| Drama has been introduced as a subject into the Hong Kong school system for ten years, however, until now, the Hong Kong Education Bureau (EdB) has not yet published a specific curriculum guide for the subject. When a school wants to construct her school-based Drama curriculum at the junior secondary level, she may refer to the more sophisticated curriculums oversea, or looking for guidance from the Arts Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (PI-S3) (Curriculum Development Council,2002), a curriculum guide for all art subjects. As a result, the components of Drama curriculum, including the learning content and the pedagogy, depend very much on the quality of the drama teachers and thus varies greatly from school to school. Drama is a subject in the Arts Education Key Learning Area and should include the aesthetic dimension in the curriculum, so as to enhance the aesthetic sensitivity of the students. In this connection, the researcher would like to analyze the aesthetic dimension of the Drama curriculum at the junior secondary level in Hong Kong, and make suggestions on the three dimensions of aesthetic education in this dissertation, namely, sensitivity, standardizability and creativity, so as to enhance the aesthetic abilities of our students.The researcher has chosen three drama curriculums at the junior secondary level of three schools after referring to the learning content, learning hours and the continuity of the curriculum. The researcher would analyze the curriculums in the perspectives of culture, aesthetics and theatre. The research methods used are Literature Analysis and Case Studies. Chapter one is an introduction to this dissertation, including the background and the significance of the research, the problems about aesthetic education encountered by the Drama curriculum in schools at the junior secondary level. The researcher is looking into the problems from the perspectives of the three dimensions of Aesthetic Education proposed by Prof. Zhang YL, the curriculum model proposed by Prof. Paul Morris, and the 4P model of creativity proposed by Rhode. Chapter two focuses on analyzing the sensitivity dimension of Aesthetic Education of the Drama curriculum from the perspective of Hong Kong Culture. Riding the worldwide trend, the EdB has launched the education Reform and has put Drama into the school formal curriculum, however, the curriculums'aims varies from school to school. Furthermore, the researcher notes that Hong Kong cultures has many layers, each layer casts its specific influence on the concepts of people on Drama and Drama Education. Chapter three focuses on the standardizability dimension of Aesthetic Education in Drama by referring to the theories of the renowned Aesthetic educators. The researcher recognizes that sadness and happiness are the two outstanding features of dramatic art. Sadness can be further divided tragic, absurd and lofty; and happiness can be divided into ugly, comical and humor. The researcher looks for these elements in the Drama curriculums and then make suggestions on aesthestic education on it. In chapter four, the researcher looks into the creativity dimension of Aesthetic Education in Drama by referring to the drama conventions of Konstantine Stanislavsky, Bertolt Brecht and Mei Lanfang. The researcher notes that schools emphasize too much on Stanislavsky, and the researcher recommends the schools should pay more attention to the other two conventions, so as to enhance the aesthetic sensitivities of the students. Chapter five is the conclusion. After looking into the three aspects of the cultural structure, aesthetic paradigm, and drama conventions, the researcher makes conclusion for the aesthetic education of Hong Kong schools at the junior secondary level. The researcher also gives suggestions for the resources allocation for the implementation of the drama curriculum with aesthetic dimension. Finally, the researcher makes suggestions for enhancing the aesthetic sensitivity of students through effective drama curriculum at the junior secondary level.
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