There is a growing consensus that schools and practising teachers can, in collaboration and/or in partnership with higher education institutions, make valuable contributions to initial and continuous teacher development, specifically when teachers can see how their efforts result in improved student learning and achievement. Learning Study, a Hong Kong version of the Japanese Lesson Study, was developed and used as a tool in a three-year project (2000 - 2003) for improving teaching and learning. Learning Study, which is built on a school-university partnership model, and is grounded in a theoretical framework of variation (Marton & Booth, 1997), was found to be powerful for teachers' professional development. In four years' time, Learning Study has spread from two primary schools to over a hundred primary and secondary schools, and over a hundred Learning Studies had been developed. Learning Study was also used in mentoring to facilitate the forming of a "learning community", to supplement the one to one mentor-mentee model, where the professional growth of all teachers involved was enhanced. In this symposium, we will illustrate how learning communities can be facilitated through engaging teachers in action research cycles of Learning Studies, in which teachers are empowered to learn from their students, from each other and from research as well.

An ongoing project is investigating online learning-oriented assessment (Carless, 2003) on a two-year project to redesign seven teaching and learning modules at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Simultaneously the project team is developing key principles for online learning assessment. The project uses 'design experiments' (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992), 'development research' (van de Akker, 1999) or 'use-inspired research' (Stokes, 1997) for the ongoing project. Use-inspired research "includes basic research that seeks to extend the frontiers of understanding but is also inspired by considerations of use" (Stokes, 1997, p. 74). Our focus has been to improve the use of learning-oriented assessment in eight separate modules (four completed and three in-progress) in teacher-education. Four teacher-educators from four different departments: Early Childhood Education, Information and Applied Technology, Creative Arts and the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology participated in the project. Throughout the project we have examined teachers' perceptions of assessment, teaching and learning and technology through video-interviews and concept mapping. In addition we have conducted video-focus groups with students within our classes to determine their perceptions about the new forms of assessment that we have trialled. Online learning technology has significantly changed the landscape of teaching, learning and assessment and allows new possibilities. Learning management systems like Blackboard have unique affordances in allowing collaboration between students. The use of group activities and student-centred approaches like project-based learning allow students to collaborate, debate, negotiate and crystallize their ideas whilst working within a socio-constructivist framework. The nature of the learning task is a predominant factor in the collaborative skills developed by the students. Project-based learning is defined as "an instructional technique in which meaningful

Amidst the various demands created by curriculum reforms in Hong Kong, the core business of schools - 'high quality teaching and learning' - has become the focus of attention. Teachers and schools are vested with the responsibilities to put the reform ideals into practice. Schools are accountable for improving student learning outcomes, the empowerment of teachers through mentoring, peer review and appraisal, and turning themselves into learning organisations. This paper describes how Learning Study, which initially started as a modest project to find ways to cater for individual differences in mainstream schools in Hong Kong, became a powerful tool for schools to achieve the aims mentioned above. We did this in a series of projects by using Learning Study as a major component of a mentoring system, which resulted in the creation of learning communities in schools, with a focus on teaching and learning. Such a system benefited all teachers involved, both novice and experienced. Starting with only two schools in 1999, schools in the Learning Study network rapidly expanded to over 100 in 2004, and in the next three years, at least another 120 schools will join the network. The success of Learning Study in Hong Kong will be analysed under the following factors: its conceptual framework, methodology, partnership with higher education institutions, positioning, reform context and culture, and dissemination strategy. Its potential in moving towards improving the status of the profession as a whole will also be discussed.

It is widely recognised that teachers' professional development is greatly enhanced through their participation in professional discourse. Professional discourse is a structured form of professional conversation that is widely used in lesson analysis and pre and post-lesson conferencing, within the contexts of mentoring and peer review. In Hong Kong, lesson observation and analysis also arise when conducting Learning Study. In these various contexts, conversation often turns on reconciling different interpretations and understandings of classroom events. When conducting a lesson (teacher talk) and in pre and post-lesson analysis (teacher conversation), meanings are not simply articulated, they are also created. Moreover, the meanings expressed by teachers when both teaching and analysing lessons are not stable; they are in process and change over time. The paper will outline these ideas in detail, with particular emphasis on lesson conferencing, building on the work previously undertaken by one of the authors on the hermeneutics of professional discourse. The conceptual framework discussed in the paper will provide the basis of a research programme that will shortly be undertaken in Hong Kong, as a component of a major government sponsored project conducting Learning Studies in both primary and secondary schools.

This paper describes how a team of teachers and researchers in Hong Kong worked together to develop a research lesson on electro-chemical series in a Learning Study at Secondary 4 level in the subject of Chemistry. Learning study is premised on a conceptual framework that builds on three types of variation: variation in students' understanding of a specific object of learning (V1); variation in teachers' understanding and ways of handling the object (V2); and the use of patterns of variation based on the Theory of Variation (V3). The study reported in this paper illustrates how the conceptual framework, in particular, the use of patterns of variation, helps to enhance student learning. In this study, the same teacher taught the research lesson in two cycles to two Secondary 4 Chemistry classes in the same school. The two cycles of research lesson were videotaped, analyzed and triangulated with the student learning outcomes in a diagnostic test administered before and after the lesson, and a post-lesson group interview with a sample of students. Whereas the theoretical framework of variation was employed to analyze what patterns of variation were created and hence what was made possible to learn in the lessons, the results of the pre- and post- test were compared to trace the students' progress in categories of questions that measured for their understanding. In the research lesson, patterns of variation which served the functions of ìseparation and ìgeneralization were used to help the students to understand how the electro-chemical series is derived, and to discern that the order of the metals in the series and the potential difference between any two given metals are constant and independent of the reference metal used. The student learning outcomes showed that there was substantial growth in the students' understanding of these concepts.

香港的中學中國語文科已用單元教學，然而如何組單元才較有效呢？至到目前為上，似乎仍沒有定論。教統局的文件中沒有特別強調要求教師用甚麼模式來組單元，但卻有單元的示例；很明顯，這些示例是以學習的能力作為組單元的要素。這些資料有參考的價值，但並不表示所有中國語文科的老師，都會用這種方式來組單元的，用文體來組單元是其中一個較多老師會用的方法。這種組單元的方式是無可厚非的，因為老師過往的學習或教學都是以文體為主，較易掌握；同時可以利用舊課程的文章，這些文章有教科書可以參考，教起來會比較容易。不過，有些老師及出版社對文體分類的認識不深 (特別是古典文學的文體)，分類的時候便出現問題。如果將錯誤從文體組成單元給學生學習，自然會影響學習的成效。本文嘗試從文體分類的角度來探討組單元時出現的問題，並就著這些問題提出一些教學上可行的建議。