Despite extensive research on student teachers' engagement with university coursework, teaching practicums, and research projects in teacher education curriculums, empirical studies on the coherence among these components are lacking. Coherence refers to the degree to which curriculum supports, reinforces , and reflects shared goals. This research explores curriculum coherence and its influences on teacher learning in a Hong Kong pre-service language teacher education program. The study attempts to answer: How do student teachers perceive the connections between the university courses, teaching practicum, and research projects in the program? © 2023 Informa UK Limited.

Despite a plethora of studies on how to teach critical thinking (CT) in different subject classrooms, there is limited research on how teachers foster their CT and learn to teach CT through pre-service teacher education. Such a gap gives impetus to the present study, which seeks to examine to what extent and how a group of student teachers are prepared to become CT-oriented teachers in a Hong Kong-based pre-service language teacher education programme. Adopting a qualitative research approach and informed by a tripartite conceptual framework (i.e. coverage, coherence, and applicability), the study explored student teachers’ perceptions and experiences via in-depth interviews and relevant documents, supplemented by data gathered from language teacher educators in the programme. The findings reveal a rich yet unbalanced coverage of CT instruction, the transferability of CT learning to its teaching, as well as the rhetoric-reality gap in developing CT-related pedagogy in the programme. In light of the findings, practical implications at classroom and curricula levels are drawn to facilitate the integration of CT into teacher education programmes. © 2023 Informa UK Limited.

Against the backdrop of internationalisation and growing attention to intercultural experiences in tertiary education, this mixed-methods study examined, in part I, language learning benefits reaped by active participants in intercultural activities. As English is widely used for communication among multilinguals, part II of the study focused specifically on English. We set out to investigate the relationship between individuals' language background (actual and self-perceived English proficiency) and intercultural participation, as well as their views of the formal English language education they received prior to entering universities. The participants (n = 518) recruited from two universities in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire and 11 of them also attended individual semi-structured interviews. Overall, five categories of benefits emerged from the interview findings, namely psychological benefits, proficiency enhancement, identification of problems, communicative strategies for accommodation, and communicative strategies for expression. A weak positive correlation was found between self-rated English speaking proficiency and participation. The interviewees also commented on the formal English education they received from curricular and environmental perspectives. Copyright ©2023 Routledge.

Pre-service language teachers develop their critical thinking in teacher education courses. They learn to teach critical thinking mainly during the teaching practicum. Their learning to teach CT takes place through different forms of mediation. Their learning is impeded by the gap between the curriculum goal and its implementation. Informed by a socio-cultural perspective, this study investigated how two student teachers developed their CT-oriented pedagogies in a pre-service language teacher education program in Hong Kong. Drawing on multiple sources of data including semi-structured interviews, relevant documents, and informal communication, the findings revealed the participants' growing pedagogical knowledge and competence in CT teaching, influenced by various forms of mediation – i.e., object-regulated, other-regulated, and self-regulated – afforded in the situated context. The gap between the curriculum's goal and its implementation was identified as a crucial factor that impeded their learning to teach CT in the program. The paper concludes with practical implications that can help integrate CT into pre-service teacher education programs with a view to preparing future teachers with a high level of CT and CT-focused pedagogies. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier.

Informed by the perspective of complexity theory, this study seeks to explore two English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teacher educators' expertise in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from interviews, field observation, and informal communication over one academic year, the study revealed that the teacher educators' expertise entailed different components: 1) a dialogic teaching approach informed by research-based and contextualized knowledge; 2) emotional intelligence for maintaining personal emotional wellbeing and channeling emotions for effective teaching; 3) a reflective and agentive mindset for continuous learning; as well as 4) willingness and capacity to promote and distribute expertise in multiple communities. The participants' expertise functioned and transformed through their continuing engagement in different forms of teacher education practice, influenced by their personal beliefs and situated contexts. The study concludes with practical implications for language teacher educators on how to develop their expertise as a complex, adaptive, and evolving system in daily practice. Copyright ©2021 Wiley.

Against the backdrop of the worldwide prevalence and importance of internationalisation in higher education, the mixed-methods study examined the relationships between tertiary-level learners' on-campus intercultural activity participation (e.g. intercultural talks and workshops), seven aspects of whole-person development (civic responsibility, cultural engagement, intellectual capacity, peer relationship, community care, leadership, and self-appreciation), and academic performance. A questionnaire was distributed to 518 participants studying at two universities in Hong Kong. No positive relationship was found between participation and academic achievement. However, participation was positively correlated with all aspects of whole-person development. Community care and cultural engagement had the strongest correlations with participation. Following an explanatory sequential design, 18 of these participants were invited for a follow-up interview to expound on the findings based on their experiences, observations and understanding of their peers. The article ends with a discussion of the findings and implications for intercultural learning and teaching in higher education. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

This qualitative case study examined a group of undergraduate students' motivations towards extracurricular research in a Hong Kong university. Drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews, this study analysed the students' motivation change from the cognitive, social, and affective perspective. The findings revealed that the students were externally and internally motivated to join informal research activities and that their motivation change was intertwined with their cognitive learning, social interactions, and emotional experiences in the research process. The paper concluded with practical implications on supporting and sustaining undergraduates' motivations in extracurricular research activities to benefit their academic studies and future work. Copyright ©2021 Routledge.

This research explored the congruence and disparity between teachers' and students' attitudes towards French as a second language (L2) teaching strategies in a non-target language classroom context in the USA. The findings suggest students' and teachers' attitudes towards the direct and indirect teaching strategies were generally consistent, but not in terms of the collaborative teaching strategies. The findings also indicate that the beginner and elementary level students held different preferences for all the three teaching strategies. The underlying reasons could be learners' different language proficiency levels, and how well teachers execute these different teaching strategies in class. This study concludes with some implications for foreign language teacher education.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2015.1044228]

This paper reports a study that investigated the motivations towards teaching of six pre-service English teachers enrolled on a teacher education course in Hong Kong. A qualitative case study approach was adopted, using data gathered from pre- and post-course interviews with individual participants, their dialogue journals with the teacher educator as well as their post-course reflection papers. Drawing on existing research on motivation in teacher education and educational psychology, the findings show that while some pre-service teachers developed their motivations towards teaching in the course, some others showed little change. The study suggests that pre-service teachers' previous experience and personal beliefs as well as the course content and design could play an important role in changing their motivations. The paper concludes with some implications for language teacher education regarding ways to promote and sustain student teachers' motivations towards teaching.
[Copyright of Language Culture and Curriculum is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.890211]