The paper explores how Learning Study, a collaborative action research approach, can be integrated with eLearning activities to enhance personal knowledge management (PKM) competencies of pre-service teachers for effective instructional design and assessment for learning. PKM competencies are conceptualized as knowledge retrieving, organizing, analyzing and collaborative skills for effective learning. The study adopts Cheng’s (2011) PKM model to proposal a curriculum for developing teacher’s PKM skills through a teaching development project conducted in The Hong Kong Institute of Education. A Solomon four group quasi-experimental research design was adopted to collect data from pre and posttest of PKM measurement from the participants of the Learning Study course. All items were measured using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Another professional study course is set as the control group. Lesson observation and qualitative interviews were conducted to evaluate the development of the pre-service teacher. The effectiveness of the e-learning activities, the use of PKM tools and the collaborative action research approach were evaluated. Results showed that integrating learning activities in the Learning Study course had impacts on the retrieving, organizing, analyzing skills for instructional design and student assessment. A set of learning activities for planning the PKM curriculum could be articulated from the result of this study. For example, access databases and websites for information retrieval; operate electronic tools for information integration to design lesson plans; use spreadsheet and statistical software for data and information analysis to assess student learning problems; use collaborative PKM tools to support both synchronous and asynchronous communication for the purpose of collective learning; and construct knowledge that is based on an appropriate understanding of the nature of data, sound inference

Teachers and school administrators in Hong Kong have had to cope with more work and performance pressure as they strive to implement educational reforms aimed at deepening students' life-long learning skills. Management systems, which save time and transfer ideas, experiences, and knowledge more efficiently could help schools meet reform goals and relieve the occupational stress that inevitably accompanies change and progress. This paper explores the effect of knowledge management (KM) for school development by reviewing three cases selected from a school improvement project entitled "Knowledge Management and Primary School Development". The project was launched specifically to determine if KM practices can assist educators to cope with added pressures and rise to the challenges of education reforms. The case studies illustrate three separate approaches to incorporating KM systems. Problems faced by these case-schools included declining school competitiveness, time-consuming data storage and retrieval practices, and hierarchical communication structures that stunted feedback from the teachers who are on the front line of educational reform. Interviews were conducted with school principals, middle managers, and teachers. The results show that the core KM strategies of personalization and codification can be adopted to improve school development. Knowledge leadership, knowledge sharing culture, and knowledge management system support were identified as success factors for schools to implement KM.
[Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.]

This paper reveals the hidden implications of the quality assurance (QA) mechanism for school education in Hong Kong from the perspective of social monitoring described in Foucault's (1979) book "Discipline and Punish". The QA mechanism aims to improve school education by introducing an accountability and development framework, represented by the external school review and school selfevaluation respectively. However, the policy requires that the school self-evaluation process be verified and endorsed by an external review by the Education Bureau, that the areas for self-evaluation be bounded and framed by a set of central performance indicators and that the school evaluation report be uploaded to the school web-based information management system. The result is that the effect of the professional control is greater than the effect on school development. In this paper it is argued that the concepts of social surveillance, discipline and power proposed by Foucault in "Discipline and Punish" prevail in the QA model. It concludes that the power of social control generated by the QA model is established and rooted in the system for monitoring school quality.
[Copyright © 2012 J.Edu. & Soc.]

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 the effect of Learning Study module on developing the teaching competency of pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. Learning Study module is a research based teacher training course that aims to improve pre-service teachers’ lesson preparation skills and their teaching competency. The module is offered for all Year Two students in the Bachelor of Education programme of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. It comprises a series of lectures, consultation meetings and teaching practices that set the theoretical framework for conducting Learning Study. Activities are organized in such a way that pre-service teachers can practice argumentation, decision making and justification while investigating and solving pedagogical problems. This study aims to validate a theoretical model for exploring the critical successful factors of the Learning Study module for nurturing pre-service teacher’s reflective competency and lesson preparation skills through a quasi-experiment design. 341 preservice teachers took part in a questionnaire survey. A structural equation model was applied to explore the relationships. Lesson analysis, framework for conducting Learning Study, consultation on lesson design and teaching, lesson implementation and peer observation in the teaching practices are identified to be the critical successful factors for developing lesson preparation skills, teaching competency and reflective experiences of the pre-service teachers.

This study aims to explore the relationship between the supporting factors and learning outcomes of a teaching practicum model for an initial teacher education programme in Hong Kong. Identifying the predictive relationships of the supporting factors for pre-service teachers’ teaching practicum and their learning outcome could help promoting the quality of the programme. There were 229 pre-service teachers participated to a questionnaire survey of a quasi-experimental design. Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability test were used to confirm the constructed validity and reliability of the survey instrument. A Structural Equation Model was applied to explore the predictive relationship between the supporting factors and their learning outcomes. Results show that campus-based courses, school mentor support and pre-service teacher’s self-efficacy were identified to be the supporting factors for their learning outcomes which include instructional design, managing learning activities and assessment. Strengthening school partnerships, providing mentor training and enhancing the element of assessment for learning in campus based course are recommended to the teacher education programme.

This paper aims to explore the mechanism of Learning Study in enhancing teacher professional development by adopting community of practices as the analytical framework. Under the curriculum reform in Hong Kong, schools are facing challenges in acquiring pedagogical content knowledge for implementing new curriculum. How to enhance teacher professional development for building school capacity is critical for sustainable development. Learning study is a school improvement project which aims to improve the quality of student learning via enhancing teacher professional development by creating a community of practice among teachers, researchers and educators involved in the design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of a research lesson, with ultimate goal of developing Learning Community in the school. This study will explore how the community of practice set up by the Learning Study Project can effectively help teachers build their pedagogical content knowledge. Wenger’s theory of Communities of Practices, which postulate that participants have a mutual engagement for a negotiated joint enterprise and they develop a shared repertoire, is adopted as the theoretical framework for exploring teacher learning and professional growth. The study adopts ethnographic approach to investigate social phenomena of teacher interactions in a case selected from Learning Study Project. Results show that the collaborative features of the Learning Study provide opportunities for teachers to create shared knowledge, values and beliefs and to establish overlapping histories among them. Learning Study enhances teacher professional development by creating a community of practice for knowledge sharing and reflective practices on teaching and learning.