There is now a worldwide focus on the quality of university teaching and yet there is general dissatisfaction in universities with the student evaluation of teaching system. Peer observation of teaching seems to hold much promise in the assessment of teaching quality, but such observation pays little attention to the quality of teaching as perceived by students. One approach to overcome this deficiency is for faculty and students to also partner in the assessment of a faculty member's teaching, with a student trained in observation and feedback techniques acting as a peer in the observation process. This paper describes and evaluates an ongoing student consultant initiative at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. It presents faculty and student observations in terms of the benefits to faculty regarding potential enhancement of university teaching, and the benefits to students especially in terms of close collaboration with faculty and training in consultation techniques. The paper notes that the student consultant initiative has been more popular with students than faculty, and recommends further investigation of the potential of such programmes in Hong Kong higher education.

Although the goal of developing school students’ understanding of nature of science (NOS) has long been advocated, little is known about how science teachers, a kind of major stakeholder in NOS instruction, perceive the values of teaching NOS. Through semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the views of 15 Hong Kong in-service teachers toward the values of teaching NOS. The values of teaching NOS as perceived by the teachers fall into two types. The first type is related to students’ learning of science in the classroom and involves (i) facilitating the study of subject knowledge, (ii) increasing the interest in learning science, (iii) aiding the conduct of scientific inquiry, (iv)meeting the needs of public examination, and (v) fulfilling the inherent requirement of scientific learning. The second type goes beyond learning science and includes (i) developing thinking abilities, (ii) cultivating scientific ethos, and (iii) supporting the participation in public decisions on socioscientific issues. Although rich relationships were perceived by these teachers between NOS instruction and students’ learning of science, few values were stated from broad social and cultural perspectives. Suggestions are made on designing programs to prepare teachers for teaching NOS.

Mosston’s “spectrum of teaching styles” which composes of 11 pedagogical approaches in physical education, has been popularly promoted for maximizing students’ learning in the Western countries. However, very few of them have been put into practice and studied in Hong Kong. One of the teaching styles, reciprocal teaching style is thought to help tackle problems associated with large classes, limited equipment, and insufficient feedback to students. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions and experiences of students and physical education teachers in reciprocal teaching. The factors that influence their teaching and learning were also examined. Four primary and secondary physical education teachers teaching in Kowloon, Hong Kong and New Territories and their four classes of students were purposely invited to take part in the study. The teachers were briefed the principles of the implementation of the reciprocal style and adopted reciprocal teaching implementing a 10-lesson unit. Qualitative data were collected by a combination of techniques: lesson observations, formal interviews of students and teachers, student reflective journals and teacher self-review. Constant comparison and analytic induction were used to organize and categorize the data. Findings indicated that the teachers were not used to the teaching format and encountered difficulties during the preparation. Experience, resources and tutors’ abilities were identified as major factors influencing the implementation and learning of students in reciprocal teaching. The help of teachers and the preparation of task card assisted both the tutors and tutees in the learning process. Most students held positive views of the reciprocal teaching and recognized the values of the approach. The more the teachers implement the approach, both teachers and students will get more familiar to the approach. Findings of the study hold implications in helping preservice and in-service physical education teachers

目的：如其他地方的教師一樣，香港的教師同樣面對管理課堂秩序的問題。這篇論文將深入探討這方 面並提供一個於二零零四至零五年進行、關於教學效能感與課堂管理的研究結果。此研究目的為探討：一、教師在運用課室管理技巧時的效能感與他們對學生在課堂上不守秩序行為的看法之關係，二、教師效能感之強弱與他們對外在因素之看法會否左右他們管理學生行為之能力，同時，教師面對各種變數之回應亦會從他們填寫的問卷中探討。 研究方法：此調查於二零零五年四月至七月期間於十一間香港中學進行。教師問卷的設計脱胎自一九八九年於英國和威爾斯進行的國家教師調查問卷，及作者於二零零四年在兩間中學進行的研究一 教師對課室管理的社會建構。該研究探討：一、課室管理技巧的四個範疇，包括認知性，社會性，感情性，外在性。二、教師對四種不守課堂秩序行為，包括吸引注意力，顯示力量，報復，退出以逃避的看法。三、教師對導致學生不守紀律的四個外在因素，包括家庭，社會觀念，同輩壓力和生理因素的看法。為提供客觀的統計數字，問卷結果以統計軟件SPSS進行分析並提供一個教師的反應與變數的關聯之概觀。分析如期於二零零五年十月完成。 期待的結果：此研究能駑助我們理解教師效能感如何影響他們對課室管理和教學的取捨，與及教師是否運用較有效的課室管理技巧便會在管理學生問題行為時便會遇到較少困難，研究結果能提供資料以宣揚正面行為，讓決策者，學校管理人，和教師明白到實際上教師與學生的行為存在著互動關係。讓我們從宏觀的角度去了解導致某些學生慣於在課堂上表現不守紀律和某些班別比其他班更難管理的原因，此研究並提供教師培訓課程的發展，課程設計，教學策略和宣揚正面課堂行為。

There is a strong belief that critical thinking should be cultivated in schools. But it is not clear how critical thinking is understood by front-line teachers who are given the responsibility of training critical thinkers. Based on a study conducted in Hong Kong, we found that some school teachers were in favor of a “positive” image of critical thinker who is knowledgeable, prudent, being critical to the critics who are ready to criticize, and being constructive after making criticisms. We try to argue that such a positive portrayal, although uncontroversial from a detached point of view, may not be adequate in the context of Hong Kong where a critical stance toward power holders and established interests is badly needed. Without paying due attention to the “aporetic” dimension, such understanding of critical thinking would make it difficult for students to adopt a critical stance to the prevailing cultural beliefs, social values, political institutions, or economic ideologies that merit the greatest attention.
[Copyright © 2016 The Author(s).]

Learning study has been used to enhance teacher professional development in many cities and countries all over the world, including Hong Kong, Sweden, United Kingdom, Singapore and Brunei. Since Learning Study has been regarded as an effective approach for teacher professional development, it was introduced as a core course in the training programmes for pre-service teachers in the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2007. This paper explores the impact of learning study on pre-service teacher professional development by looking into an English language learning study conducted by a group of pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. It reports how the pre-service teachers learned to teach via participating in Learning Study and discusses what challenges they had encountered in the process. The paper concludes with implications on the further development of learning study and its application in educational programmes for pre- service teachers.

Performance tasks This paper reports the initial stage of a learning study on enhancing kindergarten teachers' teaching of performance tasks in Hong Kong. Data from classroom observation and post-lesson interviews with two kindergarten teachers were analysed to identify the existing teaching practice focusing on four typical classroom performance tasks: storytelling, drawing pictures, singing nursery rhyme and physical movement. The findings have indicated that both teachers often simplified the object of learning into declarative knowledge and used passive receptive activities and neglected the specific disciplinary skill-related aspects and seldom used active productive activities, which will more probably lead to deeper learning. The factors shaping these teaches' practice are also discussed and elaborated. The room for further improvement of these teachers is then identified as the object of learning for the teachers and the critical features of these performance tasks specified for student learning in the coming learning study projects. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations on teacher education for pre-school teachers in Hong Kong.

香港初等教育研究學會曾舉辦「提昇小學科組主任的領導力」計劃，向參與學校的科組主任提供系統培訓、校本教師培訓、友校參觀和行動學習等專業學習活動，以促進他們反思自己領導科組的經驗，從而提升他們的領導能力和優化科組管理。是次分享會將會分享該計劃的精華。