While much of the current teacher training in Hong Kong adopts a knowledge transmission mode, a means allowing more active participation by story telling is introduced in our study. It aims to explore alternatives to the field of local teacher education. Our focus is on promoting learning and professional development among in-service teachers. This paper documents how we enhance the awareness of teachers’ experiential knowledge through story telling, and our reflections on the achievements and limitations in the study. The experience and implications drawn from this study helps us further develop a useful program for in-service teachers.

In Hong Kong, schools use either English and/or Chinese as Mol; the Chinese may be Cantonese and/or Putonghua. Teacher educators need to consider how best to prepare teachers to operate in this context. This paper describes one approach to meeting the challenge through the formulation of an internal language policy.

According to the Curriculum Guide issued by the Education Bureau in Hong Kong, English should not be taught as a formal subject and children should be EUR exposed' to it. This paper presents findings from a questionnaire survey and classroom observations on how teachers in Hong Kong preschools help children learn English. It examines the various ways teachers create a rich environment for the children to be exposed to English as a second language.

It is well recognized that primary school teaching in Hong Kong is a feminized, viz. female-dominant, occupation, yet the reasons and processes contributing to such a development have not received much academic attention. Similarly, as most people seem to know what a primary teacher is and does, the meanings of the category “primary teacher” have been taken as self-evident and is seldom subject to closer scrutiny. This paper attempts to fill these gaps by re-examining the historical development of primary school teaching via a gendering perspective. It will trace the historical changes of the teaching profession from the early colonial times to the recent context of educational restructuring, and illustrates how it has changed from “men’s work” to “women’s work” in responses to various colonial, economic, political and social factors. Moreover, the historical account attempts to also argue that the meanings of “primary teacher” are not fixed but gendered, i.e. we witness not only changes of number between male and female teachers but constant redefinitions of the role, status, and nature of women and primary school teachers. For instance, “women’s nature” has been associated with variable and malleable meanings and so does the “nature” of the occupation, which tends to promote and privilege a particular form of masculinity or/and femininity when circumstances required. At the end of the paper, some implications of a gendering historical perspective will be mentioned.

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) is the main provider of teacher education programmes in Hong Kong; the courses offered range from sub-degree, degree, to post- graduate levels. This study reported on a study which aimed to find out the beliefs about mathematics teaching held by a group of mathematics student teachers taking a Certificate in Education programme. The study made use of the Beliefs About Teaching Mathematics (BTM) Questionnaire developed by Van Zoest et al. (1994). The questionnaire was administered to a group of student teachers enrolled in the Mathematics Teaching Methodology Module of the HKIEdÑof which the author was the lecturer in chargeÑat the start of the semester. The paper will report on the findings and discuss the implications for designing a mathematics methodology course.

It was a classroom research study with two main purposes. First, to describe, using the information gathered during observation, some of the richness and variety of what goes on in a kindergarten classroom. Second, to search for patterns from among these events and the complex interactions of theory, practice and beliefs in order to help explain why certain teachers do one thing while others do something else. This will enable kindergarten teachers to reflect on their own practice in a way which up to now has not been possible, since there was little attention given in Hong Kong to the systematic study of teaching by observing teacher behaviour in the classroom. The research would help identify some hidden aspects of classroom culture or beliefs that affects teachers’ professional development. No claim is made that either of these in any way typical of kindergarten teaching as a whole. However, it casts light on approaches which some teachers have found appropriate in the circumstances. Moreover, it should allow those how train student teachers to bridge the gap between theory with practice by offering the means of illuminating theory with precise and detailed information about life and perception inside the kindergarten classroom.

The field experience component in the four-year Bachelor of Education programme (Primary) at The Hong Kong Institute of Education offers a number of opportunities for students to observe or teach in a school. The aim of this paper is to analyse the learning of the student teachers and the supporting teachers during the field experience period in the second and the final years of the programme and to explain this using a socio-cultural view of learning. Student teachers and their supporting teachers in their second year of study in 1999-2000 as well as those in their final year of study in 2001-2002 were interviewed. The findings illustrate how supporting teachers and the lecturers can act as agents and describes their use of mediational means including teaching resources, and information about pupils’ abilities and habits, in facilitating the learning of the student teachers. The findings also compare the sharing of intent between the lecturers and the supporting teachers. The professional development of the student teachers and the supporting teachers is then analysed with a plane of participatory appropriation which is characterized by its dynamic nature and changes among the participants. Finally, the paper summarizes suggestions on how professional development of the student teachers during the field experience may be analysed by adopting a socio-cultural view of learning. Drawing on the analysis, the paper concludes with implications on ways to facilitate the learning of the student teachers during the field experience period.

Mentoring dates back to Greek mythology with reference to the sharing of wisdom of knowledge and experience. In Hong Kong, mentorship has been a hallmark of the professional development of the teacher-librarians. Following a literature review on mentoring in librarianship, this paper provides an overview highlighting the mentorship development among teacher-librarians in Hong Kong. A discussion on how mentorship shaped the preparation of teacher-librarians leads to an analysis of four issues: (1) a formalized mentoring framework; (2) a systematical approach to observe and assess the impact; (3) training to enhance the competency of teacher-librarians; and (4) re-thinking the commitment to evidence-based practice. While there are complex issues facing the teacher-librarian profession, the author invites the teacher-training institutes to explore their role and participation in facilitating the advancement of teacher-librarianship in Hong Kong which is a pivotal component to nurture information-literate learners for the purpose of knowledge building.

The key to successful of assessment reform depends on how teachers understand the concept and practices of assessment. Brown s (2003 & 2004) studies provided initiation for educators in this area. Different versions of Brown s questionnaire on teachers conceptions of assessment (TCoA-III) used both in Hong Kong and China rendered new insights and information into the wide range of conceptions and practices of assessment among Chinese practitioners (Brown, et al., 2006 and Li & Hui, 2007). These results showed that there might be fundamental difference in conceptions and practices of assessment between practitioners in a Chinese context and those in the West. Using interviews to tap into the minds of the local teachers, this study sets off to investigate the missing conception of assessment among Hong Kong teachers. Qualitative interviews were conducted among local practitioners of different backgrounds and subject specialists. The study is able to validate traditional, unwritten as well as unique conceptions of assessment held within Chinese teachers. Preliminary results show that there are cultural-specific as well as context-based differences. The former is illustrated by examples such as assessment as a way of promoting industriousness among students and assessment as differentiating brilliance in studying. The latter is supported by examples of using assessment to predict and boost the results of Territory-wide System Assessment which indicates individual school s standards in key learning areas for the purposes of school improvement. The results are helpful in revealing the possible cultural factors and their influences that contributes to the dissimilarities found in the conceptions and practices in assessment. It also provides insights of why these conceptions govern the ways in which assessment is practised in local schools. This missing link broadens our understanding about and allows us to better measure teachers conceptions and practices of assessment.

Currently, there are rigorous school-improvement interventions which have one goal in commonVthe improvement of instruction and student learning in schools. New system of accountability expects schools to produce specific improvements in a self-assessment and evaluation basis. A mechanism of school planning prioritizing and reporting is in place to ensure that the focus is on activities directly related to student achievement and improvement strategies. However, normative structures inside schools, such as the privacy of classroom practice and the culture of teaching are often determining factors not only in the implementation of policy, but, more importantly, in the school's overall effectiveness in fostering children's learning. It will be of concern to develop teachers to generate and focus attention on information relevant to teaching and learning, motivate individuals and schools to use that information and expend effort to improve practice, and build the knowledge base necessary for interpreting and applying new information to improve practice. This study aims to explore the views and practices of school improvement among pre-school teachers in Hong Kong, and to examine emergent visions and innovations adopted in practices in the process of school-based self-assessment. Of particular interest is a close-up study of the context in which teachers are expected to learn, and the impact of school support incentives on teachers' work in delivering high quality ECE. A combined quantitative and qualitative methodology will be applied, and the researchers and participants will work collaboratively over 30 months to collect data on school improvement. This action research process will involve 4 cycles of data collection and analysis; the focus of the enquiry will be the strategic plans and activities undertaken by ten schools in implementing self-assessment and school improvement plans.