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This paper examines whether Hong Kong teachers and students perceived Liberal Studies and its ongoing curriculum review as politically driven during and after the Umbrella Movement, a large-scale civil disobedience campaign that took place in September 2014. The findings presented herein show that both groups disagreed with the claim that Liberal Studies was used as a political instrument to instigate students' participation in the protest movement. Moreover, they also reveal that teachers have maintained their neutrality towards controversial issues related to politics during Liberal Studies lessons. Whilst the participating teachers and students considered the government's proposed reform of Liberal Studies to be politically motivated, they held differing attitudes towards the addition of more China-related elements to the subject. On the basis of these results, this paper analyses the potential role of Liberal Studies in the democratisation of local society. It also provides an indication of the curriculum's dynamic nature, explanation of students' resistance to the review policy and suggestions for the subject's future development.

The objective of this study was to determine whether the incorporation of group work in a teaching intervention can effectively foster students' critical thinking skills. Building upon Kuhn's critical thinking model, the research involved comparison of pretest and post-test results for 140 secondary four (10th grade) students in Hong Kong on two measures of critical thinking ability and investigation of their engagement in argumentative dialogues. The findings illustrate the efficacy of group work, relative to whole-class instruction, in helping students develop critical thinking. In addition, the findings highlight the efficacious role of the teacher in breaking the deadlocks that may arise during small-group debates.