Many teacher educator researchers often stand outside of schools to teach others about what is going on inside of them. In 1994 a team of researchers sought a different approach when they embarked upon a journey to enhance the professional development of primary teachers within the teachers' own school settings. The goal of this journey was to facilitate the development of literature-based reading programmes in selected Hong Kong primary schools. This colloquium will describe the process of facilitating and charting the development of the teachers as well as monitoring the growth of their students in reading over a three year period. The conditions and factors that influence teacher development will report briefly on the work in their respective schools and the approaches used to facilitate teacher development. Researchers will offer insights into their personal successes and failures and indicate directions for continuing teachers' professional development after the project. The limitations and strengths of adopting a long term approach to enhancing and studying teacher development from a curriculum initiative and research perspective, will be examined and recommendations offered for the way forward into the new century.

The Primary English Reading Project, supported by the Hong Kong Government’s Language Fund, is a four year longitudinal project that aims to develop innovative reading programmes in primary schools in Hong Kong. The Project has adopted a collaborative approach to curriculum and teacher development in an attempt to create and put into practice a shared vision of how reading instruction can best support pupils’ reading in English. This paper will describe the strategies and processes that are being employed by the researchers and teachers as they strive to bring innovative change to teaching and learning processes within the classroom. Using data gathered through a questionnaire on teachers’ beliefs and practices in the teaching of reading, the writers illustrate the ways in which a collaborative approach to teacher development has influenced teachers’ and researchers’ understandings and actual practice in the classroom. The implications of employing collaborative approaches to teacher development as a means of translating vision into reality are discussed.

Extensive Reading (also known as ERS or the Extensive Reading Scheme) in many Hong Kong schools is viewed, organised and promoted in very narrow and limiting terms. Traditionally, ERS is enacted in the selection and reading of a book followed by the completion of the relevant book card. This paper challenges the prevailing paradigm and encourages teachers to transform their ERS lessons by adopting approaches that will activate and enhance pupils' engagement with the ERS books and ultimately reap long term benefits in EFL/ESL learning. These approaches include making the aesthetic and affective dimension integral to ERS as well as the promotion and adoption of a Vygotskyian social interaction framework in the structure and design of the activities. A description, examples and illustrations of the activities to promote the two approaches are provided for classroom practitioners.
在香港, 學校對於廣泛閱讀計劃 (又作ERS) 的看法、編排及推廣, 各方面仍停留在很狹窄的層面。傳統上, 所謂的ERS, 是先取出書本, 然後閱讀圖書, 最後把有關的資料填在圖書咭上。這文章的目的是挑戰現有的模式, 並鼓勵老師對他們的廣泛閱讀課堂作出改變, 採用不同的方法務求令學生投入於廣泛閱讀的書本中, 以便最終能為學生帶來在英語學習上的長遠得益。這些方法包括: 1) 在課堂活動中加入ERS 固有的美學及情感的原素。2) 採用並推廣Vygotsky 理論中互動社會作用的構想。本文將會就上述兩個方法, 加以詳細描述, 並舉出一些活動和例子, 以供老教師參考。
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This paper shares with readers the findings of a study that was set in the context of a school curriculum initiative on task-based instruction. The study examined 1) the understanding and decision-making of teachers teaching English as a second language about language learning and classroom task preparation, 2) the difference in task interpretation among elementary and secondary teachers, and 3) the factors influencing interpretations. A total of 114 secondary and primary teachers of English attending an in-service teacher education program on the new curriculum were surveyed and interviewed. Findings indicate that the teachers had a tacit understanding of how to develop and adapt a task description for classroom instructional use.