Understanding student teachers’ development of conceptions of teaching and learning is critical for teacher educators. Drawing from the findings of a four-year longitudinal study in Hong Kong, this paper examines the trajectories of the student teachers’ changing conceptions of teaching and learning approaches throughout their undergraduate programme. Three types of trajectories: guided touring, experiential detouring and self-guided touring, as the changes in both conceptions of teaching and learning approaches, are presented. The results suggest that three factors: faculty, learners’ attitudes towards learning and ability to integrate different learning resources, influenced the development of the student teachers’ trajectories. This study adds to the international body of knowledge on the interconnected development of conceptions of teaching and learning approaches. The paper concludes with the implications for teacher education.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]

This study investigated the conceptual understanding of fraction division of 72 Hong Kong pre-service teachers by asking them to pose a real life story problem. Analyses of the problems posed show that many of these pre-service teachers had incorrectly interpreted the division concept in their problems as sharing rather than measurement. A short intervention shows significant improvement in posing problems in terms of mathematical correctness as related to real life situations. This study particularly shows an increase of the correct use of the measurement concept from the pre-test to the post-test. The study also shows that problem posing could be used to measure conceptual understanding. Additional studies should be conducted to show effects of different teaching interventions regarding improving the conceptual understanding of divisions of fractions.
[Copyright of The Mathematics Educator is the property of Mathematics Education Student Association, the University of Georgia.]

This paper reports a study that investigated the motivations towards teaching of six pre-service English teachers enrolled on a teacher education course in Hong Kong. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, using data gathered from pre- and post-course interviews with individual participants, their dialogue journals with the teacher educator as well as their post-course reflection papers. Drawing on existing research on motivation in teacher education and educational psychology, the findings show that while some pre-service teachers developed their motivations towards teaching in the course, some others showed little change. The study suggests that pre-service teachers' previous experience and personal beliefs as well as the course content and design could play an important role in changing their motivations. The paper concludes with some implications for language teacher education regarding ways to promote and sustain student teachers' motivations towards teaching.
[Copyright of Language Culture and Curriculum is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.890211]