Today, post secondary institutions, including universities and employers, look for young people possessing broad horizons, positive attitude, good communication skills and a capacity to work well with others rather than "examination-oriented elites". 

In order to realise the idea of whole-person development, the new senior secondary curriculum requires students to have "other learning experiences", in areas such as community services, physical and aesthetic activities and moral and civic education to complement and support their academic learning.

This allows students to accumulate experiences that they cannot gain from books or in normal class lessons, and thus enhances their whole-person development.  It also helps students develop the ability and habit of reflection, gradually fostering in them positive values and a life-long learning capacity.

Whole-person development

We encourage each student to build up a personal profile for recording all their learning experiences during the senior secondary years, including their academic achievements and other competencies/attainments, to serve as evidence of whole-person development. Contents of the Senior Secondary Student Learning Profile may include:

* academic performance in school

* other learning experiences

* performance/awards in other aspects, and important activities

In fact, the learning profile is not something new. Nowadays, students use various means, such as transcript, learning diary, learning activity log and portfolios  to show their academic and non-academic attainments for admission to universities or colleges. As regards the Senior Secondary Student Learning Profile, schools may decide on the format of the profile to be used to handle and record their senior secondary students' learning experiences and attainment within and outside the school.

It is noteworthy that learning profiles are intended to be succinct but pertinent accounts of students' development. Since only quality, not quantity, matters, they should be designed as a summary presentation of substantial work or activities, rather than an account of each and every detail.

In fact, excessive details could be detrimental. According to the Admissions Officer of a renowned overseas university, a learning profile with excessive information not only fails to highlight the applicant's competencies and aptitudes; it actually creates an impression that the applicant might be purposeless, lacking commitment and has short attention span for most things.

Self-discipline for sustainable development

The purpose of the learning profile is to provide supplementary information on the secondary school leavers' competencies and specialties, in addition to their academic performance as reported in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education, including the assessment results for Career-oriented Studies courses, thus giving a full and 'three-dimensional' picture of the person.

However, we do not wish to see students participating in a multitude of learning activities solely for the purpose of "padding up" their profiles. This is putting the cart before the horse and such ingenuity would be easily seen through during an interview.

To enhance students' motivation in self-initiated learning and improve their self-discipline, schools could encourage their students to take responsibility for their development and their own learning records.

Students should be encouraged to tailor their learning plans to suit their interests at the beginning of the school year, and then start to collate and store relevant information proactively. They should have long-term commitment and passion for the activities they have chosen in devising their learning plans, and should participate in such activities persistently, through which they can demonstrate their leadership skills.

They should not give up halfway lest they would get nowhere in the end. Taking community service as an example, students would better serve in the same organisation continuously to establish a long term relationship with the service recipients for deeper understanding of the needs of those being served.

Early preparation

All in all, the Senior Secondary Student Learning Profile should not be seen as a "bolt-on" initiative implemented "top-down". It is in fact a long-term and sustainable development to support students in learning to learn and being a self-directed learner. It provides a medium for students to share with others their "stories" of learning and growing up.

The Senior Secondary Curriculum Guide to be published by Education & Manpower Bureau shortly will provide the basic principles of preparing the Senior Secondary Student Learning Profile, with school-based exemplars showing its format and practice.

This will be a useful reference for schools. We will also provide relevant training for teachers to help their students prepare the learning profiles, so that the students will learn to tell the stories of their learning and reflect upon them so that they become the real masters of the profiles.