In recent years, art education in Macao has been a target of criticism, claiming that it does not nurture students’ creativity and cultural competence. The education reform starting in 1991 triggered the curriculum reform, which involved the total curriculum of preschool, primary and secondary education, art education curriculum being one to be included in the reform and its latest versions were published in 1999. The local education authority has taken the responsibilities in promoting the production of the curriculum since 1994, the syllabus and the “teaching and learning organization plan” of each discipline have been tried out in the official Luso-Chinese schools since the school year 1995/1996. The principles for designing the curriculum will surely affect the curriculum design and implementation, the curriculum designing principles in Macao are oriented to student and community, with the principles of teacher empowerment, curriculum development by stages, etc. The design and implementation model is of school-based orientation and using a “bottom-up model". An exploratory study on the government's art education curriculum was done to all art teachers of private Chinese and English primary schools in Macao, and an interview made to an art teacher and her superiors of a private secondary school. The results show that many primary teachers, art education being one of the subjects to teach, give great importance on students’ creativity and deem that art education should be learner based, yet they reject the idea that art education should involve the elements of community. As for the cultural competence, they do not consider art history teaching an important issue. It is showed that the personnel management, resources, and school management do not reflect strong support for art education to be developed in a school-based approach. It is probably difficult once an overall implementation of the art education curriculum be done Special District wide. As for the results of interview, they show that teacher's professional competence, teaching resources, school management and students’ conditions bring great influence on the successful implementation of the art education curriculum. The following are proposed for the improvement of Macao’s future art education: Reconstruction of the total curriculum to increase integration between disciplines; Increase of teacher training in the field of art education concepts and curriculum development, in order to decrease teacher's dependence on textbook and mass produced teaching material, and to be more competent in developing curriculum for their classes; For the resources, more art rooms, computers, and supporting teaching material will be needed; Though difficult, it is worthy of promoting the school-based development of art education, thus a tailor-made art education curriculum may be possibly elaborated for the students; For the art teacher community, mechanism should be promoted for a better communication between them, therefore the group effect be brought up. In terms of organization, the Macao SAR Government will implement the small class regime in the preparatory year for primary education this year, this will certainly help raise the quality of art education. It is expected that after a brief period this regime will be implemented in the higher grades in primary and secondary education for a better development of local art education.

澳門的學校美術教育近年受到不少批評，指其缺乏培養創造力及人文素 養。1991年開展的教育改革帶動本地課程改革，涉及中、小學教育的整體課程，美術教育的課程亦為課程改革的內容之一。教育行政當局1994年開始負責推動課程的制定工作。各科課程大綱及各級相關的「教學/學習組織計劃」自1995/1996學年起，包括美術教育的課程大綱陸續在官立中葡學校試行，並在1999年公佈最新的版本。 制定課程所採用的課程設計原則影響日後課程的設計和實施。對於澳門課 程設計原則的取向，提出了學生和社會的取向、教師「賦權增能原則」，課程發展以階段方式進行。課程的設計及實施模式則以校本課程發展為路向，並且以由下至上的模式推行。 在私立學校方面，展開小學美術教師對政府制定的美術教育課程的調查， 並對一所中學的教師、主任作出訪談。發現小學美術教師之中，許多都重視學生的創造力及認為美術教育應以學生為本，但不接受美術教育中有關社區的成分。對於美術的人文素養方面不重視美術史的教學，在校內人事、資源、校政等方面都沒有強而有力的條件支持校本的美術教育課程發展，相信全面施行教育當局制定的美術教育課程仍會有相當困難。訪談結果顯示教師本身的專業知能及學校行政、教學資源及學生的條件，影響課程的有效實施。 本文建議從整體課程的角度考慮重組課程，以增加科目間的統整。教師方 面，加強美術教育觀念、課程發展方面的培訓，以使之獨立自主，免於依賴現存的教材或教科書，可發展適用於班級條件的課程。資源方面，建議為學校增加例如美術室、電腦、輔助教材等教學資源，美術教育課程的校本發展雖不容易，但應嘗試推動，使到美術教育更朝著配合學生的條件的方向發展。不管是課程的持續發展或教學的交流，適宜制定機制，讓美術教師能常有溝通機會，使地區的美術教師發揮整體的效應。在組織上，現在特區府政提出在小學教育 預備班推行小班教學措施，這一制度是使美術教學有效的條件之一，未來能開展到小學高年級和中學則會更有助本地美術教育的發展。