This chapter introduces the reform of teacher preparation for primary General Studies teachers and secondary science teachers to implement STEM education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong/ HKSAR) of China. In response to the call for the promotion of STEM education in recent policy addresses, STEM education is to be promoted through the Key Learning Areas of Science Education, Technology Education, and Mathematics Education in the school curriculum. Given the imperative role that teachers play in the provision of quality STEM education, the government, universities, and other stakeholders have contributed significant resources and funding to provide training programmes, workshops, projects, and research to prepare teachers to provide students with relevant school-based STEM learning opportunities. The discussion includes mainly pre-service teacher education comprising the degree programmes, subjects, and courses offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels to nurture qualified teachers in STEM education and some brief information about in-service teacher professional development. Data is collected and analysed from government reports, policy documents, research articles, discussion papers, and programme information on STEM education and teacher education. This chapter provides an overview to inform future directions of teacher preparation for STEM education in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Few studies have empirically explored the specific elements of schoolteachers’ feedback literacy in spite of its crucial role in supporting student learning in classrooms. To address this research gap, individual interviews were conducted with 20 teacher educators in Hong Kong. The interviewees were asked to explicate the mind maps of schoolteacher feedback literacy that they had previously drawn. Data analysis revealed that the participants perceived schoolteacher feedback literacy as a three-dimensional concept, comprising knowledge, competence and disposition with specifications. In addition, the participants believed that schoolteacher feedback literacy was gradually evolving from a qualified level to a fully professional level over time. In their views, understanding subject content knowledge and developing positive feedback dispositions were prerequisites for developing feedback competencies. The findings of this study enhance the understanding of schoolteacher feedback literacy from the perspective of teacher educators and offer guidance for providing effective feedback training in teacher education programmes. Copyright © 2022 Edith Cowan University. All rights reserved.

Effective teacher training programs entail cultivating not only professional teaching competencies but also promoting psychological strengths. However, there is a lack of investigation into how different modes of delivering psychological interventions influence well-being outcomes in the teaching profession, such as preschool educators. This study examines the effects of different technologically driven modes of implementing a PROSPER-based psychological intervention on positivity, relationship, outcome, strengths, purpose, engagement, and resilience. One hundred twenty-eight pre-service preschool teachers were randomly assigned to (1) the full intervention (i.e., online workshop and smartphone app); (2) the online workshop; (3) the smartphone app; and (4) the wait-list control group. The results demonstrated that the online workshop mode yielded the strongest intervention effects on well-being outcomes: positivity, purpose, engagement, and resilience. Although the smartphone app mode did not significantly improve psychological outcomes, combining this approach with the online workshop format appeared to have positive retention effects on positivity at the Time 3 follow-up. The findings suggest that the traditional mode of implementing positive psychological interventions could be more effective than the smartphone app-based mode in bolstering pre-service teachers' well-being. Copyright © 2023 International Association of Applied Psychology.

The persistent challenges posed by COVID-19 and political unrest have urged teacher educators in Hong Kong to develop innovative strategies in curriculum design, pedagogies, and assessment and feedback practices in the online environment. The challenges in online teaching have also encouraged teacher educators to reflect on their practices and conduct practitioner-based research to enhance their scholarship of teaching, to respond to the changing society, changing schools and diverse needs from students. The crises caused by the pandemic of COVID-19 and political unrest have driven almost all school teachers and teacher educators to exercise various modes of online teaching, which undoubtedly presents the importance of technology-supported teaching and learning in schools and in teacher education. In the post-COVID-19 era, technology will continue to be one of the major driving forces of educational changes. However, a few issues concerning the negative impacts of online teaching have been rarely addressed in the existing literature. In this concluding chapter, we look into three issues that are relevant to online teaching in the post-COVID-19 era. They are virtual teaching and technology-enhanced curriculum, social and emotional learning, and digital divide and inequity. The discussion of these issues provides a basis to suggest the ongoing innovations in teacher education and directions that deserve further research in future. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

In the past few years, the education sector, including teacher education, has encountered unprecedented challenges resulting from the global pandemic of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). In Hong Kong, it was fuelled by protests and campus occupation due to the unstable political situation. Many universities were forced to suspend face-to-face instruction and adopt online teaching. This volume is a response to the global transformation of teaching and learning from the face-to-face mode to the online mode triggered by these challenges, with a focus on teacher education in Hong Kong. This introductory chapter pulls together the narrative of the volume by detailing such challenges and showcasing how the challenges have accelerated the use of e-technology in teaching and learning online. It provides an overview of the chapters included in this volume and discusses how they contribute to the rationale of the volume and the various sections, which include challenges in teaching and learning in times of crisis, curriculum and pedagogical innovations, assessment and feedback practices, and the scholarship of teaching and learning in the teacher education context. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

English, as a worldwide language, is the language most often used both online and offline. The implementation of e-learning practices widens learners’ horizons through different educational opportunities and enhances their learning abilities, and it reduces the costs of higher education. Upon reviewing the literature, some research gaps related with this study are listed. The first was that preservice English teachers sometimes lacked adequate knowledge and skills to choose the proper educational technologies for implementing e-learning in their field practices. The other was that some teacher educators over-focused on their choices of educational technologies and not on their implementation of e-learning in a precise subject. Although many studies have focused on the use of English learning strategies and skills, this research will focus on implementation of e-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education. Second, the existing research lacks adequate coverage of the training for preservice English teachers to become English language teachers, when that training is conducted through implementing e-learning practices in English language learning strategies. Meanwhile, other current issues are apparent: preservice English teachers do not have sufficient resources to lead their teaching process using supplementary digital resources. The methods designed and used to implement e-learning practices are vital aspects of those implementations. E-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education have been discussed extensively in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is important that teachers nurture students’ digital literacy and their abilities for critical thinking and conducting logical presentations. Student teachers not only understand the pros and cons of e-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education, but also the general developments of teacher education. This study aims to investigate how e-learning practices

This chapter discusses the effectiveness of current professional development programmes for teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Hong Kong. The article first introduces the available services for students with ASD. The Resource Teaching Programme has been the major service provided by special schools since 1984. The principle of teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) in the least restrictive settings has rendered a rapid growth of the population of students with ASD in ordinary schools in the last decade, causing concern among the teachers. Different tiers of professional development programmes have been developed to equip teachers in ordinary schools with the knowledge and skills needed in dealing with students with SEN. However, these programmes are mainly short term and transmitted directly from the top down. The lack of opportunity to practise newly acquired knowledge and skills in real environments cannot provide sufficient confidence for teachers to handle students with ASD independently. The final part of this chapter provides a recommendation for a collaborative mode of professional development that can assist teachers in gaining practical experiences in a field-based training programme. Copyright © 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The purpose of this study was to investigate Hong Kong preschool teachers’ music-specific professional development (PD) preferences and analyze the potential differences among teachers with varying levels of teaching experience (beginning, experienced, and advanced). A survey was developed to assess four music-specific PD preferences: content, facilitators, types, and activities/resources. We found that respondents (N = 1,019) preferred PD that was centered on musical creativity and curriculum integration; facilitated by experts in pedagogy and music performance; conducted as short workshops and mentoring sessions; and focused on observation, skill acquisition, and practice. The data also revealed significant differences between beginning, experienced, and advanced teachers and their PD preferences. Beginning teachers showed a higher preference for graduate studies and blended PD. Beginning and experienced teachers were more interested in playing instruments and in learning by observing other teachers. Advanced teachers showed preference for PD focusing on dance and music appreciation. The study shows that teaching experience is a crucial factor for determining preschool teachers’ music-specific PD preferences. Implications include considering teachers’ interests, motivations, and needs while planning and designing PD for preschool teachers. Further research should explore what teachers with different profiles require in specific educational settings. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

The present study investigated 69 local Hong Kong English language education students' cross-cultural learning as a result of an Internationalization at Home (IaH) initiative that made use of international students' knowledge of English language education in contexts outside of Hong Kong. An analysis of written responses to open-ended questionnaire items revealed that most students reported acquiring superficial cultural facts related to teaching methods, testing methods, and public versus private education in international contexts; however, some students reflected more deeply on perceived cultural differences by challenging their own prior assumptions about English language education and, as a result, demonstrated cultural humility and enhanced empathy towards teachers in contexts outside of Hong Kong. This research suggests that teacher education programs should consider implementing IaH initiatives that capitalise on international student populations to satisfy program-level cross-cultural learning objectives. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.