The examination-oriented education system is jeopardizing longstanding commitment to the development of students' critical thinking skills and professional criticism. Students were not graduated from secondary school to enter the skills and knowledge for the job and what they have is the knowledge for higher education and are not needed for the workplace.
In the 2003/04 school year, tests the Government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong 12 COC courses in Senior Secondary School (SSS). There are 17 classesfor 382 students from 57 different schools. In the 2004/05 school year, the rates increased to 32, with 69 classes, 1427 students from 132 schools. As the name implies, contains the COC courses designed to meet needs of certain professions. Currently, there are nine areas of study including economics, culture and media, design, services, performing arts, information technology, engineering, food production and management, and leisure, tourism and hospitality. All of these Courses are designed to meet the requirements of the new Hong Kong economic structure to be.
The COC is equipped for students with interest and inclination in other areas than the other by the test subjects. It aims at providing students with the opportunities offered its guidance for lifelong learning and career objectives in certain areas. With the COC, expected to enable the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of students a better understanding of the development of their> Careers guidance and expertise. This can also help students decide on life goals. Many students also understand the importance of studying hard and are more motivated in teaching other subjects. By studying the career-oriented courses would be, students develop their generic skills, values and attitudes, the necessary knowledge and skills as well as in the workplace to understand demand for a particular career. The students were also able to get oneTo work more than one certificate and diploma for further studies, or even at the college through the study of the COC.
New possibilities and opportunities for students
Some of the COC courses (eg, food, tourism and the performing arts) require not only knowledge but also skills required, values and attitudes that are largely ignored or underdeveloped in traditional curricula. Students who experience failure or unsatisfactory performance during the primary or junior --Secondary school studies can have a new opportunity and choice to experience success and develop some of their talents, they can bring some of their skills and make the long-buried and unnoticed in previous studies.
Learning With COC studies, students not only more knowledge about their chosen professions, but also put up the professions previously by various types of exercises and visits. In previous professional exposure to COC students can come to identify theirSkills and then in the light of this recognition, the decisions taken by the hand and also their motivation to learn.
COC and Self-Concept Development
According to Berk (2004), professional development goes through three phases), a fantasy time (early and mid-childhood, exploring where the children playfully career opportunities, young children an insight into professional of fantasies about her. However, their preferences are largely run by the family,Glamor and excitement, and usually bear little relationship to the decisions that make them eventually.
The second stage is) the provisional time (early ad mid-adolescence. At age 11 to 16, young people think about careers in a more complex manner. At first, they appreciate the job opportunities in terms of their interests. Later, when they become more aware of personal educational requirements for various professions, they take into account their skills and values.
The thirdStage is the realistic time period (late adolescence and) in emerging adulthood. In the late teens and early twenties, the economic and practical realities of adult life are just around the corner, and the young people of their options narrow. At first, many do so through further exploration, the gathering of information on a range of possibilities that blends with their personal characteristics. Then enter a final stage of crystallization, in which they are training on a general category.In it, they try out for a while before he was single for a job.
When the students knowledge about their preferred vocation, education requirements, there may be accumulated, and the future demand, which could benefit students. But high ambition / low knowledge of young people are at risk for ever, "dreamers drift" as they take strategic decisions, as they fail to invest their efforts to make sense. COC programs can help a better job to get young peoplemore about the work that interest them and assess their fit with their personal qualities, as the COC teachers (most of whom are professionals) can introduce students to the field, the people in those jobs, says up-to-date entry requirements, promoting participation or extra curriculum activities of the organization relevant and practical training, or methods that provide first-hand experience. Students who have a clear picture about the jobs they like to be able to join in developing a muchrealistic goal, with a much more realistic goal, students can take concrete steps to achieve the goal.
COC teachers play a more important role in the development of motivation and interests of students as well. They can act as mentors who provide a model for the students to learn. COC Teachers can also develop practical feedback to students, skills and attitude, at the same time, students can see the accumulated skills are greatly needed for the necessary increase in work and itsMotivation.
School is a place where students spend most of their time in their prime, it is understandable that some development can strongly relate to the school environment. Since I trained therapists work in one of the Senior Secondary School, offers the COC am, I notice a lot of new vendors enrolled in our Form 4 classes with negative self-image and low self-esteem, above all, keep faith on their academic abilities. It interferes not only exceed their potential in specific areasrequires more specific skills or personality rather than their ability, memorization (a kind of skills in the traditional test), as well as successes, which they deny to experience. After a period of studies can most of the Form 5 students some sense of achievement during their studies and further intensified the development of a better self-concept, some even want their studies after graduation.
It is not easy to say what causes the negative self-development in the past time, but Ican point out a fact that most students are "underachievers" at the junior secondary school studies. With a few personal interviews, they let me know how they feel to their studies, how bad are their school experience and it leads me to consider a decision to develop as their psychological state in the new type of learning environment afford.