HKU MEDD8937: Curriculum Implementation and Leadership — course overview with AskSia
MEDD8937 Curriculum Implementation and Leadership is a 6-credit specialist course in the Curriculum and Pedagogy specialism of HKU's Master of Education, listed for 2026-27 and also open to other specialisms as an elective with limited quota.
Sia generates MEDD8937 practice questions, walks through curriculum implementation as a process and concerns-based adoption model step by step, and quizzes you on the material the presentation that weights most heavily.
Sharpen your argument
A district rolls out a new inquiry-based science curriculum with a two-day workshop and new textbooks. A year later most lessons look as they did before. Which diagnosis best applies the course?
The course treats implementation as a process, not an event; a workshop and materials are inputs, not implementation.
Coaching, mentoring and professional learning communities are the support measures the syllabus lists for exactly this gap.
Blaming materials, mandating compliance or abandoning the design each skip the factors-of-implementation analysis.
One presentation decides 100% of your grade. Continuous; 100% coursework. This whole page is built around that.
Overview
What MEDD8937 is, and where it sits
MEDD8937 Curriculum Implementation and Leadership is a 6-credit specialist course in the Curriculum and Pedagogy specialism of HKU's Master of Education, listed for 2026-27 and also open to other specialisms as an elective with limited quota.
The course description sheet frames it around curriculum implementation as a process: the stages, the factors that influence implementation, the application of evaluation, and the issues and challenges seen from multiple perspectives, plus the roles curriculum leaders play in leading renewals in school and government settings. Its eight content topics run from implementation as a process and the Concerns-Based Adoption Model, through educative curriculum materials, coaching and mentoring and professional learning communities, to organisational change for renewal and the roles of curriculum leaders.
The three objectives all speak to future curriculum developers and officers: formulating, implementing and evaluating implementation strategies; designing teacher professional support measures; and transforming organisational and curricular practices. Assessment is 100% coursework through an oral presentation, a written evaluation and a reflective essay.
Always treat your own course outline and the exam timetable as authoritative.
Difficulty & time commitment
Is MEDD8937 hard, and how much time does it take?
MEDD8937 is manageable if you keep a weekly rhythm and treat the back half as the main event. The pattern is consistent: it starts gently and steepens, and the heaviest assessment is the part that separates grades.
The difficulty curve and the assessment weighting point the same way: the back half is harder and worth more. Front-loading effort there is the highest-return decision in the course.
Is this course for you
Who tends to do well, and who tends to struggle
You will likely do well if
- You have watched a curriculum reform land in a school and can describe what happened week by week.
- You can separate a teacher's concern about a change from resistance to it.
- You can write a critical evaluation of something you were part of.
You may struggle if
- You expect a curriculum-design course; design is the sister course, this one is about what happens after design.
- You describe a reform's outcome without analysing the factors that produced it.
- You treat the reflective essay as a diary rather than an argument about practice.
- Choose one real renewal in week one and use it in the presentation, the evaluation and the essay.
- Map that renewal onto the Concerns-Based Adoption Model stages before you write anything else.
- For each support measure (materials, coaching, PLCs), state one condition under which it sustains the change and one under which it fades.
Syllabus
The 10 topics, topic by topic
Topics from the public source. Their order is a content map, not an official weekly timetable or published exam weighting.
T1 · Curriculum implementation as a process
Description sheet topic 1; CLO 1Stages of implementation and why adoption is not the same as use.
T2 · Concerns-Based Adoption Model
Description sheet topic 2Reading teachers' concerns and levels of use as the implementation unfolds.
T3 · Factors of curriculum implementation
Description sheet topic 3; CLO 1The conditions that help or block implementation across sites.
T4 · Educative curriculum materials
Description sheet topic 4Materials designed to teach the teacher as well as the student.
T5 · Coaching and mentoring
Description sheet topic 5; CLO 2One-to-one support measures for effective implementation.
T6 · Professional learning communities
Description sheet topic 6; CLO 2Collective support structures and sustainability of the change.
T7 · Organisational changes for curriculum renewals
Description sheet topic 7; CLO 3Transforming organisational and curricular practices so a new curriculum can take.
T8 · Roles of curriculum leaders
Description sheet topic 8What a leader does in school and government settings to lead renewal.
T9 · Formulating and evaluating implementation strategies
Course objective 1; CLO 1Strategies that are theoretically rigorous and contextually appropriate, given the influencing factors.
T10 · Oral presentation, written evaluation and reflective essay
AssessmentThe three assessed pieces of the course.
How it's assessed
Assessment structure
| Component | Weight | Format & timing |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework (oral presentation, written evaluation, reflective essay) | 100% | An oral presentation, a written evaluation and a reflective essay, as listed on the course description sheet; individual weights are not published. Across the course. Continuous; 100% coursework. |
- 100% coursework: oral presentation, written evaluation and reflective essay (weights not published). MEd regulations allow re-assessment, re-submission or repetition of a failed course.
- No examination. The tasks map to three CLOs: formulate, implement and evaluate implementation strategies; formulate and evaluate support measures, including consistency across sites and sustainability; develop strategies to transform organisational and curricular practices.
This is a coursework course. Coursework carries 100% of the grade and the coursework (oral presentation, written evaluation, reflective essay) is the single heaviest piece at 100%, so steady work across the semester decides your result more than any one sitting. Continuous; 100% coursework.
Final exam timing: No examination. Confirm the exact date and venue on your exam timetable.
How to actually pass it
A weekly rhythm, two checklists, and the traps to avoid
The course rewards consistency over cramming, and practice over re-reading. Here is the loop that works, then what to have nailed before each exam.
The weekly loop
The mistakes that cost marks
Formula & concept sheet
The vocabulary and formulas you must own
- Curriculum implementation
- The process by which a designed curriculum comes to be used in classrooms.
- Concerns-Based Adoption Model
- A framework describing teachers' stages of concern and levels of use during a change.
- Educative curriculum materials
- Materials written to develop teachers' knowledge as they use them.
- Professional learning community
- A group of teachers who inquire into their practice together to sustain a change.
- Coaching
- Sustained one-to-one support for a teacher implementing a new practice.
- Implementation consistency
- The degree to which a curriculum is enacted the same way across sites.
- Sustainability
- Whether an implemented change and its effects last beyond the initial push.
- Curriculum leader
- A person who leads renewal in a school or government setting.
Where it fits
Prerequisites, related courses & why it matters
No prerequisites; 6 credits; one of the four Curriculum and Pedagogy specialist courses listed for 2026-27, also open as an elective with limited quota.
Your MEDD8937 study toolkit
Study the course with Sia, not just read about it
Use your permitted course notes with these study tools. Follow your course’s rules for AI and assessed work.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is MEDD8937 hard?
Light on the six-factor rubric: 100% coursework in three tasks with no numbers, but the written evaluation and reflective essay are judged on analytical honesty about an implementation.
What is the assessment?
An oral presentation, a written evaluation and a reflective essay; the course description sheet does not publish the weights.
Is it new?
It appears on the Faculty's 2026-27 list of Curriculum and Pedagogy specialist courses and is not in the 2025-26 Regulations and Syllabuses PDF.
What are the readings?
The description sheet lists the Second International Handbook of Educational Change (Hargreaves, Lieberman, Fullan and Hopkins, 2010), Jackson's Handbook of Research on Curriculum (1992) and Posner's Analysing the Curriculum (3rd ed., 2004).
Who is it for?
The objectives name future curriculum developers and officers; the content covers school and government settings.
Who teaches it?
The public description sheet does not name the teaching staff.
Study MEDD8937 with Sia
Practise explaining the course concepts and check your reasoning. Confirm assessed-work requirements in your current outline.
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