Exploring teachers' beliefs about teacher learning in professional learning communities and their influence on collegial activities in two departments

Exploring teachers' beliefs about teacher learning in professional learning communities and their influence on collegial activities in two departments

• Tam, Angela Choi Fung Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1-23, 2014

Routledge

2014

• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MD Teachers' Organization
• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MG Identities, Attitudes & Opinion of Educational Workers

Teachers' Beliefs Professional Learning Community Teacher Learning

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Secondary Education

Factors leading to successful professional learning communities (PLCs) have been widely discussed in the West, but little is known about how/whether teachers' beliefs contribute to PLCs in the Chinese context. This qualitative case study aimed to investigate teachers' beliefs about teacher learning in PLCs and their influence on collegial learning activities in two departments of a Hong Kong secondary school. Semi-structured interviews and observations were employed to collect data. The findings indicate that teachers in the Chinese Department believed that learning could be achieved in PLCs and their practices of collegial activities were conducive to teacher learning. Conversely, teachers in the English Department did not believe that interacting with colleagues would foster learning and their collegial activities yielded limited accomplishment in teacher growth. It is suggested that teachers' beliefs play an important role in facilitating or impeding reform initiatives on teacher development. Implications for teacher education and further studies are discussed.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2013.872025]

• English

Journal Articles

• 03057925

• 10.1080/03057925.2013.872025

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/11af649b

2014-10-22