This paper aims to explore management practices in school organization for sustaining teacher collective learning by using a quasi-experiment design. Secondary schools in Hong Kong are seeking ways to sustain their development in terms of teaching and learning under the 334 New Senior Secondary Reform. Enhancing teacher professional competency via collective learning is the radical key to developing the capacity of schools for coping with this change. Teacher collective learning is conceptualized as team learning of Sengeûs (1990) Learning organization model which is important for school development and individual professional development. By adopting Sengeûs (1990) five disciplines of learning organization as the theoretical framework, this research study has constructed a path model for providing school administrator practical steps to facilitate teacher collective learning effectively under the reform. 20 aided secondary schools in Hong Kong were selected by cluster sampling. 777 teachers took part in the questionnaire survey. A structural equation model was applied to identify the path model for the five disciplines of Sengeûs learning organization model. Results showed that there are predictive effects of personal mastery and system thinking on team learning, while mental model, shared vision are sequential path predictors of system thinking. A path model for predicting teacher collective learning was validated in this study. Enhancing teacher professional development, nurturing a culture of trust, communicating with professional dialogue, negotiating a shared vision and provoking system thinking are recommended to school administrators for sustaining teacher collective learning in coping with the change generated from the reform.

This paper reports on a research project that monitored four key features in an in-service teacher education course for secondary art teachers in Hong Kong. First, the content of the course was reframed to include focus on the attributes of good art teachers and standards of good art teaching. Second, the theory-into-practice model of previous courses was reframed to include a focus on understanding theory through its practical implications. Third, teachers were encouraged to use dialogue journals to reflect on how the ideas and information presented in the course confirmed or challenged their beliefs and practices. Fourth, jointly developed “standards of good practice in art teaching” were used for self and peer evaluation in the teaching practice. Data from dialogue journals and end-of-course interview as well as questionnaires suggest the value of such approaches for in-service teacher education.

In Hong Kong and Macau, educational practitioners and student teachers who are committed to a career in education usually join some professional organizations in their local communities. In the past, little effort had been made by professional organizations to pull students, educational practitioners, and the interested professionals in the two territories - Hong Kong and Macau - together. In 1998, the ACEI: Hong Kong and Macau Branch was founded by a group of teacher educators with the aim at linking students, parents, education practitioners, and other interested professionals of the two territories together in a collaborative effort to promote education quality, professional growth, exchange of ideas, as well as the inherent rights and well-being of children in home, school and community. Also, it fosters interaction among student teachers, teachers, administrators, counselors, and educators to exchange ideas and develop friendships across international boundaries (Hong Kong, Macau, USA, and other countries), as well as to provide an opportunity to publish materials that help members keep up with the important issues and current trends in the field of education. The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) was founded in 1892 by a group of school teachers and other interested professionals in the United States. With over 130 branches in the US and other countries, ACEI is now one of the oldest organizations of its kind which shares a dual commitment to the fulfillment of every child's potential and to the professional development of classroom teachers. This workshop will help participants understand more about the functions of the ACEI: Hong Kong and Macau Branch. Information will be shared concerning how professional development of student teachers and educational practitioners in the two territories could be enriched through regional and international linkages, cooperation and participation in ACEI activities.

Teacher effectiveness has always been an active area of research in teacher education, aiming to improve the quality of both preservice and inservice teachers, subsequently promote the quality of teaching and learning. In this respect, various aspects of teacher development have been studied by researchers such as the stages of development, mentorship, practical knowledge, teacher efficacy, teachers thinking and belief (e.g. Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Kagan, 1992; Bullough and Baughman, 1993' Nespor, 1987; Clark & Peterson, 1986). As teacher educator for many years, the author attempted to conduct a survey study of a group of preservice student teachers to examine their focus of concerns in teaching and their perceived factors leading to successful teaching as part of the investigated areas of teacher development in a teacher education institute in Hong Kong, The Fuller (1969) model of concerns has been widely utilized in teacher education programmes to explain the stages of professional development of a teacher. In the model, Fuller (1969) theorized that teacher concerns could be classified into three distinct categories: elf concerns" which center around the individual concern for their own survival related to their teacher preparation program, including their student teacher experiences; ask concerns" which focus upon the duties that teachers must carry out within the school environment; and impact concerns" which are related to one ability to make a difference and be successful with his /her students and the teaching/learning process. Subsequently, the author wished to know whether the Hong Kong preservice teachers exhibited similar categories of concerns as put forward in Fuller model despite a different cultural context. Meanwhile, the author tried to explore the factors perceived by preservice student teachers leading to successful teaching and whether and how their focus of concerns and perceived important factors of successful teaching were related. It was hoped

AIMS: This study aims to describe the health-related quality of life of both in-service and pre-service teachers who engaged in the teacher education of the Hong Kong Early Childhood Education (HKECE) programme. The research questions are: (a) What is the health-related quality of life of ECE teachers in Hong Kong? (b) Are there differences between ECE teachers in Hong Kong and those in other South-East Asian Chinese communities? (c) What demographic factors are related to quality of life of ECE teachers? METHODS: The sample comprised 1,026 ECE teachers, including 834 in-service and 192 pre-service teachers of early childhood education. Participants completed the self-administered Chinese version of the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) (SF-36) questionnaire. The HRQOL has been validated for use with the Chinese communities in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Taiwan. Mean values of the HRQOL main scale and subscales for this sample were compared against pervious similar samples in other Asian countries. Subgroups (according to age, housing-related socio-economic status, and experience of illness/diseases) were compared on the HRQOL main scale and subscales using the methods of MANOVA and ANOVA. RESULTS: The results suggest that the HKECE teachers were found to have not only poor self-rated health-related quality of life, but also low quality of life compared to four other Chinese samples in South East Asian communities that were reported in the literature. Analysis showed that in-service teachers had significantly poorer quality of life than pre-service teachers, and old teachers tended to have worse quality of life than their young colleagues. Significant differences were also found in socio-economic status and experience of illness/disease. CONCLUSIONS: Hong Kong healthcare and education policy makers should aware of the phenomenon that some ECE teachers are in a serious state of ill health, especially those in-service teachers who have families, having low socio-economic

This paper is about a study of the learning needs of serving primary school teachers in Hong Kong. The question involved is what are the training needs of these teachers. Literature review shows that there are different elements in teacher development and different stages of teachers' career are related to teachers training requirements. In our study, a questionnaire is given to the participants who have attended an in-service program. In the questionnaire, the respondents have to indicate their perceived competences of themselves and their perceived training needs. They have also to rank (heir psychological needs. The results of the study reveal that there is no big difference in the training needs between teachers of different teaching experience and teaching duties. Also, there is no significant correlation between teachers' perceived competencies and their perceived training needs. The conclusion is that the education reform since 2000 has exerted such great pressure on all teachers that they have a sense of insecurity. Therefore there is a feeling of inadequacy in primary school teachers and they feel an urgent need to upgrade themselves in whatever area in teaching. The positive outcome is that teachers are more ready to attend in-service training program. The negative outcome is that teachers have no long-term goals in their professional development. The true learning needs are to satisfy the government's top-down demand for educational reform in order to attain job security.

While kindergarten teachers have shown resilience under adverse work environment, scarce empirical research has examined these teachers’ resilient protective factors, namely hardiness and optimism. The study had two aims. First, it examined the correlation relationships among variables of hardiness, optimism, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Second, it testified the mediating effect of hardiness on optimism. Inservice kindergarten teachers were invited to participate in the study as voluntary convenient samplings. They were asked to complete four inventories anonymously to enhance confidentiality and their willingness to participate. Eventually, 64 out of 104 teachers participated and returned the inventories. Results showed that both hardiness and optimism correlated positively with self-esteem but negatively with mental health complaints. While hardiness mediated the effects of optimism, teachers’ commitment (a subscale of hardiness scale) appeared to predict consistently their self-esteem and mental health complaints. Implications of rethinking optimism and promoting teachers’ resilience through hardiness training are discussed.

This study is designed on the basis on the key premises of Activity Theory, in the development of curriculum leadership among two groups of primary teachers in an innovation engaged school in Hong Kong China in April 2005 and 2008. Three curriculum development teams were formed and their membership and leadership were manipulated to create internal tensions and contradictions among members in a flattened leadership context. The aim is to investigate the extent that teacher participation in curriculum decision making processes is mediated by the artifacts such as hierarchical power, roles and leadership styles. The findings based on the analysis of the interviews as well as the video taped meetings of the curriculum teams point to the varying mediation effects of the two artifacts, namely the roles of the consultants and the leadership styles upon teacher participation.

The significant role played by family, school and the community on education is unequivocal. How teachers perceive the role is but one of the important parts of the whole teaching and learning system. The views expressed by student teachers are even more important among others as they are to be future practitioners in the field. How student teachers view may have close relation to how they teach, and how pupils learn. Based on findings from a recent qualitative survey of a group of about forty pre-service and in-service pre-primary student teachers in Hong Kong, this paper aims at providing an outlook and comparison of the opinions from the student teachers on roles of education played by the three generic factors, school, parents, and community. Data of the study were collected from short answers in three set of questions which asked about the roles and responsibilities of the three factors in enhancing students' education. A comparison of answers from the two groups, and among the three factors, and implications on future teacher training in Hong Kong will be discussed.