This research explores the use of visual imagery as a strategy for gaining a greater understanding of diversity and inclusion within regular schools as perceived from the perspective of 118 newly qualifying teachers in Hong Kong. Dyads or small groups of teachers participating in a teacher education course were asked to represent their understanding of the concept of inclusion within the local context by using a visual imagery approach. Analysis of 14 images identified a range of issues perceived by these participants as supportive and exclusive of the whole school approach to education being adopted locally. Discussion focuses on the use of visual imagery as an innovative and engaging way for preparing teachers for inclusive education.
[Copyright © 2011 Whole Schooling Press.]

This paper compares the development and placement of teacher education within the tertiary sectors of Japan and Hong Kong. Historically both places initiated formal teacher education separate from university training as part of binary systems, and later moved teacher training to the university sector. Here Hong Kong lags behind Japan, having only recently moved towards creating an all-graduate, all-trained teaching force. Both places retain mono-technical teacher training institutions along side teacher training within comprehensive universities. Both societies are involved in major educational and curriculum reforms in order to respond to both the economic challenges of globalization, and social ills attributed in part to the failure of their educational systems. These reforms are closely linked to the quality (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of teachers. In this regard both Japan and Hong Kong have instituted teacher education reforms. At the same time, demographic realities have significantly lowered the demand for teachers. This has led both governments to try to reduce the size of publicly supported teacher education programs, primarily through pressure for consolidation of existing programs. Research on mergers indicates that these processes are more costly than usually expected, and may not result in the economy and efficiency that often drives the process to begin with. This paper concludes that it is important to initiate merger processes with care, and not to sacrifice other important goals (such as innovative approaches to the production of high quality teachers) in the course of consolidation.
[Copyright © 2004 Center for the Studies of Higher Education, Nagoya University.]

This article addresses the issue of preparing teachers as curriculum leaders to support the wide-ranging curriculum reforms that characterize societies in the Asian Pacific region. It draws on social cognitive theory and, in particular, on what has come to be called teachers’ sense of efficacy. The study sought to extend that research in a Chinese context.
[Copyright © 2006 Rowman & Littlefield Education.]

Data from primary school administrators about professional development in Hong Kong schools and its possible relationship with change and improvement were collected through interviews, a self-report instrument and targeted dominant professional development beliefs and practices. Incongruence between espoused administrator beliefs about professional development and practices in schools was found. Inconsistencies were evident in terms of planning, purposes, activities and teacher involvement. Administrators did not appear to associate strongly professional development with school improvement or change. It is suggested that administrators consider increasing involvement and building a environment based on norms of ongoing improvement. System support, particularly focused on encouraging broader understandings of professional development and greater contextualisation are needed.
[Copyright © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.]

This pilot study examined the use of portfolios for assessment purposes in the context of initial teacher education. Specifically, the study set out to identify the impact of the use of portfolios on teaching and learning outcomes. Reported here are the findings, the constraints and initial results, and learning outcomes for pre-service teachers and their lecturers. The significant implications for teacher educators are that they need to continue to develop and implement assessment for learning and devote more time and effort to this form of evaluation for formative purposes. Staff must understand that the implementation of portfolio use requires corresponding changes to pedagogy and the curriculum. The use of portfolios for assessment purposes in teacher education can enhance reflective practice if teacher educators understand their role in developing a structured environment where their students are given support and guidance to attain the skills of critical self-reflection and independence in their learning.
[Copyright © 1998 Routledge.]

This paper aims to find out the views of 26 pre-service and 8 in-service English teachers in Hong Kong about the information technology courses in their teacher education programmes. The findings of the study show that while both software applications and technology integration in teaching are highlighted in the course outline, the instructor focused more on the application aspect, with the technology integration being less emphasised. Another important finding is that PowerPoint was still the most commonly used application in teaching and the involved pre-service and in-service teachers usually just simply used different computer applications as alternatives to traditional teaching resources. This may reflect the fact that the Information technology courses are not adequate to prepare teachers to teach with it.
[Copyright © 2011 Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The journal web site is located at http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=1657-0790&lng=en&nrm=iso]

This study explores a beginning early childhood teacher’s reflective practices and looks for evidence of characteristics of a reflective practitioner. The participant took part in a series of reflective thinking activities over five months. The findings of this study revealed the participant’s reflective practice in the following aspects: on students learning, teacher-students interaction and teaching behaviour. Most of her reflections focused on technical and practical levels. The participant had the characteristic of a reflective practitioner. Through this case study the author wishes to facilitate reflective teaching by early childhood educators which in turn is expected to help improve the quality of their teaching, besides promoting reflective practice among early childhood educators.
[Copyright © 2011 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

This paper presents an evaluative study exploring a tripartite field experience model of an initial teacher education programme for enhancing pre-service teachers’ learning. The learning process of the model incorporates campus-based courses, school mentor supports, and activating pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy. A cross-sectional quasi-experimental questionnaire was applied to collect data from 229 pre-service teachers of the biggest teacher education institute in Hong Kong. A structural equation model was applied to explore the relationships between the learning process and their learning outcomes in their teaching practices. The results show that the model could improve pre-service teachers’ skills in instructional design, assessment strategies, and managing class activities.
[Copyright © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.]

Elsewhere, serious research attention has been paid to the needs and concerns of beginning teachers so that rational efforts can be expanded to optimize the benefits of teacher education programs for supporting and reinforcing those teachers’ professional development. Hong Kong researchers, however, have yet to place a premium on collecting and analyzing those teacher needs and concerns. The authors perceived the research need and had conducted a study that involved the administration of a questionnaire to 500 final year student teachers and interviews with 19 student teachers. The principal findings are that the student teachers in Hong Kong were at the stage of task concerns and had begun to realize the importance of academic impact concern, that they stressed more on impact concerns with regard to the role of a primary teacher and on task concerns when they considered the daily assignments of a teacher, and that the female student teachers were more concerned with student discipline and welfare than the male counterparts.
[Copyright © 2002 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Information Technology (IT) has become pervasive in our society and it is playing an increasingly important role in education. There is a growing expectation that teachers will be able to make effective use of IT in all facets of their work in schools. There are at least two major reasons which underpin the need to prepare IT teachers in secondary schools. First, schools are expected to prepare students for future jobs. It is quite clear that most of the jobs of the future will require some knowledge of IT. It is therefore important that students learn about IT while they are in schools. This indicates that there is a great need for more teachers who are competent in IT. In particular, secondary schools are short of teachers who are capable of teaching IT as a subject and to incorporate the current learning theories into practice. Second, given the increasing deployment and application of IT in secondary schools, there will be a serious shortage of teachers who are capable of managing and coordinating the use of IT across the school in the secondary context. Under these circumstances, we are offering the IT major in the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) (PGDE(S)) Programme in our Institute. The IT Major is designed to prepare university graduates in technology discipline to be able to act as competent IT subject teachers for all levels in Hong Kong secondary schools. This article will discuss the rationale, principles and approach in designing the programme.
[Copyright © 2005 The Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.]