This paper aims to explore the mechanism of Learning Study in enhancing teacher professional development by adopting community of practices as the analytical framework. Under the curriculum reform in Hong Kong, schools are facing challenges in acquiring pedagogical content knowledge for implementing new curriculum. How to enhance teacher professional development for building school capacity is critical for sustainable development. Learning study is a school improvement project which aims to improve the quality of student learning via enhancing teacher professional development by creating a community of practice among teachers, researchers and educators involved in the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of a research lesson, with ultimate goal of developing Learning Community in the school. This study will explore how the community of practice set up by the Learning Study Project can effectively help teachers build their pedagogical content knowledge. Wenger’s theory of Communities of Practices, which postulate that participants have a mutual engagement for a negotiated joint enterprise and they develop a shared repertoire, is adopted as the theoretical framework for exploring teacher learning and professional growth. The study adopts ethnographic approach to investigate social phenomena of teacher interactions in a case selected from Learning Study Project. Results show that the collaborative features of the Learning Study provide opportunities for teachers to create shared knowledge, values and beliefs and to establish overlapping histories among them. Learning Study enhances teacher professional development by creating a community of practice for knowledge sharing and reflective practices on teaching and learning.

This paper explores the predictive relationship between knowledge management and school capacity. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was designed to collect data from 427 teachers at 15 secondary schools in Hong Kong. A structural equation model was applied to explore the factor structure of the latent variables and their relationships. The results showed that knowledge accessibility, application and sharing were identified as the predictive factors for teacher learning capacity and organizational learning capacity.
[Copyright © Elsevier Ltd.].

This paper aims to examine how Lesson Study of an initial teacher education course develops the instructional design competency of pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. Lesson Study is a collaborative action research approach for developing teacher professional competency. This study assesses the effectiveness of the Lesson Study course conducted in a teacher education institute that based on a quasi-experimental design. There were 341 pre-service teachers participated to a questionnaire survey. Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability test were used to confirm the constructed validity and reliability of the survey instrument. Canonical correlation was applied to explore the relationship between the approaches of their learning process and their learning outcomes. Results show that action research tutorials and collaborative practice are predictors of their instructional design skills and teaching competency. This paper discusses the critical success factors and the potential for using Lesson Study as a model to help pre-service teachers develop their teaching competency.
[Copyright © Time Taylor Academic Journals].

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the personal knowledge management (PKM) competency of pre-service teachers and their instructional design skills. Supporting the sustainable development of teachers as professionals in the knowledge society is a critical issue in teacher education. This study attempts to identify an empirical model and a curriculum framework for nurturing pre-service teachers' PKM competency. Dorsey (2000) PKM skills were adopted for constructing the theoretical framework and the survey instrument. A quasi-experimental research design was used to collect data from pre-service teachers from Hong Kong's largest teacher education institution. A structural equation model was applied to explore the predictive power of PKM competency on their instructional design. Results show that a four-factor PKM competency model, which consists of retrieving, analyzing, organizing and collaborative skills, was identified as a predictor of instructional design. Use of PKM tools, e-learning activities and collaborative action research for developing pre-service teacher PKM competency are recommended to teaching education institute.
[Copyright © The Leadership Alliance Inc.].

This paper aims to validate a theoretical model for developing teacher collective learning by using a quasi-experimental design, and explores the management strategies that would provide a school administrator practical steps to effectively promote collective learning in the school organization. Twenty aided secondary schools in Hong Kong were selected by cluster sampling, and 777 teachers took part in the questionnaire survey. A structural equation model was applied to identify the interrelationship of the 5 disciplines of Senge’s (1990) learning organization model. Results showed that personal mastery and systems thinking are individual and collective level predictors respectively for teacher collective learning. Building a mental model and shared vision in a sequential order predict systems thinking. Management strategies in cultural, policy and leadership domains are recommended to school administrators who wish to promote teacher collective learning as a means of coping with the changes generated by the curriculum reform in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2011 David Publishing Company,USA. The journal web site is located at http://www.teacher.org.cn/]

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.]

This paper aims to explore the mechanism of Learning Study in enhancing teacher learning by adopting community of practices as the analytical framework. Under the curriculum reform in Hong Kong, schools are facing challenges in acquiring pedagogical content knowledge for implementing new curriculum. How to enhance teacher learning for building school capacity is critical for sustainable development. Learning Study is a school improvement project which aims to improve the quality of student learning via enhancing teacher professional development by creating a community of practice among teachers, researchers and educators involved in the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of a research lesson, with ultimate goal of developing Learning Community in the school. This study will explore how the community of practice set up by the Learning Study Project can effectively help teachers build their pedagogical content knowledge. Wenger's theory of Communities of Practices, which postulate that participants have a mutual engagement for a negotiated joint enterprise and they develop a shared repertoire, is adopted as the theoretical framework for exploring teacher learning and professional growth. The study adopts ethnographic approach to investigate social phenomena of teacher interactions in a case selected from Learning Study Project. Results show that the collaborative features of the Learning Study provide opportunities for teachers to create shared knowledge, values and beliefs and to establish overlapping histories among them. Learning Study enhances teacher learning by creating a community of practice for knowledge sharing and reflective practices on teaching and learning.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between school management practices and teacher leadership. The exercise of teacher leadership within school organization is proven to be contributed to the improvement of school effectiveness (Leithwood et. al. 2000). How to encourage teachers to exercise their leadership for school improvement become an important management issue to be explored. However, only few attempts have so far been made at identify the management practices that affect teacher leadership. If the relationships between them are explored, school administrators can fine tune their management practices for enhancing the exercise of teacher leadership contributes to school improvement. This study intends to identify the roles of teacher leadership that would provide school administrators practical steps to involve teachers in exercising their leadership effectively. The theoretical framework of this study was theoretically constructed and empirically validated. Weick's (1976) Organization theory of loose-tight coupling in school management and Katzenmeyer and Moller"s (2001) three-dimensional teacher leadership model were adopted for constructing the theoretical framework. 360 teachers from 20 aided secondary schools in Hong Kong took part in the questionnaire survey of this study. A three-dimensional teacher leadership model includes instructional coaching, instructional leadership and administrative leadership and a model of loose-tight management practices includes bureaucratic control and professional autonomy was theoretically and empirically identified by structural equation modelling. Results showed that there are positive predictive effects of professional autonomy and bureaucratic control in instructional coaching, instructional leadership and administrative leadership. This study contributes theoretically to our knowledge of the relationship between management practices and the roles of teacher leadership, and proposes practically a model for school

The civic mission of schools in nurturing political literature, critical thinking and participatory citizens has always been played down in Hong Kong schools. On one hand, teaching civic education has never been ranked high in the education agenda. On the other hand, because of the conservative nature of schools, students are rarely encouraged to participate in school governance for the enhancement of their citizenship development. Funded by the General Research Fund (GRF) in Hong Kong, the authors conducted a quantitative survey on students’ participation in school governance and their citizenship development in 2013 to explore 1) students’ conception of “good citizens”; 2) the level and scope of student participation in school governance; and 3) the facilitating and hindering factors influencing student participation. This paper is a report on the simple statistical results of the survey findings. With reference to Westheimer and Kahne’s typologies, the findings revealed that the students had an eclectic understanding of citizenship, with higher scores for Personally Responsible Citizen and lower scores for Participatory, Justice Oriented and Patriotic Citizen, reflecting a conservative orientation. Concerning the implementation of school civic mission through student participation in school governance, it was found that students were rarely allowed to engage in important school matters, such as formulation of school rules and discussion of the school development plan. Our findings also revealed that schools were more inclined to inform students and consult them rather than confer real participation and powers to them. The paper concludes that the current practice of student participation in school governance does not facilitate the nurturing of active participatory citizens, particularly of a Justice Oriented nature, and this is urgently needed for the democratic development of Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2014 JSSE.]