show the significance of the values within the whole curriculum. The numbering does not show the hierarchy of significance in relation to each other.
The analysis started from categorizing the values promoted in the NSS curriculum to identify how the curriculum design strikes a balance between Chinese and the Western values. The content analysis would be first conducted on the written curriculum based on the seven priority values and attitudes appeared in the three documents (Table 3). These values are construed as goals for helping students develop qualities beyond knowledge learning of facts, concepts, and skills for transmission (Deng, 2009). The analysis continued with identifying hidden categories and indicators of Western and Chinese values in the values education stated in the curriculum guides. The frequencies of categories and indicators of Western values and Chinese values that appear in the documents are counted to reveal the values proposed in the hidden curriculum guides.
Results
The Incorporation of the Western Values and Chinese Values in the Curriculum Document of Values Education
Chinese values have laid a foundation in educating students to be caring, peaceful and trustful through the seven values in the curriculum.``Respect for Others” of the seven values is similar to the Chinese value’s Category A- Benevolence in trying to establish peaceful and friendly relationships with everyone (RO2), and live in harmony (RO2); “Integrity” is similar to Category E- Trust in maintaining trustful communication (IN1) and establishing trust (IN2); “Care for Others” is also similar to the Chinese values of Category A- Benevolence to show sincere and care for others situations (CF1); The Western values have also formed a base in establishing the seven values in boosting student’s uniqueness and eagerness to strive for excellence. “Perseverance” is influenced by Category VII- Free and responsible supreme acceptance and justification of personal and cosmic limits that encourages students to overcome challenges (PE1) and strive to achieve the goals (PE2); “Respect for Others” is partly influenced by Category VI - Respect and accommodation of human beings to their context and environment that highlights everyone is unique (RO1); “National Identity” does not have full similarity with Chinese Confucious Belonging-Identity theory that one belongs to a community (Dai, 2020),but it have acknowledges the importance to improve understanding of the country (NI1) and strengthen sense of national identity (NI2), which are the essential part of global-local identity (Afton, 2020). Hence, “National Identity” is similar to Category V - Accommodation to configuration and functioning of human groups and their cultural manifestations. Some values are both influenced by Chinese and Western values. “Responsibility” is partly influenced by Category B - Integrity, uprightness when it encourages students to take actions that are good for the society (RE2). The sense of responsibility as a social member is also similar to Category III - Promotion of responsible free behavior under the influence of Western values; “Commitment” is also partly influenced by Category E - trust in promoting commitment to complete one’s own duties (C1). The sense of individual responsibility in completing tasks by oneself is also similar to Category III - Promotion of responsible free behavior under the influence of Western values.The identified results reveal the interpretation of good values, attitudes, and good qualities for the Western from Hong Kong perspectives. As stated in the curriculum document, “Positive values and attitudes not only help students develop a healthy lifestyle and positive learning attitudes, but also equip them with good qualities to meet the requirements of their future workplace and be a sensible citizen in Hong Kong.”(Education Bureau, 2017) Values including benevolence, integrity, trust, responsible free behavior, accommodation to human groups and manifestations, respect of human beings to their context and environment, ability to survive and integrate in diverse contexts, accepting personal and cosmic limits contributed to the ideal personality for the Western in face of challenges. Benevolence and trust are especially significant in influencing the actions among the seven priority values (RO2, RO3, RE1, C1, IN1 and IN2), of which the actions are mostly related to social relations that keeping peaceful and harmonic accompaniment is important in the Western.
Category C - rite and propriety (li 禮), Category D- moral understanding (zhi 智), Category I - Promotion of integrity, survival, physical function and emotional balance, Category II - Development of knowledge and conscience, intellectual attitudes and strategies and Category IV - Perception, enjoyment and promotion of aesthetic manifestations do not have intersection with the core values. However, it is notable that indicator of Category D- moral understanding (zhi 智) (the ability to recognize and differentiate between good and “not-good”) matches with the learning objectives of moral education. As stated in The Secondary Education Curriculum Guide (SECG):
The cultivation of positive values and attitudes can:
- develop secondary students’ competency in judging right from wrong;
- facilitate the development of a positive identity; and
- enhance secondary students’ self-esteem and self-confidence (p.4).
However, it is put as the “additional” attitude that students acquired after adopting the seven priorty positive values and attitudes in esolving life encounters in the document (p.7).
Nonetheless, students may encounter various life events and issues in which various and even conflicting values and attitudes are embedded. Students are encouraged to analyse these events and issues in a rational and objective manner, and adopt positive values and attitudes as one of the guiding principles to make judgements and decisions.
The Incorporation of the Western Values and Chinese Values as Hidden Curriculum
Most Chinese values are covered in the curriculum (Table 4), including category A - benevolence, category B - integrity, uprightness, category D - moral understanding, and category E - trust. It is highlighted that none of the documents identified values related to Rite and propriety (禮) such as ‘courtly manners’, ‘know one’s own social position and conduct oneself accordingly’. Meanwhile, the Western values are selectively covered in the curriculum, which are mostly related to academic learning (Table 5). Four categories from western cultures including Category I - Promotion of integrity, survival, physical function and emotional balance, Category II - Development of knowledge and conscience, intellectual attitudes and strategies, Category VI - Respect and accommodation of human beings to their context and environment , and Category VII - Development of the ability to survive and to being successfully integrated in diverse contexts are included. Promotion of responsible free behavior, perception, enjoyment and promotion of aesthetic manifestations, accommodation to configuration and functioning of human groups and their cultural manifestations and free and responsible supreme acceptance and justification of personal and cosmic limits were not mentioned, leaving only four out of eight categories identified in the documents. Before colonial rule till 1997, Hong Kong's education system borrowed the English model, which was influenced by Anglo-Saxon western culture (Jung, 2018). The hegemony of Anglo-Saxon western culture may form an image of superiority over the Chinese Confucian cultures that “wisdom and knowledge come through separation and classification as is the case in European thought” (Haldane, Lafond & Krause, 2011). After colonial rule, upholding Confucian values can make an alignment between Indigenous knowledge and notions of Western education in the reformed curriculum.
Struggles Faced in Balancing between Western and Chinese Values
Both Western and Chinese values are observed in the development of the NSS curriculum. Although most Chinese values are kept, Western values are more frequently mentioned throughout the years. Table 6 shows the different frequencies of the coding units by indicators and categories. From the analysis, the Chinese values category that had the most mentions in the three curriculum guide is A – ‘benevolence (ren 仁)’ [186 mentions]. The two most mentioned indicators are: A2 – ‘taking full responsibilities, with respect and deference’ [167 mentions] and B2 – ‘recognize non righteous things or situations’ [109 mentions]. Table 6 also shows by far the most mentioned Western values is Category II - Development of knowledge and conscience, intellectual attitudes and strategies (419 mentions) and Category VII - Development of the ability to survive and to being successfully integrated in diverse contexts (358 mentions). Category II and VII have a considerable difference in number of mentions compared to the others, and within Category II and VII the most mentioned indicators are II1- knowledge acquisition (conceptual contents)(419 mentions), VIIa - legitimate desire of learners to obtain outstanding results in the education system (144 mentions) and VIIb- appropriate technical training and the suitable use of emerging technology (109 mentions). The category of the most mentioned among the Western values (Category II) are significantly more than the Chinese values (Category A). The NSS curriculum highlights more on the Western values.
The Western values with the highest mentions are mostly related to cognitive development such as ‘knowledge acquisition on conceptual contents’ (Indicator II1), ‘legitimate desire of learners to obtain outstanding results in the education system’ (Indicator VIIa). This may be because of the long term influence of Chinese traditional Confucian influence on the Hong Kong education system. During the colonial era (from 1842–1997), the Hong Kong Education System was guided by the English model, but at the same time being exam-oriented in nature and implementing didactic teaching practices influenced by Confucian traditions (Forestier & Crossley, 2015; Deng, 2009) and screening culture during British colonial rule. Under the cult of efficiency, the British colonial government had low expenditure on education to provide limited seats for secondary education and tertiary education (Cheng, 2002). A pyramid structure of the education system in Hong Kong was maintained under colonial rule, for all the students could receive nine year free education, while only few of them could enter senior secondary education under the secondary education and the university entrance examination (Hong Kong government, 1978). Students took the General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination at the end of primary education. Based on their academic capability, the students were placed into one of the five school bands (with band 1 the most academically capable and band 5 the least capable). Students were selected for the final 2 years of secondary education based on the public examination results in secondary 5. University entrance examinations further screened out the secondary 7 students for tertiary education. From the Chinese Orthodox Confucian perspectives, since the very young age, children should act with adult seriousness to excel in academic performance to accomplish their responsibilities to shine for their families (光宗耀祖)(Naftali, 2010). Under such conditions, the screening culture was encouraged and continued: only the academic fittest could survive in access to the limited provision of education. The aftermath of screening culture continued in today’s Hong Kong education when competition on academic performance is still thriving in secondary education. This also agrees that values education in curriculum design with Chinese characteristics requires time, research and development (Zhan, 2004).
Conclusion: Struggles Faced in Balancing between Western and Chinese Values
Throughout this article we have sought to show the influence of Western and Chinese values on the macro level of curriculum decisions in Hong Kong’s New Senior Secondary Curriculum policies.This study demonstrates an analysis using the dichotomy to investigate how local curriculum integrate both Western values and domestic values in face of the globalized context. The study evaluated the influence of the Western and Chinese dichotomy on the NSS curriculum when moving towards the Western as a post-colonial city. In the written document, benevolence and trust have the greatest influence towards the actions which are mostly related to social relations; At the hidden curriculum level, it seems that more Chinese values are involved in the curriculum documents. This may be because of the upholding of domestic values as a post-colonial city. The Western values which are academically related are greatly incorporated into the local curriculum and reveal the tendency of continuing the domestic learning culture of prioritizing academic excellence.
Research can be conducted at a micro level on the implementation of the NSS curriculum. What kind of reaction from parents, students and teachers towards the development of NSS and value cultivation is another complex question that requires further research. However, this research indicates that the NSS curriculum is the outcome of interpretation of Western values and Chinese values. The influence of these values at the macro-level of curriculum design is obvious.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this work.
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Table 1.
Categories of Chinese values.
| Categories of Chinese Values | Indicators |
| A.benevolence (ren 仁) | A1.love the people with specific and close relationships |
| A2.taking full responsibilities, with respect and deference | |
| A3.put themselves in others' places and overcome selfishness | |
| B.integrity, uprightness (yi 義) |
B1. knowing how to act appropriately in all circumstances |
| B2. recognize non righteous things or situations | |
| C.rite and propriety (li 禮) |
C1. courtly manners |
| C2. know one’s own social position and conduct oneself accordingly | |
| D. moral understanding (zhi 智) |
D1. ability to recognize and differentiate between good and “not-good” |
| E. trust (xin 信) | E1. being honest and trustful keeping promises |
Table 2.
Categories of the Western values.
| Categories of Western Values | Indicators |
| I. Promotion of integrity, survival, physical function and emotional balance |
Ia. Sensory and motive functionality |
| Ib. Personal hygiene,Nutritional balance,Balanced sexuality | |
| Ic. Physical and emotional stability | |
| Id. Self confidence | |
| II. Development of knowledge and conscience, intellectual attitudes and strategies |
IIa. knowledge acquisition (conceptual contents) |
| IIb. the automation of procedures | |
| IIIc. internalization of attitudes towards knowledge | |
| III. Promotion of responsible free behavior | IIIa.improvement in the behavior of people |
| IV.Perception, enjoyment and promotion of aesthetic manifestations | IVa.use artistic standards in different ways to conceive and to create a work of art. |
| V.Accommodation to configuration and functioning of human groups and their cultural manifestations |
Va.shows an adequate social education when he/she shows respect to collective patrimony, implying rules, symbols and uses) of a specific human group |
| VI. Respect and accommodation of human beings to their context and environment |
VIa. Respect |
| VIb. caring for the environment | |
| VII.Development of the ability to survive and to being successfully integrated in diverse contexts |
VIIa. legitimate desire of learners to obtain outstanding results in the education system VIIb. appropriate technical training and the suitable use of emerging technology |
| VIIc. ability to live independently in a satisfactory way | |
| VIId.use one’s own educational level to improve one’s economic situation | |
| VIIe. live in ecologically suitable environments and adopting an ecologically responsible lifestyle | |
| VIII.Free and responsible supreme acceptance and justification of personal and cosmic limits |
VIIIa. person ́s projection beyond his/her existence and physical or temporal limitations |
Table 3.
Seven priority values and attitudes (Education Bureau, 2017).
| Seven priority values and attitudes | Actions |
| PE. Perseverance | PE1. Overcome challenges and failures with courage PE2. Strive in the face of hardship to achieve their goals |
| RO. Respect for Others | RO1. accept everyone is unique RO2. try to establish peaceful and friendly relationships with everyone RO3. live and work with others in harmony. |
| RE. Responsibility | RE1. develop a caring and helpful attitude to others RE2. take appropriate action for the betterment of their peers, the community and society |
| NI. National Identity | NI1. improve understanding of the country, the Basic Law, the concept of “one country, two systems” NI2. strengthen sense of national identity |
| CO. Commitment | C1. committed to complete one’s own duties C2. proactively think about how to complete the tasks and make things better persistently |
| IN. Integrity | IN1. maintain truthful communication IN2. help establish mutual trust |
| CF. Care for others | CF1.show sincerely one’s concern for others’ situations, feelings and needs |
Table 4.
The Seven Priority Values of the written curriculum and the Chinese values.
| PE1 | PE2 | RO1 | RO2 | RO3 | RE1 | RE2 | NI1 | NI2 | C1 | C2 | IN1 | IN2 | CF1 | |
| A.benevolence (ren 仁) | ⚫ | ⚫ | ⚫ | ⚫ | ||||||||||
| B.integrity, uprightness (yi 義) | ⚫ | |||||||||||||
| C.rite and propriety (li 禮) | ||||||||||||||
| D. moral understanding (zhi 智) | ||||||||||||||
| E. trust (xin 信) | ⚫ | ⚫ | ⚫ |
Table 5.
The Seven Priority Values of the written curriculum and the Western values.
| PE1 | PE2 | RO1 | RO2 | RO3 | RE1 | RE2 | NI1 | NI2 | C1 | C2 | IN1 | IN2 | CF1 | |
| I. Promotion of integrity, survival, physical function and emotional balance |
||||||||||||||
| II. Development of knowledge and conscience, intellectual attitudes and strategies |
||||||||||||||
| III. Promotion of responsible free behavior | ⚫ | ⚫ | ||||||||||||
| IV.Perception, enjoyment and promotion of aesthetic manifestations | ||||||||||||||
| V.Accommodation to configuration and functioning of human groups and their cultural manifestations |
⚫ | ⚫ | ||||||||||||
| VI. Respect and accommodation of human beings to their context and environment | ⚫ | |||||||||||||
| VII.Development of the ability to survive and to being successfully integrated in diverse contexts | ⚫ | |||||||||||||
| VIII.Free and responsible supreme acceptance and justification of personal and cosmic limits | ⚫ | ⚫ |
Table 6.
Number of mentions of Chinese and the Western values.
| Number of Mentions | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese Values | The Western values | ||||||||||||||
| A1 | A2 | B2 | D1 | E1 | Ib | Ic | Id | II1 | VIa | VIb | VIIa | VIIb | VIIc | VIIe | |
| Learning to Learn | 0 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 58 | 9 | 0 | 46 | 35 | 24 | 5 |
| Senior secondary curriculum guide | 2 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 29 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 19 | 2 |
| SECG | 17 | 130 | 109 | 3 | 2 | 62 | 9 | 20 | 332 | 51 | 24 | 92 | 68 | 50 | 5 |
| Total of Mentions | 19 | 167 | 109 | 5 | 3 | 80 | 14 | 30 | 419 | 65 | 26 | 144 | 109 | 93 | 12 |
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