Professionalism has been a focus of educational study in recent years, with researchers trying to find out if teachers demonstrate certain qualities, mainly external, of being a professional teacher. Instead of focusing on professionalism, this paper narrows its focus to the internal aspect of teacher professional development, examining the development of Hong Kong student-teachers’ professional beliefs, about which the student-teachers hold strong opinion, and which affect their decision-making and are subject to change. This present paper is based on a pilot study involving a total of eight student-teachers. Qualitative research methods, including autobiographies and in-depth interviews, were used to conduct the research. This paper attempts to identify and describe the patterns of development of Hong Kong student-teachers’ professional beliefs, to compare the differences between various patterns and to highlight some key factors influencing professional beliefs. Implications from the study would shed light on future research on the development of student-teachers’ professional conviction.

Affective education is a significant dimension of teaching, which is concerned with the values, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and emotional well-being of students. Much research is about how affective education should be put into real practice in elementary and high schools. However, affective education is no less important at tertiary education level. It is especially crucial to examine what values student-teachers taking teacher education programmes hold and how these values change throughout their course of study, since these student-teachers will nurture our next generation and these student-teachers’ moral and spiritual development will directly affect how they teach their pupils. Based on our study on the development of the professional convictions of Hong Kong student-teachers, this paper attempts to find out what values the student-teachers hold, how these values evolve over time, and what factors contribute to their formation and evolution. Qualitative research methods were employed in the study, which include the use of autobiographies and in-depth interviews. The focus of this paper is on examining the dimensions of the student-teachers’ values and how far affective education is effective in achieving its aims in teacher education programmes. Apart from analyzing the common factors associated with teacher professional development such as field experience and reflection, this paper will analyze the issue from the perspective of formal, informal and hidden curriculum. Implications from this study may shed light on ways to improve the design of teacher education programmes to meet the needs of affective education.