Teaching has become increasingly challenging as a result of high expectations and demands placed on education systems. With an overview of the pathways to become a teacher and the teacher policy context in Hong Kong, this chapter presents the case of an undergraduate ITE programme offered by the Education University of Hong Kong. The ITE programme aims at preparing high quality ITE graduates with the key attributes of Professional Excellence, Ethical Responsibility and Innovation. The heightened expectations and demands placed on teachers in Hong Kong have been exacerbated by the enormous difficulties at the societal level since 2019. The outbreak of the COVID-pandemic and the major socio-political issues have generated unprecedented uncertainties in society at large and the education community. The chapter examines how these extraordinary circumstances place novel demands on teachers’ professional competence, and hence requiring new professional knowledge. The creation of hybrid spaces in ITE and communicative safe spaces is needed to foster the co-construction of new professional knowledge. The chapter ends by arguing that professional competence coupled with teacher buoyancy can likely enhance the potential for ITE graduates to stand tall against immense everyday challenges of beginning teaching in an era of unprecedented uncertainties. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

This article presents a qualitative study which presents professional competence development in an undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programme in Hong Kong. Fifteen student teachers participated in two rounds of interviews, one after the first ITE fieldwork and another after the second ITE fieldwork in a five-year Bachelor of Education Programme. The interviews placed focus on the ‘context-specific’ aspects of professional competence, namely Competence in Classroom Teaching and Competence to Work in Schools, as well as student teachers’ experiences in different aspects of the ITE fieldwork context. The findings provide important insights into re-conceptualising professional competence development with an integrated analysis which explicates the dynamic interaction between the teaching context, the school context and the student teacher’s approach to learning. Three distinctive patterns of competence development in terms of student teachers’ perceived change in the two ‘context-specific’ aspects of professional competence were identified. The insights from the integrated analysis also extend Mutton, Burn and Hagger’s (2010) study by connecting different patterns of professional competence development with the interaction between student teachers’ approaches to learning from experience and factors in the ITE fieldwork context. Enhancing and constraining conditions for professional competence development and implications for ITE stakeholders are discussed. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The theory-practice debate has been a perennial issue in initial teacher education (ITE). By reporting a mixed-methods study in an ITE programme characterized by a university-based 'theory-first' approach in Hong Kong, this study offers useful empirical evidence to analyse the theory-practice issue. 346 student teachers of a BEd Programme participated in the quantitative survey, 15 of whom were interviewed. The quantitative findings showed significant positive correlations between three types of perceived professional competence and two aspects of student teachers' engagement with the theory-practice link. The qualitative findings offered an in-depth understanding of the ways in which student teachers connected theoretical knowledge learned in ITE coursework and practical experience in ITE fieldwork in developing their professional competence: (1) theoretical knowledge as a guide for professional decisions and a tool for reflection on practice; (2) practicalizing theoretical knowledge: adapting theoretical knowledge to practice situations. In the process of engagement, theoretical knowledge was transformed and adapted to practice situations when student teachers coped with the challenges of the teaching contexts in their ITE fieldwork. While affirming the value of student teachers' engagement with the theory-practice link, the findings of the study shed light on ITE practices for preparing student teachers for such engagement. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Previous studies that have found changes in the teaching motivations of student teachers assumed that these changes resulted from the field experience, without actually examining whether this was indeed the case. The mixed method study described in this chapter sought to cross-sectionally compare the teaching motivations of first- and fourth-year student teachers in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme, and at relating their differences in teaching motivation to the ITE programme, particularly the field experience. In this study, 319 first-year and 460 fourth-year student teachers in Hong Kong completed a teaching motivations questionnaire, and 35 and 12 from each group, respectively, then volunteered to participate in follow-up interviews. Both year groups were high in intrinsic, altruistic, and extrinsic teaching motivations (adaptive motivation) and low in teaching as a fallback career (maladaptive) motivation, although the fourth-year student teachers had lower adaptive and higher maladaptive teaching motivations compared to the first-year students. Interview data from the fourth-year student teachers clearly revealed the importance of the field experience in shaping teaching motivations. While the reality of the heavy workload and gloomy job prospects as experienced in their field experience lowered the teaching motivations of some, their negativity can be partly offset if they have high perceived teaching competence. The implications for teaching education are discussed. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

This article reports a comparative study on the reasons for pre-service student teachers becoming teachers in Hong Kong and Macau. The study adopted a mixed methods research design, with 459 and 137 student teachers completing a questionnaire on teaching motivation and 35 and 15 student teachers joining a follow-up interview in Hong Kong and Macau, respectively. The study found that student teachers in both societies share commonality in their altruistic and intrinsic motivations, i.e. a sense of vocation. The difference in student teachers’ motivation reflects the contrasting perceptions of teachers’ work and the teaching profession in connection with the different educational systemic factors in Macau and Hong Kong. Government-initiated quantitative expansion and quality enhancement in education set the backdrop of an aspiring teaching profession with promising prospects as perceived by the student teachers in Macau. In contrast, the move towards "centralized-decentralization" with a focus on excellence, competition and accountability in education at a time of teacher surplus results in a demanding profession with gloomy prospects as perceived by the Hong Kong student teachers. These differences add to our understanding of how the development trajectories of different education systems and teaching professions influence young people’s motivation to become teachers in different societies. The study also provides insights for initial teacher education and offers suggestions for the education communities of the two societies. Copyright © 2018 Education Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

This paper presents a mixed-methods study on preservice student teachers' perceived professional competence in the context of a Five-year BEd Programme in Hong Kong. Two rounds of data collection took place. 282 participated in the first survey and 346 participated in the second survey, with 15 student teachers joining semi-structured interview. The quantitative findings showed a significant increase in two competence factors, namely (1) Competence in Classroom Teaching; and (2) Pedagogical and Educational Knowledge after the second block of ITE fieldwork. The qualitative findings showed the characteristics of growing perceived professional competence and the constituting factors, like student teachers' learning from experience in the first block of ITE fieldwork, support from school teachers and feedback from university supervisors. A few student teachers reported negative change in perceived competence in challenging class settings and school contexts. Challenges and constraints encountered by these student teachers were identified to gain a deeper understanding of student teachers' experience. This study affirms the value of ITE fieldwork in contributing to growth in student teachers' professional competence. The deeper understanding of changes in student teachers' self-assessed professional competence provides insights on the relationship between professional competence and teaching contexts. This deeper understanding generates implications for ITE programmes and schools (sites of ITE fieldwork) to provide conditions to enhance student teachers' growth in professional competence. Equally important, student teachers need to be prepared to cope with challenging teaching contexts, including unfamiliar school contexts, schools / teachers with different teaching philosophies, and classes with diverse learning needs.

Aim: This paper reports a mixed methods study on the contribution of various aspects of professional learning in initial teacher education (ITE) to student teachers’ perceived professional competence in a Five-year Bachelor of Education Programme in Hong Kong. Special attention is paid to student teachers’ non-formal learning in higher education. Content: The mixed methods study was conducted in the context of university-based ITE programme in Hong Kong. A total of 282 student teachers participated in the quantitative survey, 18 of whom were interviewed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed four aspects for professional learning in ITE, and three factors for professional competence. The four aspects of professional learning in ITE are, in order of subjective importance to student teachers, Learning in ITE Fieldwork, Pedagogy-related Learning Experience, Previous Experience in School and Work, and Undergraduate Learning Experience: Formal Learning and Non-formal Learning (hereafter, Undergraduate Learning Experience). The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that student teachers’ Undergraduate Learning Experience is a significant predictor of all the three factors of professional competence, namely Competence in Classroom Teaching, Pedagogical and Educational Knowledge, and Competence to Work in Schools: Working with Others and Understanding School-wide Matters. Among various aspects (formal and non-formal learning) of undergraduate learning experience, this paper pays special attention to non-formal learning. The qualitative findings show that student teachers’ repertoire of teacher knowledge expanded in non-formal learning opportunities afforded by service learning, co-curricular activities and student exchange programmes. They constructed pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) and knowledge of context, mainly through their own hands-on experiences, professional dialogue with practitioners