In the past, the Curriculum Development Council in Hong Kong [Curriculum Development Council (CDC). (1996). Guide to the pre-primary curriculum. Hong Kong: Government Printer; CDC. (2000). Consultation document: Learning to learn: The way forward in curriculum development. Hong Kong: Government Printer; CDC. (2001). The way forward in curriculum development – Learning to learn: Life-long learning and whole-person development. Hong Kong: Government Printer; CDC. (2006). Guide to the pre-primary curriculum. Hong Kong: Government Printer], has issued a number of consultation documents regarding the overall aims of the twenty-first century and its implementation, particularly in pre-primary education. These documents provide the backdrop for our research on the implementation of language policies in Hong Kong kindergartens. Data were collected via questionnaires, focus group interviews, and classroom observations in pre-school settings. This paper discusses the provision of bilingualism in Hong Kong pre-schools, especially the teaching and learning of English.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2013.788816]

The professional development of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong appears to be limited by their inability to extend thinking beyond their own personal concerns so that the needs of the children were not the major determinant of their classroom practice (Li, 2000a). Professional development of a teacher involves cognitive development, a change of the practitioner's perception of teaching and learning as well as a change in their coping strategies (Li, 2001). To facilitate the change, the key is cognitive structuring/advancement through the process of assisted performance taking place within the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Tharp and Gallimore 1988) of individual teachers. Peer coaching and expert consultation, presumably in a collaborative school culture, are important elements in the process of cognitive development. This study is to compare the teaching and belief of teachers before, during and after the provision of peer coaching and expert consultation in a school-based staff development project. Data were obtained by recording vignettes of practice, listening to teachers' conversations in workshops and commentary in the video. The findings of the study suggest that assisted performance and case-based training hold some promise for teachers' learning process of professional development.
本港幼稚園教師的專業發展受其個人想法限制，使得她們在課堂教學時不能以兒童的需要為依歸(Li, 2000a)。教師的專業發展涉及認知發展的轉變，就是想法的轉變、以及對教學策略上的轉變(Li, 2001)。要促使這個轉變，關鍵在於個體教師在周邊發展的範圍內，透過建構的過程，將以兒童的需要為教學依歸的認知過程結構化或提昇化(Tharp and Gallimore 1988)。在學校文化的配合下，朋輩指導和專家諮詢是認知發展過程的重要原素。是次研究旨在比較教師們在朋輩指導和專家諮詢的提供前、後和期間的教學和想法的轉變，並透過錄音、聆聽教師的意見、工作坊的會談和錄影片段的旁白而搜集資料。研究結果顯示朋輩指導和個案培訓有助教師們的專業發展。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Little research has been done on the choices of mentors when they are offered a comprehensive range of roles. The mentors in this study were in their first attempt as mentors and did not have an assigned 'role'. They were involved in a mentoring course that sought to facilitate the placement of in-service teachers and school-institute partnerships. Findings suggested that there was a tendency of the mentors to take an authoritarian role on the rights and wrongs of protégés' teaching while managing to maintain trust and warm relationships. A particular interaction pattern between the mentors and protégés emerged. There were signs of a clear preference for performing the role of guiding teaching evaluations and the mentor teachers had a very positive attitude towards providing 'assistance' to the less experienced teachers. Nevertheless, room for the development of flexibility, creativity and initiative on the part of the protégés was limited by a number of contextual factors.
[Copyright of Teacher Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13664530903043970]

The present study was aimed at investigating the perception of teaching and learning of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Despite the philosophical vision of early childhood education, a firm traditional kind of instruction, with emphasis on planning, preparation and external judgment, was perceived as an important indicator for good teaching. Moreover, teachers tended to focus on and describe their own actions as teachers rather than the actions of pupils. There was a shift from children's agenda to the teacher's agenda. A very different role of the teacher, in contrast to the philosophy of early childhood education, was recorded. The vision of developmentally appropriate early childhood education has not been well acknowledged by kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. It is argued that challenge to their prior beliefs on teaching and learning will facilitate their future professional development.
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Research literature has long indicated that action research may stimulate practitioners themselves to actively evaluate the quality of their practice. This study is designed to report the use of action research for the development of early years professional practice by analyzing the pre-project and the post-project video-filmed teaching events. The finding was that action research might support knowledge development in the teacher profession. However, the teacher's ability to accommodate outside knowledge might be limited by one's inside knowledge. The study helps to clarify the assumptions and potentials of action research for teachers learning to teach.
[Copyright of Educational Action Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09650790802011908]

The idea of active learning was first introduced to kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong in 1981 when they received their in-service teacher education. In a two-year, school-based project, 60 teachers in five schools were asked to create collaborative videos about models of good practices after sharing "effective" teaching episodes with peer teachers who were experimenting with "desirable" learning activities in their classrooms. This study reports on the planning, implementation, classroom ethos and adult support displayed in the project deliverables (videos) so as to portray the kinds of emergent innovations that were being adopted. The findings of the study suggest that there was some significance to the use of collaborative reflection to activate teachers' creativity and sensitivity in giving children's learning first priority in their pedagogy. As well, it points toward using collaborative reflection as an element of teacher education.
[Copyright of Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10901020701634864]