The teacher's self as a crucial element for 'a more inclusive notion of professional development' has gained greater attention in the teacher education literature. Teacher development involves not only 'the nature of the knowledge of teaching' (epistemology), but also 'the nature of becoming and being a teacher (ontology) (Tickle, 2000:90). This paper attempts to seek a more coherent understanding of the notion of teacher's professional self and its relationship with professional learning. Based on the findings of 4 case studies of ESL teachers in the context of primary English classroom in Hong Kong, dispositional and affective factors are drawn to inform the notion of agency in professional learning. The paper first presents a review of the relevant literature to set the theoretical contexts. It then proceeds to report on the findings of the 4 case studies to provide empirical pictures of the issue. Based on an internal-external model of dispositions developed by Ritchhart (2002), the paper ends with a proposed framework of agency in professional learning. Implications and recommendations for teacher education to cater for various teacher agencies in learning will also be made.

Schön's notion of artistry of professional practice as defined in the notion of 'framing' offers a way to capture an essential process of the practitioner's learning in practice in professional development. In the process of interacting with the practical situation, the practitioner has to rely on his/her past experience and understanding to experimentally impose meaning on the situation in action (Furlong et al, 1988). This involves 'a constant proves of interpretation, action, reflection and adjustment' (ibid: 123) in action-learning cycles, which is important to teachers' development of expertise (Pang, 2005). Applying such a notion of teaching to understand the processes provided in the action-learning cycles inherent in the design of Learning Study carried out in Hong Kong, this paper aims to report on a Learning Study carried out in the context of English language teaching at primary level, in which four primary ELT teachers were involved in an Institute-school collaboration project. In the process of the Learning Study which consisted of 10 to 12 meetings, the teachers involved and the researcher contributed in a collaborative manner their experiences and understandings to the framing of the lesson in focus. While reporting on the stages of the Learning Study, and the effectiveness of learning of the topic in focus, the paper will focus particularly on how the teachers had benefited in such a process of collective framing in addressing the pedagogical problem in focus. Implications will be drawn on the use of Learning Study as a tool for expertise development in teaching.

The Hong Kong primary English curriculum has shifted from an emphasis on oral proficiency in the 1970s through a focus on functional competence in the 1980s to a goal of developing learners' ever-improving capability to use English in the 1990s. This chapter applies a multi-level framework, based on Richards and Rodgers' (1986) model for curriculum discussion and comparison, to review and analyze the three syllabi available in the local teaching context in the past two decades. It describes and analyzes the changes in the aims, objectives, and methodology of the primary English curriculum under the "fads" of different approaches recommended in the respective curriculum documents. Attempts are made to capture the theoretical and methodological developments in the primary English curriculum. The main purpose is to explicate the underlying assumptions on the nature of language and language teaching and learning to formulate a basis for understanding curriculum implementation at the classroom level. It is argued in the chapter that congruence between the intended and implemented curriculum relies on the mapping of the underlying assumptions about language and language teaching and learning. Evaluation of classroom implementation, teachers' practices, and classroom research should be related to such deeper level of theoretical orientation. Implications for policy makers, teacher educators, teachers, and classroom researchers are sought.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Recent mega changes in the social, political and educational context of Hong Kong and the subsequent impacts on language teachers have put great demands on English teachers' effectiveness. Some of these irresistible changes are, for example, the implementation of TOC in primary schools, the proposed benchmark qualification assessment recommended in the Education Commission Report 6, the fast changing diversity in students' needs and ability due to the influx of immigrant children from the mainland, and most important of all, the insistent demands on quality teaching and learning of English despite a declining status of the language due to the change of sovereignty. Working in this changing environment, English teachers very often encounter unexpected challenges and great demands of effectiveness as professional language teachers. Responding to this, the present paper offers an emerging perspective to the perplexing question of how English teachers can function effectively in an age of megatrends. It suggests that to enable these ELF/ESL teachers to be responsive and adaptive to the megatrends in schools, the answer lies in a shift in the paradigm of teacher learning and development. The authors propose that English teachers should embark on self-learning while self-managing their work in schools so as to be able to face new challenges in the ever changing internal and external environment of the school. This paper attempts to apply the self-learning framework developed by Cheung & Cheng (1995 & 1996) to illustrate the concrete stages of how English teachers could engage themselves in an iterative process of self-learning. Cheung & Cheng's (1996) self-learning framework comprises two self-learning cycles: the Major Cycle and the Support Cycle. The Major Cycle consists of five sequential stages: namely, Environmental Analysis, Planning & Affiliating, Developing & Directing, Implementing, and Evaluating & Monitoring. The Major Cycle provides an overall mechanism for practicing