The State Education Development Commission in China introduced the communicative syllabus in 1992. However, evidence indicated that the traditional structured-based approach was still prevalent in the English classroom. The paper is an attempt to examine rural teachers’ concerns regarding the adoption of a communicative language teaching (CLT) approach in their classroom. The data for the investigation came from teachers’ journals written during a two-week training programme organized by a Hong Kong voluntary group in Gansu Province, classroom observations, interviews, as well as written correspondence between the teachers and the mentors. The analysis showed that the teachers were positive about the effectiveness of CLT in motivating students to learn English. However, a number of teachers’ concerns that might hinder the adoption of CLT were revealed. Examples of these included teachers’ low English proficiency, lack of confidence, a misconception of CLT, poor understanding of language teaching and insufficient acquisition of teaching skills. The measures taken to help the teachers during the programme were discussed. It is hoped that the discussion contained in this paper could lead to a more frequent professional exchange between teachers from the mainland and Hong Kong so that CLT can be elevated to a new level for the benefits of both teachers and students.

Cooperative learning is only a small component of a core module in the pre-service programmes and an elective module in the in-service programmes of the biggest teacher education institute in Hong Kong. Schools attempting to implement cooperative learning have to rely mainly on the help of external staff developers. Most of the school-based staff development programmes provided by the staff developers start with some introductory talks and workshops, followed by lesson planning, lesson observation and post-lesson sharing by the teachers, and end with a concluding session by the staff developers. Many of these school-based staff development programmes are not effective in attempting to add cooperative learning to the repertoire of the teachers largely because of the weakness of these programmes and the overlooking of the diversified aspects of cooperative learning. This paper suggests a six-phase model of school-based staff development in cooperative learning to enhance the effectiveness of the programmes. These phases are described as setting objectives, participation in workshops, collaborative lesson preparation, peer observation, post-lesson conference and reflection. The model is effective in that it gives ownership to teachers in working in collaboration with their peers as well as staff developers in planning and implementing an innovation.

A method for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning is through encouraging academics to engage in action research projects into some aspect of their teaching which is of interest or problematic for them. Action research is promoted as a means for committed teachers to bridge the gap between their theories and practices, and now it has becoming a required skill of frontline teachers in schools in Hong Kong. However, groups of teachers being sold to the concept, are fresh to such idea and method, and their day to day practice has confined themselves to the more practical and technical management of teaching in schools. This paper explores the use of a case illustration approach for teaching action research on 33 in-service primary school teachers, the application of constructivist theories of learning underpins this approach will be addressed and the result will be discussed while significance of the findings will be highlighted in the light of preparing curriculum leaders to promote change in schools.

Cooperative learning is a powerful teaching strategy which exploits the diversified abilities of students to increase their own and each other’s cognitive and social performance, yet it has not been popularly adopted by teachers in Hong Kong basic education. The aim of the paper is to present an overview of cooperative learning in Hong Kong and suggest ways to enhance its development towards becoming a common part of the repertoires of Hong Kong teachers. The paper begins with a review of the government education documents related to basic education, local literature on cooperative learning including books and journal articles, and projects on cooperative learning funded by the Quality Education Fund. Then, some programmes of the largest teacher education provider in Hong Kong are scrutinised to assess whether student teachers are adequately prepared for employing cooperative learning in their teaching in schools, followed by a scrutiny of some in-service teacher professional development courses offered by the Education Bureau and the teacher education institution. Next, the paper moves to discuss the constraining factors affecting the use of cooperative learning in the basic education sectors. Finally, recommendations are made to enhance the development of cooperative learning in the local context of current education reform and the education policy on class size. It is hoped that the paper can assist educators and policy makers from elsewhere in contemplating how to promote cooperative learning in their own countries. The audience is encouraged to engage in partner talk as well as dialogue with the paper presenter.

The emphasis of learning to learn in curriculum reform has signaled to teachers to adopt student-centered strategies of teaching and different modes of assessment. Cooperative learning, as an innovative instructional strategy, and portfolio assessment, as an alternative assessment, are increasingly being used in Hong Kong classrooms. The change from listening to teachers teach and answering examination questions to taking the initiative to learn and demonstrating competence with self-selected evidence is a great challenge to the students. This paper first discusses the various constraints and difficulties of using cooperative learning and portfolio assessment that Hong Kong teachers and students are encountering, such as the large class size, using social skills in group discussion, writing reflective statements, choosing evidence for inclusion in portfolios, grading portfolios and conducting self and peer assessment. Then examples are drawn from schools of small classes to investigate how the teachers attempt to tackle the problems and difficulties in implementing cooperative learning and portfolio assessment in their schools. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for successful use of portfolio assessment.

This study probes into how pre-service and in-services teachers of various disciplines responded to media-based educational triggers, and their attitudes to the potential technological development in fostering student-centred learning in general and Problem-based Learning (PBL) in particular, with the ultimate goal of enhancing and improving the quality of teacher training. This paper will, therefore, analyze user attitudes to the five newly developed video triggers on PBL, which were developed by the education professionals at the Hong Kong Institute of Education to serve as exemplars for the staff and students who are not familiar with the problem-based approach. The particular standing of this sole teacher-education institute in Hong Kong and the mixed Western and Chinese cultures in the region make this case study unique. The results show that cultural values can exert a significant influence on the adoption of PBL by the Chinese teachers and students. The implications and recommendations arising from the findings obtained in this research project will provide teacher educators, locally as well as elsewhere, with some initial insights when using similar media–based products in teacher education in Hong Kong.