| Education is for students. Nonetheless, even the curriculum is designed for students, they have the least say in it. With reference to the relatively new initiative in Hong Kong: the Hong Kong Diploma of Education (HKDSE), it is time for researchers and educationalists to consider ways to improve the planning and implementation of the School-Based Assessment (SBA). Listening to students and valuing their perspectives can enable a more thorough planning of the curriculum.;Through interviewing twenty four students and two English teachers, this research aims at addressing the student voice, which means students expressing their views, interpretations and understanding with the expectation that someone will listen. During the process, students' multiple perspectives on learning and their interpretations of the SBA in the English Language curriculum are reflected and would be acknowledged. The three foci of this research are:;(1) What do students experience in the SBA?;(2) How do students present their roles in the SBA?;(3) How are students involved in the improvement of what happens in classrooms?;At a practical level, students' perspectives contribute to fine-tuning the curriculum, and suggest directions or ways to initiate changes more successfully. At a theoretical level, the study aims to further explore students' involvement in the curriculum, and fill the gaps of the framework of four levels of student participation pioneered by Fielding (2001). If taking a closer look at his framework, there should be some other roles students can take, particularly in the gap between Level 2 (students as "active respondents") and Level 3 (students as "co-researchers"). The data collected revealed that students can be active agents of change and practitioners in the SBA curriculum implementation, given that the school culture, teachers' professional knowledge favour the emergence of student voice. Otherwise, the opinions of students would remain unvoiced or merely be heard, and no further action could be taken. |
