In higher education, student evaluation of teaching is widely used as a measure of an academic's teaching performance despite considerable disagreement as to its value. This paper begins by examining the merit of teaching evaluations with reference to the factors influencing the accuracy of the teaching evaluation process. One of the central assumptions on which student evaluation of teaching is based is that there is a relationship between student achievement and student rating of teachers. However, the findings of the majority of studies do not support this assumption. The absence of a strong link between student achievement and teaching evaluations suggests that there is scope for examining other approaches to measuring effective classroom dynamics. This paper presents such an approach based on the notion of transformational classroom leadership.
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This article reports on a project which involved enabling teachers in Hong Kong primary schools to use an online integrated learning environment (ILE) to design lesson plans to cater for students with different learning abilities. Teachers explored ways of using technology to enhance student learning. A case-study approach was used to collect data on individual teacher developments and document evolving classroom teaching strategies. The findings revealed that when using the ILE teachers were able to: 1. effectively design and create lessons which catered for different ability groups within the class; 2. employ varied teaching strategies to cater for different learning needs of students in the class; 3. shift from more traditional pedagogical approaches to embracing learner-centred principles which achieve a higher degree of classroom interaction; and 4. collaborate with others, discuss their feelings more honestly, evaluate and reflect on their own practice.
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This study investigated how a set of newly developed indicators of early learning and teaching by the government, which was based on western ideology of child learning, was implemented in a Chinese context like Hong Kong. Twelve early childhood settings of 5747 children and 284 staff volunteered to implement the indicators within two years and the processes were observed and analysed. A multi-method, multi-source data collection strategy was used to document the self-evaluation and improvement process. All the participating settings went through the five stages of the evaluation cycle: understanding the Performance Indicators, assessing learning and teaching, formulating an action plan for improvement, implementing the action plan, and reflection. The results indicated that: (1) implementing a quality assurance cycle took time, resources and commitment; (2) the implementation helped to enhance practitioners' professionalism; and (3) teacher professionalism was the key to the success of this quality assurance mechanism. The socio-contextual factors and the educational implications of these findings are discussed.
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This paper considers issues in customising descriptions of English grammar in the context of creating an electronic database for secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. In developing the database, we have aimed to incorporate insights from functional grammar and corpus linguistics while keeping the information accessible and relevant to teachers familiar only with traditional approaches to grammar. This has involved exploiting the advantages of hypertext, explicitly foregrounding pedagogical concerns and developing a metalanguage that will allow discussion of areas such as transitivity and theme without alienating the teacher-users. We illustrate the kinds of compromises that are necessary in order to match the linguistic information to the needs and existing knowledge of the teacher-users.
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This paper proposes to overcome the traditional essentialist and dichotomous ways of conceptualising language and language pedagogies, i.e. to go beyond linguistic purist perspectives. Analysing bilingual teaching practices in a science lesson, the paper proposes that practical bilingual pedagogies can be developed to help students in bilingual education programmes to access dominant linguistic resources and discourses by capitalising on their indigenous linguistic and cultural resources.
[Copyright of Language and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/le643.0]