This paper poses a modified Rogers (1995) model for the Innovation-Decision Process for designing in-service programmes for educational innovation. The proposal emerges from a study of eight in-service teachers struggling to implement an innovation - the process approach to teaching English writing in Hong Kong secondary schools over the course of a year. The findings appear to (1) substantiate the five stages described in the Rogers Model - Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation and Confirmation - and (2) reveal complexities in an Implementation Stage when it is applied in the educational context which were not defined in the Rogers Model. The Implementation Stage is classified into four phases - Experiment, Adjustment, Mastery and Personalisation. Each phase is characterised by its own emerging phenomena and copying strategies. These findings provide a theoretical framework and principles for designing in-service programmes to address a process for change which would deepen teaching skills as will as the successful implementation of innovation.
[Copyright of Evaluation & Research in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500799908666947]

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]

This article tries to explore some new direction for the in-service education of the teaching profession (INSET). The basic assumption for the present proposal of improving the lifelong professional development of teachers is that no substantial financial burden would be imposed on either the governments or the teachers. The present study was planned so that the data collected could be compared with two previous Hong Kong studies (Ho 1987, Ho and Chan 2000) done in the last 15 years. A questionnaire about INSET was designed for the study. Among the 2045 schools in Hong Kong, 102 schools (about 5%) were randomly selected for the study. Forty questionnaires were sent to each selected school for their teachers to complete. Fifty-nine schools sent back a total of 1363 questionnaires. The response rate was 58%. The results indicated that a great majority of teachers support the idea of partial pay leave as well as no pay leave. Governments and/or voluntary educational organizations are challenged to review their present policy of lifelong education of teachers.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0260137032000081511]

This paper reports the details about a study which investigates the attitudes of Hong Kong English-as-a-Second-Language teachers concerning English language teaching problems. The research findings reveal that attitudinal patterns in resources, curriculum, and teacher competence and that most respondents wanted a more flexible curriculum, textbooks geared to student level, and more classroom reading materials.

The author describes in this paper the initial and inservice education of Hong Kong teachers, and explores how teacher education can be improved in the changing era. The author points out that, according to the Basic Law, Hong Kong will not dispose of the existing educational system, but will build and continue on it after returning to China in 1997. Issues on traditional focus on initial education and on developing teachers' capabilities in implementing the centrally developed curricula are discussed.

There are a number of theoretical perspectives established for studying adult participation in education, but they are seldom examined together in single studies; neither are participants and non-participants examined simultaneously. This study examines the relative power of the major perspectives in distinguishing between and predicting participants and non-participants. Secondary school teachers who were participating or not participating in continuing professional education programmes were taken as target respondents. Results show that the theoretical perspectives of situations, dispositions, attitudes and beliefs in continuing professional education, and social norms and pressure, do not discriminate teacher participants and non-participants and are therefore not good predictors of the participation status of teachers. Only a few factors in the perspectives of motivations and socio-economic background are significant and meaningful in distinguishing the two teacher groups and in predicting participation status.
[Copyright of International Journal of Lifelong Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026013799293559]

This study examines the theory‐and‐practice connection model in mentor preparation in the context of two mentor preparation programmes in Hong Kong. The 30‐ and the 60‐hour mentoring support development (MSD) programmes share a common conceptualization of mentoring—with the improvement of teaching and learning as the core of mentoring—yet they differ in objectives, duration and the mentoring practice settings in which structured practical work occurs. This enquiry addresses how the theory‐and‐practice connection model contributes to the construction of professional knowledge in mentoring and the development of mentoring practices in schools. It was found that the organization of curriculum components, such as coursework (e.g., skills of lesson analysis and conferencing), and structured practical work in mentoring, facilitated the connection of the theory and practice of mentoring. In addition, mentor trainees (practising school teachers) developed competence in mentoring through integrating research‐based knowledge and knowledge that grew out of their own mentoring experience. Finally, suggestions for the design of mentor preparation programmes and workplace conditions that facilitate mentoring in schools are discussed.
[Copyright of Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13611260500206002]