This paper presents a study that shows the use of professional standards in field experience assessment in initial teacher education. A Professional Development Progress Map was developed in field experience assessment in a teacher education institution in Hong Kong. The study enriches our understanding of the holistic nature of assessing professional competence in teaching, problems of using the Progress Map in summative assessment, and the enhancement of professional learning in field experience assessment. While the discussion cautions the limitations of professional standards, it advocates the empowerment of the assessors and the assessed to be agents striving for good assessments. Suggestions on engaging supervisors and student teachers in 'assessment dialogue' are proposed for this empowerment - making explicit judgments on professional competence in teaching and sharing supervisory practices among supervisors, engaging student teachers with the assessment criteria, and reframing supervisory practices to empower student teachers to take an active role in supervision.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607470701773416]

This study employed the repertory grid technique to investigate how a sample of 27 student teachers in Hong Kong developed a personal sense of teaching efficacy. The analysis indicated that the third year students' perceptions were more homogenous than were those of the first year students. The results also indicated that teaching efficacy was viewed in terms of the dimensions of concern for instructional participation and learning needs of pupils, communication and relationships with pupils, academic knowledge and teaching skills, lesson preparation, management of class discipline, teaching success, teaching commitment, and a sense of self-confidence. Experiences of teaching practice, electives, pupils, and teaching practice supervisors (Electives) were the major sources for the development of a sense of teaching efficacy. Implications of how those aspects of teacher training can be more effective in engendering a sense of efficacy in the student teachers are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410050027982]

This paper examines the effects of course characteristics on student ratings of university teaching. The multivariate effects of various course characteristics on student ratings of university teachers were examined by a 54322 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with academic discipline, class size, level of course, type of course, and mode of study as independent variables and a set of six composite student ratings as the dependent variable. Data were obtained from a university in Hong Kong and consisted of 4996 course average ratings collected from 25 departments over two academic years. Significant differences were found in course average student ratings across academic disciplines, class size groups, course levels, types of course, and modes of study. The effect sizes of the largest differences between sub-groups within each of the factors were also estimated. Academic discipline differences and class size were found to have the largest effect on student ratings, with effect sizes of 0.43-0.86 and 0.55-1.01 respectively. Implications of the findings are discussed.
[Copyright of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0260293990240207]