CUS6027 Chinese Culture in the Subject of Chinese Language in Hong Kong Primary and Secondary Schools
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · CUS6027 Overview
- The Education University of Hong Kong
- Semester 1, 2026/27
- Postgraduate education
- Two coursework components
- Chinese-medium course
What this course asks you to design
CUS6027 examines Chinese cultural learning inside Hong Kong Chinese Language Education. The subject is not organised as a catalogue of cultural facts.
- Assessment structure A group e-portfolio and presentation carries 30%, while the individual cultural-topic lesson design carries 70%.
- Pass condition To pass CUS6027, overall attendance must be at least 80%; attendance below 80% results in a failing course grade. Check your current attendance record on the course Moodle page.
- Design priority Make cultural inquiry, language activity and assessment evidence depend on one another.
- Project focus Use one bounded cultural question and give every text and lesson a distinct role.
How CUS6027 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| E-portfolio and group presentation | 30% | Group study of an assigned cultural topic, an electronic process portfolio and an oral presentation |
| Individual thematic design | 70% | A cultural-topic lesson design using a core text and supporting texts |
To pass CUS6027, overall attendance must be at least 80%; attendance below 80% results in a failing course grade. Check your current attendance record on the course Moodle page.
What CUS6027 covers
The chapters move from curriculum architecture and cultural reasoning through primary and secondary lesson design to assessment, adaptation and project planning.
Mapping Culture Across the Language Curriculum
nine connected learning domains, language actions and evidence-led curriculum decisionsCulture belongs inside language action
The curriculum describes nine connected learning domains.
- Nine connected curriculum domains
- Language action as the design centre
- Culture as inquiry rather than decoration
- Observable evidence for broad outcomes
- Dependency checks for lesson activities
- Connections among values, thinking and self-learning
Cultural Content, Reflection and Identification
material, institutional and spiritual content across knowledge, reflection and identificationTwo maps clarify cultural learning
Cultural content can be material, institutional or spiritual, while learner engagement can involve knowledge, reflection or identification. These axes answer different questions and should not be collapsed.
- Material cultural content
- Institutional cultural content
- Spiritual cultural content
- Knowledge before responsible judgement
- Reflection on strengths and limits
- Identification as reasoned commitment
Connecting Language, Values and Thinking
text encounter, cultural interpretation, comparison and justified responseIntegration needs a sequence
Language, values and thinking support one another when a lesson moves from textual encounter through interpretation and comparison to justified response.
- Encounter before explanation
- Language features as cultural evidence
- Comparison that reveals value tension
- Reasoned rather than prescribed response
- Collaborative interdependence
- Return from judgement to the text
Designing Primary Cultural Learning
experience, language support, cultural meaning and observable primary learningConcrete entry can support deep reasoning
Primary cultural learning can begin with images, animation, objects and lived experience, but those resources need an instructional role.
- Experience as an entry point
- Resource roles before resource choice
- Vocabulary reused with new functions
- Language support that preserves thought
- Contrast as a route to meaning
- Observable primary learning evidence
Building Secondary Text Progression
core texts, supporting roles and progression from comprehension to transferText sets need distinct roles
Secondary cultural teaching develops from comprehension and language security toward analysis, comparison, evaluation and transfer.
- Core text for sustained analysis
- Supporting text as context or complication
- Classical language tied to interpretation
- Progression through learner verbs
- Comparison before evaluation
- Transfer into a new text or situation
Aligning Learning, Teaching and Assessment
outcomes, activities, evidence and feedback inside one improvement loopEvidence completes the design loop
Assessment collects evidence that can describe current performance and improve later learning and teaching. Alignment requires the outcome, activity, evidence and feedback to concern the same learner decision.
- Outcomes written as performances
- Smallest sufficient learning evidence
- Formative and summative purposes
- Verb matching across a lesson
- Actionable feedback moves
- Evidence used to revise teaching
Adapting Cultural Learning for Learner Difference
barrier diagnosis, preserved outcomes, varied routes and evidence-based supportDiagnose before changing the task
Learner difference is expected, so adaptation begins by locating the barrier rather than assigning a deficit label.
- Difference as a normal condition
- Barrier diagnosis before support
- Access support versus reduced demand
- Common outcomes across varied routes
- Extension that deepens the inquiry
- Evidence used to review scaffolds
Planning the Cultural Topic Project
bounded inquiry, text roles, lesson sequence and published marking prioritiesCoherence matters more than volume
The individual project asks for a cultural-topic lesson design using a core text and supporting texts across four lessons.
- Bounded cultural inquiry
- Core and supporting text roles
- Four-lesson progression
- Process evidence in the group portfolio
- Discussion questions that test design
- Rubric lenses for final editing
It asks how culture is carried through listening, speaking, reading and writing, how materials are selected and interpreted, and how teaching and assessment can help learners move from knowledge toward reflection and reasoned identification.
The practical endpoint is the ability to select, evaluate, design and revise culturally rich language-learning materials.
The curriculum map behind the course
Chinese culture sits within nine connected learning domains. The four language modes lead, while literature, cultural learning, affective and moral development, thinking and self-directed learning support one another.
This structure matters in every assessed design. A cultural topic must create a genuine language action, and the language task must expose something about cultural meaning. Attractive activities are not enough unless they produce evidence of the intended learning.
How the guide supports the coursework
The chapters give you a repeatable design method.
You will classify cultural content, distinguish knowledge from reflection and identification, build primary and secondary progressions, align outcomes with evidence, adapt without lowering the central outcome and narrow the individual project into one teachable inquiry.
Original cases and practice tasks model the decisions required by the published rubric without copying course examples or inventing a University mark scheme.
Attendance condition
To pass CUS6027, overall attendance must be at least 80%; attendance below 80% results in a failing course grade. Check your current attendance record on the course Moodle page.
Worked example · free
Repair a cultural lesson whose evidence does not match
- 2Name the intended decision and the current task verb.
- 2Design a response that requires cultural and language evidence.
- 2Explain how earlier activity prepares the response.
Key terms
- Cultural Learning
- Learning that develops knowledge, reflection and reasoned identification through culturally meaningful language activity.
- Material Culture
- Created objects and environments such as food, clothing, architecture, technology and heritage sites.
- Institutional Culture
- Social norms, roles and organised practices such as ritual, kinship and naming.
- Spiritual Culture
- Ideas and expressive forms including philosophy, ethics, education, literature and art.
- Cultural Reflection
- Reasoned examination of a cultural practice's strengths, limits, modern significance and alternatives.
- Cultural Identification
- An informed relationship of appreciation or commitment formed after knowledge and reflection.
- Learning Evidence
- A response, product or observation that makes an intended learner performance visible.
- Formative Assessment
- Evidence used during learning to decide the next learner or teaching action.
- Summative Assessment
- Evidence used after a learning period to describe the level a learner has reached.
- Text Progression
- A sequence in which texts support increasing interpretive complexity and learner independence.
- Learner Adaptation
- A change to access, route or response mode that preserves the intended learning outcome.
- Design Alignment
- A coherent relationship among outcomes, activities, evidence and feedback.
CUS6027 FAQ
What are the published assessment weights?
The current memorandum gives 30% to the e-portfolio and group presentation and 70% to the individual thematic design. Those numeric rows total 100%. The attendance pass condition is separate from the weighting, so it should be tracked as a course requirement rather than treated as a third marked component.
Is there a final examination?
The two official assessment tables for this course list only the group component and the individual thematic design. Preparation should therefore focus on the portfolio, presentation and lesson-design project. References to public examinations inside curriculum readings concern school Chinese Language Education, not a final examination for this postgraduate course.
What attendance rule affects passing?
To pass CUS6027, overall attendance must be at least 80%; attendance below 80% results in a failing course grade. The current memorandum also treats arrival more than 15 minutes late or departure more than 15 minutes early as absence. Keep your own attendance record and consult the course Moodle page if a documented circumstance affects participation.
How should I choose a cultural topic?
Start with a bounded question about representation, change, tension or educational significance rather than a broad category such as festivals or traditional virtues. A useful topic lets one core text support close language study, gives supporting texts distinct roles and leads to an observable final performance across the planned lessons.
What makes a text set coherent?
A coherent set has roles rather than merely a shared theme. The core text sustains language and cultural analysis, a supporting text adds context or complication, and a transfer text tests whether students can use the learned method independently. Remove a text if it does not change the question or prepare the final evidence.
How do I show learning-teaching-assessment alignment?
Name the learner decision in the outcome, choose an activity that develops that decision and collect the smallest product that reveals it. Feedback should then identify the gap and give a next action. Topic overlap is insufficient: the verbs in outcome, activity and evidence must form a credible progression.
How can I adapt without lowering the outcome?
Locate the barrier before choosing support. You can add glosses, audio, rehearsal, grouping or a different route while keeping the essential text evidence and success criteria. State what evidence will show whether the support worked and when it can be faded, retained or redesigned.
What should the group process portfolio record?
Record decisions rather than only meetings. Useful entries name the design problem, sources consulted, options considered, the reason one option was rejected, what changed and what remains uncertain. This makes collaborative judgement visible and gives the oral presentation a clear account of development and revision.
Questions students ask in each CUS6027 chapter
- Why are the nine domains not nine separate lesson sections?
- The curriculum treats them as interdependent aspects of language learning. Listening, speaking, reading and writing normally carry the work, while culture, literature, values, thinking and self-learning deepen its purpose. Dividing them into isolated sections can create labels without a coherent learner performance. Map the dependency instead: state which language action makes the cultural meaning examinable and which response lets the teacher observe it. The map is strongest when removing one connection changes the task's purpose or evidence. For example, close reading may reveal how a value is constructed, comparison may test its limits and speaking may require the interpretation to be made intelligible to an audience. These are connected performances, not three boxes to mention independently. A concise rationale should state the causal link among them and identify the evidence that will confirm it. Chapter 01 · Mapping Culture Across the Language Curriculum
- Can one topic belong to all three content dimensions?
- Yes. A festival can include material objects, institutional roles and spiritual ideas. The categories are analytical lenses rather than sealed boxes. Their purpose is to reveal what a lesson currently emphasises and what a comparison or activity might add. Follow one object into the roles organised around it and the ideas it expresses; that movement shows why several dimensions can illuminate the same practice. Keep the source and represented community bounded when describing those connections. Chapter 02 · Cultural Content, Reflection and Identification
- Why should a lesson begin with encounter rather than explanation?
- An initial encounter gives learners something to notice and creates a reason to seek context. Teacher explanation remains important, but it becomes more meaningful when it answers a live question raised by wording, image, voice or action rather than replacing the learner's inquiry. Preserve the first interpretation so students can later identify what the explanation clarified, complicated or caused them to revise. That comparison makes conceptual change available for reflection and feedback. Chapter 03 · Connecting Language, Values and Thinking
- Are videos and animation enough to support primary cultural learning?
- They can focus attention and provide shared experience, but their value depends on the question and response they support. A resource should prepare vocabulary, comparison, inference or explanation. Enjoyment alone does not demonstrate cultural or language learning. Pause at a meaningful contrast, ask pupils to predict or explain, and collect a later response that shows how the resource changed their understanding. Remove repeated media when it adds attention but no new learner decision. Chapter 04 · Designing Primary Cultural Learning
- How should a core text be selected?
- Choose a text rich enough to support sustained language attention and focused enough to serve one bounded cultural inquiry. It should contain features learners can interpret, compare and revisit, not merely carry a famous cultural topic. Check that learners can return to its wording after contextual and comparative work and say something more precise than they could on first reading. Also confirm that its access demands leave enough lesson time for interpretation. Chapter 05 · Building Secondary Text Progression
- How can I tell whether an assessment is aligned?
- Circle the main verb in the outcome, activity and assessment. The activity should develop the intended decision and the assessment should reveal it. Sharing a topic is not enough when one component asks for comparison and another rewards recall. Trace the evidence a successful learner would produce at each point and add rehearsal wherever the final form introduces an unprepared demand. Alignment should be visible at the level of thinking, not only subject matter. Chapter 06 · Aligning Learning, Teaching and Assessment
- Does differentiation mean giving easier cultural content?
- Not automatically. First identify whether vocabulary, syntax, prior knowledge, organisation or response mode blocks access. Support can change the route while retaining the interpretive question and essential evidence. Lowering the central demand may address the wrong problem. Use a brief diagnostic response to distinguish access difficulty from conceptual difficulty before changing texts, criteria or outcomes. Review the response again after support to test whether the diagnosis was sound. Chapter 07 · Adapting Cultural Learning for Learner Difference
- How narrow should the individual project be?
- It should ask one cultural and language question that can develop across the planned lessons. If each text introduces a new issue or each activity needs a separate rationale, the project is too broad. Depth comes from revisiting one inquiry with increasing independence. Write what the project excludes and test whether every text changes the answer to the same central question. A clear boundary makes both selection and later revision more disciplined. Chapter 08 · Planning the Cultural Topic Project
How to prepare for the assessments
Build one design notebook around a single cultural question. Use four columns for the intended outcome, the evidence you would accept, the activity that produces it and the adaptation you would make after seeing the evidence. After each chapter, revise the same draft rather than starting a disconnected example.
By the end, the notebook should show a bounded inquiry, distinct text roles, progressive lesson verbs, an aligned final product and source-grounded feedback criteria. For the group task, convert key decisions into process-log entries and rehearse explanations of why the design changed. For the individual task, audit content accuracy first, structural alignment second and wording third.
Check the current Moodle submission area for operational details and required declarations before submitting.
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