This paper reports a study comparing the immersion pedagogy used by content-trained late English immersion teachers in Hong Kong and language-trained late English immersion teachers in Xi’an, China. The study investigates the classroom discourse of these teachers for evidence of support for their students’ content and target language learning.

It is a cliché that education reform without teachers' contribution would be futile. It is also true that in this fast changing world without change in teachers' fundamental belief and practices the outcome would also be the same. Having gone through eight years of educational reform in Hong Kong, there is a common belief that isolation strategy has disappeared. By this it means so long as one commits oneself to the business of education, a collaborative way of practices both vertically between leaders and the frontline teachers and horizontally among colleagues is deemed to be a culture within which one has to be exposed to influences from all sides. Whether such a condition is taken as a threat to or a resource for professional development depends not only on an individual’s perception and competence but also the kind of condition within which its counterparts have created. It is within this context that this paper attempts to propose a model for organizational development as a whole and teacher's professional growth in particular in light of jazz as a metaphor. The author will explain how this model sheds light on the possibility of how diversity and unity could work together in the service of nurturing excellence and creativity with ethical leadership as the foundation.

The primary aim of this paper is to describe what a professional learning community is and how Learning Study can be regarded as a platform to develop such community in schools. This paper also aims to illustrate with a Learning Study case how the knowledge produced in the Learning Study process becomes public, first within the school in which the case is conducted and then widely across schools as part of the dissemination process. A professional learning community is one where teachers relate their professional learning to the improvement of their students’ learning; take collaborative responsibility for students’ learning; and work together to maximize their learning. Learning Study, which is a form of action research premised on a conceptual framework that builds on three types of variation, is employed as the key agent in the development of such community. By focusing on these three types of variation in a specific object of learning, teachers in the professional learning communities are able to learn from their students, from other teachers and from researchers. Dissemination of the Learning Study case through public seminars to other teachers is an integral part of the participating teachers’ learning when they reflect and prepare for it. Each teacher’s personal professional development thus contributes to a collective knowledge base. This paper draws on the data of a Learning Study about the teaching of “Evaporation and Condensation of water” at Primary 3 level to illustrate how teachers’ professional learning can be enhanced through: engaging in the study that permits a professional dialogue among colleagues; enhances collaboration with tertiary institution; encourages teachers taking enquiry stance; opens opportunities for multiple means of dissemination; and opens opportunities for teachers to reflect on their own practices in a more systematic way.

This paper aims to explore management practices in school organization for sustaining teacher collective learning by using a quasi-experiment design. Secondary schools in Hong Kong are seeking ways to sustain their development in terms of teaching and learning under the 334 New Senior Secondary Reform. Enhancing teacher professional competency via collective learning is the radical key to developing the capacity of schools for coping with this change. Teacher collective learning is conceptualized as team learning of Sengeûs (1990) Learning organization model which is important for school development and individual professional development. By adopting Sengeûs (1990) five disciplines of learning organization as the theoretical framework, this research study has constructed a path model for providing school administrator practical steps to facilitate teacher collective learning effectively under the reform. 20 aided secondary schools in Hong Kong were selected by cluster sampling. 777 teachers took part in the questionnaire survey. A structural equation model was applied to identify the path model for the five disciplines of Sengeûs learning organization model. Results showed that there are predictive effects of personal mastery and system thinking on team learning, while mental model, shared vision are sequential path predictors of system thinking. A path model for predicting teacher collective learning was validated in this study. Enhancing teacher professional development, nurturing a culture of trust, communicating with professional dialogue, negotiating a shared vision and provoking system thinking are recommended to school administrators for sustaining teacher collective learning in coping with the change generated from the reform.

This paper reports on a research project that monitored four key features in an in-service teacher education course for secondary art teachers in Hong Kong. First, the content of the course was reframed to include focus on the attributes of good art teachers and standards of good art teaching. Second, the theory-into-practice model of previous courses was reframed to include a focus on understanding theory through its practical implications. Third, teachers were encouraged to use dialogue journals to reflect on how the ideas and information presented in the course confirmed or challenged their beliefs and practices. Fourth, jointly developed “standards of good practice in art teaching” were used for self and peer evaluation in the teaching practice. Data from dialogue journals and end-of-course interview as well as questionnaires suggest the value of such approaches for in-service teacher education.

In Hong Kong and Macau, educational practitioners and student teachers who are committed to a career in education usually join some professional organizations in their local communities. In the past, little effort had been made by professional organizations to pull students, educational practitioners, and the interested professionals in the two territories - Hong Kong and Macau - together. In 1998, the ACEI: Hong Kong and Macau Branch was founded by a group of teacher educators with the aim at linking students, parents, education practitioners, and other interested professionals of the two territories together in a collaborative effort to promote education quality, professional growth, exchange of ideas, as well as the inherent rights and well-being of children in home, school and community. Also, it fosters interaction among student teachers, teachers, administrators, counselors, and educators to exchange ideas and develop friendships across international boundaries (Hong Kong, Macau, USA, and other countries), as well as to provide an opportunity to publish materials that help members keep up with the important issues and current trends in the field of education. The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) was founded in 1892 by a group of school teachers and other interested professionals in the United States. With over 130 branches in the US and other countries, ACEI is now one of the oldest organizations of its kind which shares a dual commitment to the fulfillment of every child's potential and to the professional development of classroom teachers. This workshop will help participants understand more about the functions of the ACEI: Hong Kong and Macau Branch. Information will be shared concerning how professional development of student teachers and educational practitioners in the two territories could be enriched through regional and international linkages, cooperation and participation in ACEI activities.

Teacher effectiveness has always been an active area of research in teacher education, aiming to improve the quality of both preservice and inservice teachers, subsequently promote the quality of teaching and learning. In this respect, various aspects of teacher development have been studied by researchers such as the stages of development, mentorship, practical knowledge, teacher efficacy, teachers thinking and belief (e.g. Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Kagan, 1992; Bullough and Baughman, 1993' Nespor, 1987; Clark & Peterson, 1986). As teacher educator for many years, the author attempted to conduct a survey study of a group of preservice student teachers to examine their focus of concerns in teaching and their perceived factors leading to successful teaching as part of the investigated areas of teacher development in a teacher education institute in Hong Kong, The Fuller (1969) model of concerns has been widely utilized in teacher education programmes to explain the stages of professional development of a teacher. In the model, Fuller (1969) theorized that teacher concerns could be classified into three distinct categories: elf concerns" which center around the individual concern for their own survival related to their teacher preparation program, including their student teacher experiences; ask concerns" which focus upon the duties that teachers must carry out within the school environment; and impact concerns" which are related to one ability to make a difference and be successful with his /her students and the teaching/learning process. Subsequently, the author wished to know whether the Hong Kong preservice teachers exhibited similar categories of concerns as put forward in Fuller model despite a different cultural context. Meanwhile, the author tried to explore the factors perceived by preservice student teachers leading to successful teaching and whether and how their focus of concerns and perceived important factors of successful teaching were related. It was hoped

This paper is about a study of the learning needs of serving primary school teachers in Hong Kong. The question involved is what are the training needs of these teachers. Literature review shows that there are different elements in teacher development and different stages of teachers' career are related to teachers training requirements. In our study, a questionnaire is given to the participants who have attended an in-service program. In the questionnaire, the respondents have to indicate their perceived competences of themselves and their perceived training needs. They have also to rank (heir psychological needs. The results of the study reveal that there is no big difference in the training needs between teachers of different teaching experience and teaching duties. Also, there is no significant correlation between teachers' perceived competencies and their perceived training needs. The conclusion is that the education reform since 2000 has exerted such great pressure on all teachers that they have a sense of insecurity. Therefore there is a feeling of inadequacy in primary school teachers and they feel an urgent need to upgrade themselves in whatever area in teaching. The positive outcome is that teachers are more ready to attend in-service training program. The negative outcome is that teachers have no long-term goals in their professional development. The true learning needs are to satisfy the government's top-down demand for educational reform in order to attain job security.