To what extent and in what ways should a teacher educator contribute to a type of teaching development that has long functioned successfully without much involvement of teacher educators? This self-study concerns my learning about my role as teacher educator in a learning study, a Hong Kong adaptation of a teacher-driven Japanese educational and cultural practice, Jugyou Kenkyu, credited with high quality learning outcomes for both teachers and students. My first learning study case forms the retrospective backdrop to the self-study. By describing and evaluating my personal experience of interactions such as recorded meetings and teachers' reflections, I attempt to discern a function for myself within the group. The self-study helped uncover some misguided assumptions and responses in coping with the new context and also provided some preliminary understandings of possible teacher educator responsibilities in this type of initiative.
[Copyright © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.]

Why should bringing the power of music into student learning be a challenge - even more so when the class comprises students deemed in need of 'special education'? To address this question, three case studies are presented of Hong Kong special schools music teachers experienced in teaching students with intellectual disabilities at senior secondary level. Findings suggest that behind individual teacher variations to the standardised music curriculum lie not only rigid pedagogies, but also limited implementation strategies and hence mindsets of low expectations of 'special education' students' music learning. This predictive and prescriptive approach to student learning is here challenged by an alternative view that, to successfully aid 'special education' students, it is helpful if teachers reflect first on what learning is like for these students.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2014.906396]

The research reported here investigated pre-service English language teachers' perceptions of newly arrived immigrant children from Mainland China in Hong Kong. Seventeen participants, who had at least 10 weeks of experience working with these immigrant children during teaching practicum, participated in focus group discussions and shared their perceptions. The data analysis revealed that the participants widely perceived these children as deficit and consider them a serious professional challenge. Further examination of the data helped reveal media, life and teaching practicum experiences with immigrant children as crucial sources that contributed to the formation of these perceptions. The findings call for teacher education programmes to involve pre-service teachers in critical engagement with the mass media and their own experiences so that they can address the deficit model applied by teachers to immigrant children.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2013.869966]

Curriculum reform in higher education has been taking place in many countries, with much attention paid to many such as the national-level Bologna process in Europe, institutional-level Melbourne Model in Australia and discipline-level Engineering Criteria 2000(EC2000). This paper gives a detailed account of the reform initiatives taking place in the recent Hong Kong educational system and in particular, focusing on a research-intensive university in Hong Kong through literature and consultations. Being aware that teachers often face challenges in dealing with curriculum changes, this small-scale study aims to identify areas which faculty members require assistance in their professional development by investigating university teachers' perception of the curriculum reform in the Science discipline. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, it was also found that academics expressed doubts towards the implementation of outcome-based and student-centered learning approaches in the new curriculum despite their understanding of these concepts.
[Copyright of International Education Studies is the property of Canadian Center of Science and Education. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n4p56]