背景：香港特別行政區政府在2002-2003 學年起，分階段在香港小學設置課程統籌主任一職。在設置職位時，亦很重視任職人士的專業發展，先後以短期課程、工作坊、學校交流日和發展日協助其發展。
討論焦點：本文從四個研究的成果，說明課程統籌主任的培訓課程仍有其不足，並加以分析和建議。
論點：特區政府深明課程改革的成敗與教師專業發展有密切的關係。然而，以小學課程統籌主任的專業發展來看，其模式和內容仍與現實需要有些距離。提供清晰的改革方向、在現實情景中提供專業發展機會、以夥伴合作模式和照顧施行者的感受，都必須加以留意。
總結：專業發展課程設計若未能照顧前線教師的需要，則不單無助教師改革課程，反而只會增加教師的負擔。
Background: Since the academic year 2002-2003, HKSAR government established the curriculum masters (PSM(CD)) post in primary schools through three stages. By organizing short courses, workshops, school sharing and development day, professional development was provided to these masters showing the concern of government towards this establishment.
Focal point: From four pieces of empirical reseach, this paper showed the deficit of the professional development program and reflected on responses of participants.
Discussion: Though HKSAR government emphasized the importance of professional development of these curriculum masters, the content and mode of professional development program are falling short from teachers' needs. It is suggested that providing clear reform directions, supporting professional development in real situation, utilizing collaborative mode and concerning teachers' feeling should be awared when design a program.
Conclusion: If professional development program is not designed for the needs of participants, it will not help teachers in curriculum reform but increase their burden.
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Background: Beginning Teachers are confronted with numerous challenges especially in their first year of teaching. Without ample induction support, the beginning teachers could merely develop their capacity on their own. Therefore, some nations implement the policy of internship so as to increase effectiveness of .the beginning teachers. In Hong Kong, the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ) introduced the proposal of internship and registration for beginning teachers in 2003; however, the proposal is still not carried out.
Focus of discussion: This paper attempts to examine the proposal in an international perspective. In order to understand the direction and design of the proposal in Hong Kong, it is going to identify the proposal through text analysis. In addition, the controversies of the issue will be presented and defended.
Arguments: The paper mainly explores the controversies of the internship from four sections, they include, nature of mentoring relationship, workload of mentoring, evaluation of mentoring and prospect of teaching profession. In order to deal with the challenges of induction year, whole-school approach to mentoring is suggested. It is argued that the internship of beginning teachers should be introduced as a way of improving teacher development of Hong Kong at both individual and school levels.
Conclusion: By exploring related research, implementation of internship through mentoring for beginning teachers is beneficial to develop teacher effectiveness and school effectiveness. Nevertheless, the proposal should be improved before it is carried out in near future.
背景：首年入職為新任教師帶來重大衝擊。倘若入職支援不足，新任教師便只有獨自面對困難。有見及此，不少國家實施新任教師的見習制度，以求提升新任教師的效能。二零零三年，師訓與師資諮詢委員會，亦倡議在香港推行新任教師的見習與註冊制度；然而直至目前為止，仍未落實有關政策。
討論焦點：本文嘗試借鑒國際經驗，從文獻分析於香港推行新任教師見習制度的方向與重點。此外，探討有關政策衍生的爭議，並且作出釋疑。
論點：本文主要從四個層面，探討師徒式新任教師見習制度引起的爭議，包括師徒關係的本質、師徒式的承當、師徒式的評量與教師專業前景。文中建議實施全校參予師徒式，以幫助新入職教師面對衝擊。本文提出師徒式新任教師見習制度對個人層面及學校層面的價值。

背景：1990 年代以來，香港政府銳意提高教師專業水準，積極地主導教師的專業發展。由於小學教師多屬非學位學歷，一向所接受的師資培訓也是針對通材教學的需要，政策的改變對他們做成很大的衝擊。
討論焦點： 本文從香港小學教師所處的脈絡因素入手，去探討他們專業化的路向，特別對影響教師專業發展的主導意識及權力形態，進行了分析。
論點： 香港教師專業化方向日益由政府的科層官僚主導，側重於教師專業發展，具體策略是以教師資歷要求系統化、專科知識化及持續專業發展制度化為特徵的。但各項政策的制訂缺乏協調，推行的方式多是由上而下，廣大教師處於被動位置。加上教師就業環境近年持續惡化，進修的選擇往往是為了迎合政策要求，以求自保，而並非是針對個人和整體學校發展的實際需要。
總結： 政府一方面提倡教師專業化，但另一方面透過行政指令，加強對教師專業化議程的主導和對教師整體性水準的監控，這種支配取向只會扼殺了教師的積極性。教師亦需積極爭取成立教師專業組織，以提高本身的專業自主權。
The paper examines the contextual factors and the dominant forces influencing the professionalisation of Hong Kong primary school teachers. The findings indicate that the recent direction of professionalisation has been focused on teachers' professional development, which has been increasingly controlled by the bureaucracy. The strategies for professional development are characterised by systemic requirements of teachers' qualification standards, specialist subject knowledge and continuing professional development. However, the policy formulation often lacks coordination, and the implementation process is typically top-down, with teachers' autonomy being ignored. In addition, amidst a worsening employment environment, teachers' choices of development activities are often aimed at meeting policy requirements, which may improve their job security. The findings suggest that the Government cannot advocate teacher professionalisation on the one hand, and mandate the professionalisation agendas and standards for teachers on the other, which would only ruin teachers' initiatives. Teachers also have to strive for the setting up of a professional body to exercise their professional autonomy.
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Background: Many of the agent-based products available to education today have been largely confined to games and instructional media that are often produced commercially by non-instructional professionals. Most of them lack customizability and are difficult to integrate into individual subject curriculum. With more agent authoring tools available and the proliferation of client-end computing, classroom teachers can now author their own agents pedagogically to produce learning environments that meet their predetermined objectives.
Aims: To experiment the use of agent technology with a class of pre-service teachers (aka trainee teachers). It hopes to achieve two objectives: (1) to understand how well the agent technology is accepted by the trainee teachers, and (2) to reveal any difficulty in designing the agent-based learning environment.
Sample: 16 pre-service teachers took part in this study. All of them were trainees from an educational technology module that had a main component in designing learning environment. They were second year students doing a Diploma-in-Education course in their own field of specialization.
Method: Pre-service teachers were to design agent-based learning environments on their own. A questionnaire was used to obtain summative assessment from the participants at the end of the course. The score from the questionnaire was used to gauge the trainee teachers' acceptance for their learning experience. Trainee teachers' weekly self-reporting Weblog was used as a formative assessment on their learning processes and difficulties.
Results: This study found that agent technology was well received by the trainee teachers albeit concerns for support by schools and the need to learn programming skills. Generally, trainee teachers were enthused by the use of scenes to support their lessons. They regarded their learning experience as positive and meaningful. They also believed that such technology would be helpful in promoting interest

The professional development of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong appears to be limited by their inability to extend thinking beyond their own personal concerns so that the needs of the children were not the major determinant of their classroom practice (Li, 2000a). Professional development of a teacher involves cognitive development, a change of the practitioner's perception of teaching and learning as well as a change in their coping strategies (Li, 2001). To facilitate the change, the key is cognitive structuring/advancement through the process of assisted performance taking place within the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Tharp and Gallimore 1988) of individual teachers. Peer coaching and expert consultation, presumably in a collaborative school culture, are important elements in the process of cognitive development. This study is to compare the teaching and belief of teachers before, during and after the provision of peer coaching and expert consultation in a school-based staff development project. Data were obtained by recording vignettes of practice, listening to teachers' conversations in workshops and commentary in the video. The findings of the study suggest that assisted performance and case-based training hold some promise for teachers' learning process of professional development.
本港幼稚園教師的專業發展受其個人想法限制，使得她們在課堂教學時不能以兒童的需要為依歸(Li, 2000a)。教師的專業發展涉及認知發展的轉變，就是想法的轉變、以及對教學策略上的轉變(Li, 2001)。要促使這個轉變，關鍵在於個體教師在周邊發展的範圍內，透過建構的過程，將以兒童的需要為教學依歸的認知過程結構化或提昇化(Tharp and Gallimore 1988)。在學校文化的配合下，朋輩指導和專家諮詢是認知發展過程的重要原素。是次研究旨在比較教師們在朋輩指導和專家諮詢的提供前、後和期間的教學和想法的轉變，並透過錄音、聆聽教師的意見、工作坊的會談和錄影片段的旁白而搜集資料。研究結果顯示朋輩指導和個案培訓有助教師們的專業發展。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Hong Kong schools experience an era of educational change in the 1990s. The major change items fall into the categories of school management (SMI - School Management Initiative and SBM - School Based Management); curriculum (TOC - Target Oriented Curriculum and curriculum adaptation); medium of instruction (EMI and CMI - English or Chinese Medium Instruction schools); educational technology (SAMs and information technology in teaching) and funding system (Quality Education Fund). To further enhance the quality of school education, the Education Commission Report No.7 recommends the setting up of (1) a framework for raising the professional standards of principals and teachers and (2) quality indicators for school performance. These changes denote a demand for professional development programmes for teachers so that they can better meet changing needs and difficulties. The purpose of this study is to look into the issue of staff development programmes in local schools and see how the professional needs of teachers and schools are met.
在一九九零年代，香的中、小學校經歷了不少教育方面的轉變，當中主要的類別，包括了學校管理、課程、教學語言、教育科技及撥款制度等。為了提升優質教育，教統會第7 號報告書更建議(1)提升校長及教師的專業水準，(2)制訂學校的表現指標，面對種種轉變，學校有需要提升教職員的專業能力和水準，本文的目的，是就香學校對教職員發展計劃，作一些初步的探討和報導。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Hong Kong classrooms are populated by a significant number of culturally diverse students, most predominantly newly arrived students (NAS) from Mainland China. These NAS come to school with the same hopes and aspirations as their Hong Kong counterparts and with a wide range of abilities. The huge diversity presents demands on today's Hong Kong teachers. Too often, the NAS are failed by the educational system because their perceived needs are not being addressed. This essay serves as an exploratory study on teachers' pedagogical effectiveness in response to the challenges of educating the NAS in Hong Kong schools. It draws special reference to the lessons learned from a one-year professional teacher support pilot project for the education of the NAS. Implications are drawn to provide support for the need and value of the integration of the cultural relevant elements in continuous teacher education programmes.
香港學校收納了不少文化多元的學生，他們多是內地新來港的學生。他們擁有不同的能力，然而，他們跟香港本土學生一樣對學校抱有相同的夢想與素求。他們本身的多元性為今日的香港老師帶來了不少的要求。很多時，他們的學業失敗是因為本港教育制度不能照顧他們的學習需要而致。本文是一個為期一年的探索式先導計畫，研究專注於香港老師回應新來港學生教育的挑戰的教學效能。由香港優質教育基金贊助，名為「新來港學童教育專業支援計畫」。本文總結先導計畫成果，並把所得的啟示作為支持在教師持續教育課程中加入文化適切元素的需要和價值。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

Biotechnology has become an important modern advance that has significant social implications. While it is getting more exposure in the news, awareness of its nature, applications, and social impact among teacher trainees and school teachers and students are limited. In Hong Kong Institute of Education, serious efforts have been demonstrated by science staff to incorporate biotechnology curriculum materials for existing and new Science & General Studies modules in sub-degree, degree and PGDE courses. A number of hands-on experiments on biotechnology have been continuously adopted from both foreign and local sources. Multimedia teaching resources on biotechnology, such as CDs, videos and relevant issue-based materials are obtained. Also, teaching guidelines regarding their use in the teaching and self-study purposes are being worked out. It is hoped that the trained graduates can help promote Biotechnology education to their pupils.
生物科技近年取得突破進展，對社會影響日深。雖然有關的新聞報導越來越多，但一般老師和學生對其質、應用及社會衝擊所知有限。香港教育學院科學系，嘗試將生物科技課題併入証書課程、學位課程及教育文憑課程的科學單元和常識單元內。作者透過本港及外國的資料，引進了一些可行的實驗。此外，也發展了一些生物科技的多媒體教學資源，例如：光碟、錄像及時事輯錄等。同時還製備了有關的教學指引以供準老師教學及自修之用。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]