This paper aims to extend our understanding of the influence of school professional cultures and principal leadership effects on early-career teacher leadership aspiration, learning and development in the evolving hybrid of Western and Confucian cultures of Hong Kong. What are early-career teachers’ aspirations of leadership development in different professional cultures of the school? How do the principal leadership effects facilitate or hinder teacher leadership development in the professional culture? A multiple case study approach was adopted. Findings show that positive professional culture built by professional relationships between the principals and teachers and among teachers can stimulate early-career teacher leadership aspiration. The principal leadership effects can facilitate and hinder professional collaboration and support for the teacher leadership development in the Chinese school hierarchy of Hong Kong. This study contributes to unveiling in-depth understandings of teacher leadership aspiration, learning and development as the socially constructed experiences of the teachers in contrast to the professional culture highlighted in the school document. Insights gained from the study can inform the in-school progression of teacher leadership development in the school hierarchy. Implications for school achievement through continuing professional development are also highlighted. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study aimed to develop a corpus-aided pronunciation teacher-training programme and examine the effectiveness of a corpus-aided pronunciation teaching approach in English classrooms in Hong Kong. A workshop was conducted for 86 participants to introduce several English learner corpora. After the workshop, eight volunteer participants, pre-service teachers in Hong Kong, were paired off, entered into a seven-stage corpus-aided pronunciation teacher programme and attended interviews. One pair was selected to give a trial lesson, and 13 primary school students were invited to evaluate this lesson. The results revealed that the training provided sufficient knowledge about corpus-aided pronunciation teaching and task design. The pre-service teachers expressed a strong willingness to use corpus data as examples to raise students' awareness of commonly mispronounced sounds. They agreed that the flipped instruction component was effective. Of the 13 primary school students, 83.33% agreed that they learned how to pronounce the target sounds correctly, and 75% were able to identify their mispronounced sounds via the corpus-aided teaching method. The findings will not only provide pre-service teachers with examples of corpus-aided pronunciation lesson plans and materials but also contribute to integrating the flipped classroom approach into teacher education programmes. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

香港教育的每一次改革必然引起教師教育的變革,教師教育的不斷調整及變革則力促教育改革的順利推進。從2003年開始的新一輪教師教育改革,圍繞提升教師學歷、發展校本培訓、注重院校協作及加強專業交流等方面,專注於教師專業能力的不斷提升,注重教師的"全人發展",借此推動教育改革和發展。

This article highlights findings from a case study research investigating factors that foster the academic achievement of community college students in Hong Kong. Data was collected from in-depth interviews with six community college students in a middle-sized, self-funded community college. The findings illustrate nuanced facets of teacher care that are conducive to students’ academic and personal development, including (i) teachers as important transmitters of knowledge; (ii) teachers as care-givers; (iii) pedagogical care; (iv) teachers as advice-givers, and (v) teachers as role models. The research has practical implications for practices within community colleges and teacher training in the sub-degree sector. Copyright © 2019 NAPCE

This study explores the professional learning of ten pre-service teachers from Hong Kong and ten host teachers in a school in China who participated in a teaching abroad project. The participants' professional learning during the project is conceptualised within five knowledge domains of quality teaching for the twenty-first century: personal, contextual, pedagogical, sociological and social. The findings suggest that by immersing pre-service teachers in an unfamiliar teaching environment, they can learn professional knowledge for teaching in an increasingly complex world. This complements the knowledge they are acquiring in their domestic courses and practicums. Furthermore, through the pedagogical exchange of ideas, the host teachers are also found to benefit. We recommend that teaching abroad opportunities be included in initial teacher education (ITE) programmes and that host teachers' professional learning are considered in their development.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge.]

In this decade, assessment literacy has emerged as a significant research agenda. Yet, not much has been done to explore teacher assessment literacy in L2 writing. This study investigates what Hong Kong secondary school teachers know and think about, and how they practice classroom-based writing assessment through a questionnaire, telephone interviews, and classroom observations. The study qualitatively examines the extent to which sixty-six respondents achieved teacher assessment literacy from their perspectives, and which aspects of teacher assessment literacy needed further consolidation and why. Self-reported findings show that most respondents had pertinent assessment knowledge and positive conceptions about alternative writing assessments. Despite this, observation data indicate that some respondents had a partial understanding of assessment of learning (AoL) and assessment for learning (AfL), but not assessment as learning (AaL). In fact, when attempting AaL, the respondents could merely mimic its 'procedures' rather than internalise its 'essence'. Implications are discussed concerning how to develop teacher assessment literacy in L2 writing classrooms.
[Copyright of System is the property of Elsevier Ltd.]

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students are expected to master content knowledge and language simultaneously. The worldwide popularity of this kind of programme has called for professional development, particularly for content subject teachers who have to shoulder some responsibilities of language teaching in CLIL. There have been several frameworks or proposals for professional development of CLIL teachers. Yet, empirical studies investigating the effectiveness of CLIL professional development programmes remain scarce. This gap is particularly important, since the relationship between professional development and teacher change is complicated and there are various factors affecting whether and how teacher would change. This study implemented a 6-month professional development programme for a group of content subject teachers in CLIL in Hong Kong. With data gathered with questionnaires, interviews, lesson observations and post-lesson reflections, this paper reports the trajectory of three case teachers who seemed to experience different degrees of changes in beliefs and language awareness. These differences could be explained by the influence of such factors as school context, learning experience and subject discipline. This study yields important implications for teacher education in CLIL and teacher change.
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The importance of social interaction in a community of practice for promoting effective teacher learning is well established (Johnson & Golombek, ; Lave & Wenger, ). Research outlines the challenges language teachers experience in transitioning between teacher education programmes and the classroom, particularly regarding the theory-practice nexus, and emphasizes the professional community's key role in providing mentoring and support. In this regard, language teachers' experiences in transitioning from theoretically oriented language education master's programmes to the language classroom are underresearched. This study reports data gathered from 21 mainland Chinese participants transitioning from master's programmes in three locations (Hong Kong, Scotland, and China) to language classrooms in China. In line with other research on teacher education programmes, this study's findings suggest interesting common experiences among these new teachers regardless of the context where their studies took place, including a sense of isolation, a "sink-or-swim" phenomenon leading to the abandonment of theoretically grounded pedagogical beliefs in exchange for adherence to "safe" practice, confusion regarding the relationship between learning on university programmes and the practice of teaching, and weak self-efficacy as transitioning teachers face internal and external pressures. Implications and consequences are discussed in the context of the theory-practice nexus.
[Copyright of Tesol Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.]

This paper explored the challenges to the infant care profession in Hong Kong creches, with an aim to contribute to the existing early childhood care literature for reference and comparison elsewhere. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 55 childcare workers and 12 supervisors, followed by interviews with some selected participants to examine the education, experience, training, working conditions and staff-child ratios of the practitioners in creches, and their perceptions towards the profession. The findings identified the areas for enhancing the education level and training of the practitioners to improve the quality of infant care. The results also indicated the problems of low salaries, unpleasant working conditions and inadequate staff-child ratio in the profession, discouraging high-calibre candidates from entering the field. This paper discussed the implications of the findings and offered some recommendations to raise the status of the infant care profession and the attractiveness of the job for prospective practitioners.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge.]

This chapter serves as an introduction to the LPATE training courses initiated by the HKSAR Government to provide in-service teachers of English with developmental and proficiency programmes. The current chapter provides a theoretical foundation highlighting the necessity for teacher professional development through training courses. This chapter then outlines the LPATE training courses provided for in-service teachers in Hong Kong between 2001 and 2005. Various modules put on by different course providers and the details of information on these modules are provided, including purpose of the training courses, the number of trainees enrolled and the attainment rate across different institutions. The chapter ends with remarks from trainees to illustrate how the training courses were perceived by course takers. Copyright © 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.