Data from primary school administrators about professional development in Hong Kong schools and its possible relationship with change and improvement were collected through interviews, a self-report instrument and targeted dominant professional development beliefs and practices. Incongruence between espoused administrator beliefs about professional development and practices in schools was found. Inconsistencies were evident in terms of planning, purposes, activities and teacher involvement. Administrators did not appear to associate strongly professional development with school improvement or change. It is suggested that administrators consider increasing involvement and building a environment based on norms of ongoing improvement. System support, particularly focused on encouraging broader understandings of professional development and greater contextualisation are needed.
[Copyright © 1996 Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.]

Education systems around the world need to recruit highly motivated individuals to become teachers and prepare professionally competent teacher education graduates to take up these broadened and deepened roles and responsibilities with a deep and lasting engagement to the profession. This article reports on a mixed-methods study that examines types of teaching motivation in relation to various facets of professional competence and planned engagement in future teaching. One hundred and thirty-two student teachers of a postgraduate diploma in education programme participated in the quantitative survey of whom seven were interviewed. The quantitative data analysis shows the positive association between 'intrinsic-altruistic motivation constellation' and selected facets of professional competence, with 'intrinsic-multifaceted and stimulating job nature' as the most distinctive type of teaching motivation. To complement the quantitative findings, the qualitative data analysis reveals two professional orientations of the 'intrinsic-altruistic motivation constellation', namely (1) student-centred orientation and (2) subject-centred orientation. In addition, three types of professional development aspirations are identified: 'classroom engaged careerists', 'highly engaged persisters' and 'pessimists'. The study provides insights into the design of appropriate ITE practices to support professional learning in the light of student teachers' motivations. It also suggests the importance of matching career opportunities and beginning teachers' professional development aspirations and supporting 'pessimists' in the face of the stringent job market.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2015.1010875]

This research explored the congruence and disparity between teachers' and students' attitudes towards French as a second language (L2) teaching strategies in a non-target language classroom context in the USA. The findings suggest students' and teachers' attitudes towards the direct and indirect teaching strategies were generally consistent, but not in terms of the collaborative teaching strategies. The findings also indicate that the beginner and elementary level students held different preferences for all the three teaching strategies. The underlying reasons could be learners' different language proficiency levels, and how well teachers execute these different teaching strategies in class. This study concludes with some implications for foreign language teacher education.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2015.1044228]

Legitimate teacher authority is fundamental to effective teaching, but is often a thorny issue that teachers need to grapple with when teaching in cross-cultural teaching contexts. By interviewing 18 pre-service Chinese language teachers on their understanding of legitimate teacher authority throughout teaching practicum at international schools in Hong Kong, this study revealed that the teachers changed their perception about the essentiality and the nature of the pedagogical and interpersonal components of legitimate teacher authority. They developed a more nuanced and balanced understanding about legitimate teacher authority over time. However, their abilities in reaching the balance were constrained by their cultural knowledge and skills in achieving positive interpersonal dynamics when implementing student-centred pedagogies.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2015.1081717]

This report introduces the experiential learning initiative at a major university in Hong Kong that prepares pre-service teachers with experience of engaging with social and cultural issues in teaching. It calls on teacher educators in different contexts to work together on similar initiatives that help pre-service teachers grow professionally through designing, developing, managing and promoting their experiential learning projects to enhance human development and improve human conditions.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2015.1080424]

The article discusses the use of university-school collaboration in Hong Kong, China in relation to the feedback offered to teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) courses. Topics include the use of university-school collaboration to create educational change, the teaching of English composition in Hong Kong, and the development of innovative approaches by teachers.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2013.852298]

The teaching practicum is a pivotal event for pre-service teachers to experience the transition from being students to being teachers. This paper examines the emergence of 'unruly pupils' as a central concern for pre-service English language teachers in their teaching practicum. The inquiry relates the pre-service teachers' perceived challenge of 'unruly pupils' to the mediation of contextual conditions and processes as well as the marginal positions in which they found themselves during the teaching practicum. The article also reports on the efforts that they undertook to address this perceived challenge. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers are encouraged to interrogate the contextual conditions and processes underlying the perceived challenge of 'unruly pupils' in their transition to being teachers, rather than treat it merely as a relationship challenge.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2012.656440]

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]

There are increasing opportunities in many countries for pre-service teachers to engage in a transnational school-based experience as part of study abroad programmes. The transformative potential of such transnational teaching experiences is recorded in research studies, often supported by data from participant surveys. However, there has been a lack of evidence investigating shifts in professional understanding derived from such experiences. This qualitative study addresses this issue by exploring the perspectives of 16 pre-service teachers of English as a Second Language from Hong Kong, who engaged in transnational teaching activities with primary school pupils in Australia during their study abroad programme. Discourse analysis of participants' dialogues traces how they encountered conflicting Discourses of 'student-centredness' in the Australian classroom. Reflecting dialogically on their experiences led participants to negotiate and reframe their understandings of language teaching pedagogy and themselves as language teachers. The findings demonstrate the importance of both peer and lecturer feedback into the process of dialogic reflection and the need for more longitudinal research into the impact of transnational school-based experience in pre-service teacher education.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2012.668778]

With the constructivist view of learning as a conceptual lens, this paper examines student teachers' professional learning in initial teacher education (ITE). A mixed-method study was conducted with student teachers of a Bachelor of Education Programme in Hong Kong. The quantitative element of the study reveals that student teachers held a constructivist conception of teaching and learning, and this conception was related to their learning experiences in different aspects of the ITE Programme, including the core components of the formal curriculum, informal and hidden curriculum, field experience and non-local experiences. The qualitative findings added further understanding of the dynamics and complexities of student teachers' development of the constructivist conception through learning in ITE coursework and fieldwork as well as their active construction of the professional artistry of teaching. Implications for enhancing student teachers' professional learning in ITE in support of the constructivist conception of teaching and learning are discussed.
[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/10.1080/02607476.2012.688549]