This paper reports on the effectiveness and practicality of abstracting essential pedagogical methods that aim to promote high level thinking among junior secondary science students. Strategies include intensive professional development programme and design of lesson materials that can be integrated into the existing science curriculum in the Hong Kong schools. The professional development workshops focus on the distinction between the “Cognitive Skills Enhancing Lessons” (CSE) and regular science lessons. Teachers were stimulated to discuss ways to get students to discuss, think about and respond to teachers’ questions, and to ask questions. Classroom implementations of the CSE teaching materials tailor-made for the Hong Kong junior secondary science curriculum were initiated for 3 secondary two classes. The paper reports on the findings from the pre and post interviews, as well as interviews during the classroom implementations with all the participating teachers and a sample of 6 students from each class. Findings report on what teachers think about the CSE method, their general feelings about using CSE, their comments on the materials, the difficulties (if any) they met, the benefits to students and the perceived feasibility of implementing CSE-infused science activities designed by the project team in local classrooms.

It has been suggested that students can learn with video technology (Jonassen, Howland, Moore and Marra 2003): by involving them in project-based production, they will engage in deep learning and develop a variety of thinking skills in order to complete the project (Jonassen, Carr and Yueh 1998). With the shift from an industrial to a knowledge-based society, the development of skills in, for example, problem solving, project management, collaboration, leadership and presentation is essential (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 2000). For the past few years, many Hong Kong primary schools have been supported by the Quality Education Fund to set up Campus TV within or beyond the curriculum. Campus TV activities may provide a platform for engaging students in video production to develop important thinking skills -- though the possibility of using such a platform for this purpose is still under development. Last summer, a three-day summer Digital Video (DV) Camp was held in a local primary school, with about 20 Primary 4 and 5 pupils producing their own topics on digital video. Participant observation and semi-structured and focus group interviews were held to find out what the students had learned during the collaborative production process. Through digital ethnography methodology (Goodman 1998), the students demonstrated unexpected creativity, showed proficiency in using technology and media language to express themselves, and explicitly expressed the importance of collaborative skills in the process of video production. These encouraging findings suggest a direction for the implementation of Campus TV for student learning and the development of important thinking skills in the Hong Kong primary school setting.

Teaching English as a second language in Hong Kong has been undergoing considerable change in the last two decades, from the Oral-structural Approach to the Communicative Approach, and more recently the Task-based teaching and learning. Hong Kong ESL teachers are having to rethink classroom strategies. This poses a particular problem for student teachers who have limited understanding of what this involves. Moreover, the only experience they can rely on is their own as pupils, and this has been rendered largely irrelevant at a time when the standard of English in schools in Hong Kong is said to have been declining. The speaker explores how eight student teachers who consider themselves linguistically deficient develop their professional knowledge in learning to teach ESL. Results show that the thinking, knowledge and practices of these student teachers who entered teacher education with an 'empty disk' did change critically on the course. Implications are drawn for developing TESL programmes for teaching candidates who are less competent in English.

This presentation will focus on how teacher feedback helps cultivate critical thinking skills and raises awareness in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course. Analysis is based on data taken from verbal/written exchanges between teacher-student and student-teacher. Samples from students' work and teachers' comments will highlight the effectiveness of the process approach in developing L2 learners' writing skills. Practical issues such as ways of organising individual and group feedback sessions will be addressed. It also argues that dialogic encounters should be gradually scaffolded in order to maximise learning outcomes.

A method for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning is through encouraging academics to engage in action research projects into some aspect of their teaching which is of interest or problematic for them. Action research is promoted as a means for committed teachers to bridge the gap between their theories and practices, and now it has becoming a required skill of frontline teachers in schools in Hong Kong. However, groups of teachers being sold to the concept, are fresh to such idea and method, and their day to day practice has confined themselves to the more practical and technical management of teaching in schools. This paper explores the use of a case illustration approach for teaching action research on 33 in-service primary school teachers, the application of constructivist theories of learning underpins this approach will be addressed and the result will be discussed while significance of the findings will be highlighted in the light of preparing curriculum leaders to promote change in schools.

Technology Teacher Education, in similar ways to medical practitioner education, has to rely heavily on constructivist learning principles whereby learning takes place as a result of processing and solving a series of relevant subject based question. Using PBL techniques, the objectives of the project were addressed in the following terms: 1. Increase collaborative Learning through quality learning teams; 2. To enhance academic outcomes of individual members of the quality learning team; 3. To inculcate a constructivism culture within the quality learning teams through PBL; 4. To enhance both learning and instruction strategies through PBL; 5. To encourage and increase motivation of both the quality learning team and each of its individual members by immersion in PBL techniques; 6. To increase student achievement and create a positive technology teacher attitude within the quality learning team and its individual members. The use of small PBL learning teams to enhance technology teacher learning not only created extremely motivated student teachers whose reflective skills constantly improved, but, also engendered a much improved attitude in language acquisition skill as each team confronted the difficulties of a second language. In adopting the PBL technique within small learning teams it has been found that in the case of Hong Kong the Confucian precept of learning and of collectivism fits well with the Chinese culture. Cultural perspectives in the five countries in which the authors conducted their research added to the learning psychology of this intervention, thus increasing understanding and reflection.

The project was presented at the first PBL Conference held in Hong Kong in 1999. What follows is a progress report of the findings of the project during the past year. The objectives of the project remain as follows: · Increase collaborative learning through quality learning teams and PBL; To enhance academic outcomes of individual members of the quality learning team using PBL techniques; To inculcate a constructivism culture within the quality learning teams through PBL; To enhance both learning and instruction strategies through PBL; To encourage and increase motivation of both the quality learning team and each of its individual members by immersion in PBL techniques; To increase student achievement and create a positive student attitude of quality learning teams and their individual members by adopting PBL. It has been found that using small PBL learning teams not only created extremely motivated students whose reflective skills constantly improved, but, also engendered a much improved attitude in language acquisition skill as each team confronted the difficulties of a second language. In adopting PBL techniques within small learning teams it has also been found that the Confucian precept of learning and of collectivism fits well with the Chinese culture. Cultural perspectives added to the PBL psychology thus increasing understanding and reflection.

A method for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning is through encouraging academics to engage in action research projects into some aspect of their teaching which is of interest or problematic for them. Action research is promoted as a means for committed teachers to bridge the gap between their theories and practices, and now it has becoming a required skill of frontline teachers in schools in Hong Kong. However, groups of teachers being sold to the concept, are fresh to such idea and method, and their day to day practice has confined themselves to the more practical and technical management of teaching in schools. This paper explores the use of a case illustration approach for teaching action research on 33 in-service primary school teachers, the application of constructivist theories of learning underpins this approach will be addressed and the result will be discussed while significance of the findings will be highlighted in the light of preparing curriculum leaders to promote change in schools.