Non-traditional pathways or alternative routes for initial teacher education have proliferated in the United States and the United Kingdom (Berliner, 2006; Furlong, 2005), and are being advocated in Australia and a number of European countries (Buckingham, 2005; Eurydice, 2004). The impetus for this development has been largely contributed by government efforts to alleviate critical teacher shortages in high need subjects and geographical districts. However, the development has been accompanied by politicized attacks on the traditional requirements of university- or college-based initial teacher education which were perceived as deterring talented prospective teachers from entering the profession. Furthermore, a more fundamental change has been the criticism of the quality of university-based teacher education, and the shift of teacher education to school-based and employment-based routes (Abell Foundation, 2001; US Department of Education, 2002). This paper first provides a comparative analysis of the policy context and the development of alternative routes to teacher education in various countries, and reviews the research literature on the arguments for and against traditional and alternative routes of teacher education. It then traces the development of teacher education policy since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1997. It argues that there is substantial evidence to support the claim that government policy has been influenced by the developments of alternative routes of teacher preparation elsewhere, which has partly contributed to its wavering over whether to implement the "all graduate, all trained" policy objective announced by the Chief Executive in 1997. This policy shift has illustrated the long and difficult process of teacher professionalization in Hong Kong and may provide useful insights for other parts of the world.

From the perspective of a teacher education institution, the most important partner to work together is certainly the school itself. In fact, the partnership between tertiary and schools has received considerable attentions from teacher educators and policy makers since the late 80s. In Hong Kong, recent developments in teacher education programmes have also placed increasing emphasis on establishing links with the school sectors. This paper reports a pilot study of the Honorary teaching Adviser (HTA) Scheme, which seeks to involve school teachers to support the professional development of participants on pre-service and in-service initial teacher education programmes for cultural and technology subject teachers. The research aims to compare, between pre-service and in-service initial teacher education, the supporting strategies adopted by the HTA to facilitate student teachers' professional learning and the mode of team teaching and professional dialogues engaged in by the student teachers and the HTA. Views of the stakeholders including school principals/school co-ordinators, Institute supervisors and Honorary Teaching Advisers towards the partnership are solicited. Finally, issues and challenges in the HTA Scheme of pre-service and in-service initial teacher education programmes are identified for future implementation.

Secondary vocational education performs an initiative role in meeting socio-political and economic demands. Tsui's (1997) Review Report of Prevocational and Secondary Technical Education suggests a new curriculum pattern in the light of Hong Kong's structural changes in economy and its technological advancement. The new curricula emphasize on language, business and technological subjects that comply with the generic, fundamental and transferable requirements (para 3.18). The major new subjects named as Business Fundamentals, Technology Fundamentals, Design Fundamentals, Word Processing & Business Communications, Graphical Communication and Technological Studies will be implemented in year 2000 and ultimately introduced into secondary grammar schools (para 4.15). To enhance the quality of teaching, the report also suggests that updated and relevant training should be given to vocational teachers to keep them close to the real trend (para 4.21). The ratio of graduate teachers to non-graduate teachers in prevocational schools changes from 1:1 to 7:3 within 5 years. However, there is no further concrete strategy to support the corresponding teacher training. Currently, around sixty percent of graduate business teachers are untrained and eighty percent of the business teacher samples from secondary schools perceived that insufficient teacher training was provided for them (Velde, 1997c). In facing the great challenges in new curricular and professional upgrading within such a short time frame, challenge appears in teachers' capability and adaptability. Further development of vocational teacher education is urgently required. By defining competencies for secondary vocational teachers is a powerful means in providing information to help them to be successful in their job (Esque and Gilbert, 1995; Hager, 1995). According to Marrelli (1998), competencies are measurable human capabilities that are required for effective work performance demands. The competency model

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) largely provides training to students who wish to pursue their career in teaching in compulsory education. The authors, computer literacy lecturers, were interested to find out if there was any difference between the perceptions of computer student teachers when they were at year one and at year two regarding the importance of computer knowledge they should possess as competent computer teachers. A questionnaire was distributed to student teachers of Northcote Campus after teaching practice in 1996 and again in 1997. The content of the questionnaire was based on the computer literacy curriculum for lower secondary students. The computer topics were grouped under basic computer knowledge, Logo programming, computer applications and others. Student teachers perceived all the computer knowledge were important. Student teachers gave highest regards to computer applications category, followed by Logo programming category, basic computer knowledge category and others category when they were in year one. However, the rankings of basic computer knowledge and Logo programming category were reversed in 1997. The rankings for computer applications category and others category remained the same even though the average mean scores for computer applications category had increased and others category had decreased in 1997. The means for the first three categories actually were very close for both years. When we looked into details we found that five out of seven topics of computer applications category had increased their importance. It was not surprising to find out the largest increase was the social implications of computers on society as there were successful charges for computer hackers recently for the first time. For the basic computer knowledge category, the increase was mainly caused by the large increase of importance of limitations of computers which was also the greatest among all topics. For Logo programming, all the sub-categories

The literature on the scoiocultural view of learning, and teacher development framed the present study. Five beginning teachers teaching science in Hong Kong elementary schools were interviewed three months after they started their first teaching assignment. Support was then provided in the form of a resource pack, an introductory workshop and personal support from the researcher. During the implementation of the resource pack, lesson observations and interviews were conducted. Findings suggest the science teaching was more consistent with a constructivist view of learning and some were even able to influence their colleagues to give more thought to their science lessons. Teacher development is anaylsed with a sociocultural view of learning and recommendations for teacher education were made.

This paper describes the learning experience of the student-teachers in an initial teacher education programme run by the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The focus is on the teaching practice period of the programme and the report is made through the eyes of the student-teachers as regards the support they received from their co-operating teachers. In order to enhance the quality of support provided by the co-operating teachers, the first phase of the study is an intervention in which training sessions for the co-operating teachers are provided prior to the teaching practice period. In the sessions, an introduction to recent educational theories; classroom observation skills and basic counseling skills are discussed. This study also includes an evaluation of the intervention through an examination of the quality of guidance provided by the co-operating teachers. The data collected include interviews with the student-teachers, conversation records between the co-operating teachers and the student-teachers, and journals written by the student-teachers during the teaching practice period. The findings contrast the support provided by the trained and untrained co-operating teachers as well as the experience of the student-teachers under their guidance. This paper concludes with different modes of support perceived and discusses implications on the design of field experience for initial teacher education programmes.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]