The paper discussed the problems of school-based development of a primary school in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2004 Common Ground, Kam Wing Paul Chan.]

The Primary English Reading Project, supported by the Hong Kong Government’s Language Fund, is a four year longitudinal project that aims to develop innovative reading programmes in primary schools in Hong Kong. The Project has adopted a collaborative approach to curriculum and teacher development in an attempt to create and put into practice a shared vision of how reading instruction can best support pupils’ reading in English. This paper will describe the strategies and processes that are being employed by the researchers and teachers as they strive to bring innovative change to teaching and learning processes within the classroom. Using data gathered through a questionnaire on teachers’ beliefs and practices in the teaching of reading, the writers illustrate the ways in which a collaborative approach to teacher development has influenced teachers’ and researchers’ understandings and actual practice in the classroom. The implications of employing collaborative approaches to teacher development as a means of translating vision into reality are discussed.

Lifelong and life-wide learning are the foci of learning in an information age. The World Wide Web (Web) is thought to be the driving force behind these changes as it is vast, flexible, and accessible with virtually no boundaries. Although there are many claims of the advantages of using the Web for module deliveries and promoting higher order learning, the results are controversial. The author attempted to examine whether a Web-based learning system could enhance flexible and collaborative learning. The thirty-two participants in the study were pre-service student teachers form the Hong Kong Institute of Education taking Information Technology as one of their minor studies. The module materials, discussion forum and announcements were presented on a dedicated Web site. Participants were encouraged to access this site for learning resources and to communicate using an e-forum. Twelve learners volunteered to attend five focus group meetings to share their experiences and opinions about using the Web. It was observed that they greatly valued the opportunity to use the Web, as it was convenient and flexible. In particular, the e-forum was found to be an invaluable arena for collaborative learning during their teaching practice period when they did not meet each other on campus.
[Copyright © 2002 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Though the notion of a mentor or cooperating teacher in initial teacher education has been implemented in other countries for many years (Haberman, 1971; Spillane & Levenson, 1976), it was first attempted in initial primary teacher education in Hong Kong only in 1994. The present study aims to investigate this new attempt by the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) to foster supporting relationships in teacher education. The paper focuses on the Cooperating Teacher Scheme (CTS) as a learning experience for student-teachers and the different roles of the school, cooperating teachers, and HKIEd lecturers. The study includes a quantitative component and a qualitative component. Eighty schools were selected randomly from a list of 130 schools participating in the Scheme in 1995-96. Four agents, viz. school heads, co-operating teachers, lecturers and student-teachers involved in the CTS were invited to complete a questionnaire and representatives from each category were interviewed. The findings consider student-teachers' learning as well as varying perceptions of the roles of the four agents in the scheme. Based on the findings, implications of the CTS in initial and further teacher education as well as the collaboration between schools and the Institute are drawn.
[Copyright © 1998 Routledge.]

This paper presents a qualitative study with the use of the interpretive paradigm to capture subjective meanings that pre-service Physical Education (PE) teachers gave to their professional socialization process at the early stage of their two-year full-time teacher-training program. Data concerning their actions, feelings and reflection on their practical, pedagogical and theoretical modules were collected through interviewing and writing of reflective journal. Participants were analyzed according to their types namely, "athletes", "idealists", "pragmatists", "followers" and "the insecure group" while joining the program. It was interesting to find that they all articulated their professional learning to the "process knowledge" through experience rather than "propositional" one in the form of discipline based and theoretical conceptions regardless of their types. The findings provide information about how pre-service PE teachers learn and develop their professional knowledge, which in return, generate implications on how the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program can be implemented effectively in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2000 Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University.]

This paper reports the implementation of a project designed to involve in service teachers in peer support for the learning of the core values of personal and social education so as to raise self-esteem, to enhance co-operation, to promote rationality and empathy. Project participants were 27 in-service teachers attending an undergraduate program of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Project evaluation reveals that the project succeeded in generating for the teacher participants emotional, academic, social, technical, and extended supports, and that the benefits of the project also spilled over to their relationships with their primary school pupils and daily lives. Research and practical implications are discussed.
[Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

To what extent and in what ways should a teacher educator contribute to a type of teaching development that has long functioned successfully without much involvement of teacher educators? This self-study concerns my learning about my role as teacher educator in a learning study, a Hong Kong adaptation of a teacher-driven Japanese educational and cultural practice, Jugyou Kenkyu, credited with high quality learning outcomes for both teachers and students. My first learning study case forms the retrospective backdrop to the self-study. By describing and evaluating my personal experience of interactions such as recorded meetings and teachers' reflections, I attempt to discern a function for myself within the group. The self-study helped uncover some misguided assumptions and responses in coping with the new context and also provided some preliminary understandings of possible teacher educator responsibilities in this type of initiative.
[Copyright © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.]

Whilst institute-school partnership have been affirmed as potentially valuable routes for the professional preparations of student teachers (Booth, Furlong & Wilkin, 1990; McCullough & Fidler, 1994), relatively less is known as to how teaching advisers perceive their roles and the impact of their collaborative relationships with student teachers on their own professional lives. This paper attempts to present the voices of four teaching advisers who participated in a mentoring scheme of an initial teacher education program in Hong Kong. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, lesson observations, and post-observation conferences present a general picture of the promises of the scheme as perceived by the teaching advisers in enhancing their own professional development, as well as challenges at the 'action' level. Findings point to the need for re-envisioning the roles and responsibilities of teachers for their own professional development as well as that of others. The paper will conclude with suggestions for fostering an effective and productive learning experience for both student teachers and teaching advisers.
[Copyright © 2004 De La Salle University, Philippines.]