A prior study conducted by Walker (1996) showed teachers working in Primary schools in Hong-kong experienced professional development as a ‘one off’ occurrence, referring to one day out of the academic year, in the form of a workshop or course. Teachers felt that they did not take into consideration ‘teachers skills needs and involovement’ (Walker, 1996). According to the study, Principals and heads of department are usually responsible for shaping and establishing the norms for professional growth. The study revealed that the general consensus amongst principals and administrators believed that teachers should be involved in the actual planning and design of professional development. This study aims to further shed light on this phenomenon in the form of a case study at a primary school in Hong-Kong. An in depth look at how a school implements and organizes professional development can be beneficial to numerous members of the school community, including principals, teachers and administrators. Walker’s (1996) study was ultimately effective in recognizing the trends and opinions amongst principals and administrators regarding professional development. However there is limited research regarding how teachers perceive professional development and how they feel it can improve their needs. By acknowledging the lack of professional development , and it’s perceived ineffectiveness from teachers, this studies objectives is to explore how professional development is organized and developed in the school, and use such insights and opinions gained to provide a means to establish how professional development can be implemented more effectively to benefit teachers. Moreover research shows that in recent times, professional development is low on the list of teacher priorities, as they feel overwhelmed with their existing workload. Though the present study stems for the ideologies and perceptions teachers in Hong-Kong seemingly have toward professional development, majority of the research will be addressing the current effectiveness of professional development at the school, as this will enable one deduce factors that make it successful or unsuccessful. It is important to recognize that every school is different and will therefore have different needs. Thus making comparisons towards professional development regarding its policies and implementation will most likely to render obsolete, as a professional development program that is successful at one school may not be at the other. Though there is no concrete definition for what constitutes ‘effective professional development’ Desimone (2009) offers a framework that is broad enough to be relevant to most schools. Such a framework will be used as an indicator in establishing whether professional development is effective in the school (See appendix A and B). Responses from administrators and teachers from the interview questions will also be used to analyse whether professional development offered at the school is effective and productive. This study will adopt a qualitative approach primarily through the use of interviews and observations. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This thesis explores the identity formation of three EFL pre-service teachers during their teaching practicum in a school-university partnership school in Mainland China. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective, learning-to-teach is conceptualized as student teachers participating in and becoming a member of the communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) which consist of boundary-crossing members from both activity systems of the university and the school (Engestrom, 1987, 1999, 2001). Following a poststructural perspective, the student teachers’ learning-to-teach is also conceptualized as a process of “arguing for” (MacLure, 1993) their professional identities under dominant social discourses. Foucault’s (1983, 1985) concept of ethical identity formation elaborated into a framework of four ethico-political dimensions for doing teacher identity (Clarke, 2009) is adopted to further analysethe interactions between social structure and individual identity transformation. An ethnographic qualitative case study approach was adopted. Data collection methods included ethnographic observations of classroom interactions, focus group discussions and routine school activities, semi-structured interviews of student teachers and mentors, and collectioin of documents such as university teaching practicum documents, lesson plans, reflective diaries and newsletters. Both “content analysis” and “modified analytic induction” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Merriam, 1998; Patton, 2002) were adopted to conduct within-case and cross-case data analysis. The multi-method approach allowed the researcher to collect and interpret data from both holistic and in-depth research perspectives which also enabled triangulations during data analysis. The analysis indicated that historical, cultural, political and economic forces intertwined and formed general social discourses. Their influences permeated into the discourses of both the university and the school activity systems. Due to the contradictory discourses of ELT education between the two institutions, the boundary-crossing learning-to-teach activities were replete with tensions, asymmetrical power relationships, and interpersonal conflicts, which combined to become driving forces for the different transformations of the three student teachers’ identities within the school-university partnership activity system as a global community of practice (COP). Due to different individual backgrounds, inner tensions and interpersonal conflicts within the COP, the student teachers led dissimilar legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991)trajectories through identifying themselves with different local sub-cops (T-cop and S-cop) in various modes of belonging. Under the domination of contradictory institutional discourses, the student teachers exercised their creative agencies and managed to find the “spaces” for their own freedom of self-formation via four ethico-political dimensions. Through critical reflection on the relation between the care of self and the care of others, the student teachers clarified, readjusted and reinforced their telos which is part and parcel of the ongoing interactions among the four ethico-political aspects of teacher identity. Based on the contradictions identified in this research, a critical and ethical pedagogy framework for EFL teacher education was conceptualized for ELT and teacher education programmes. This thesis also serves as an attempt to address teacher identity issues from the integrated perspectives of both sociocultural and poststructural approaches (Morgan, 2007) and to introduce the concept of ethico-politics of teacher identity to EFL teacher education. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

Understanding nature of science (NOS) is an important learning objective of the science curricula in many countries. However, research shows that there is a large gap between the curriculum emphasis and classroom practice. There have been calls for more studies on how teachers can be better prepared for teaching NOS. This study examines what teachers have learned, how they have learned it and the factors affecting their learning in a teacher professional development (TPD) programme to prepare them to teach NOS. The study was conducted in 2008-10, when the new Hong Kong Senior Secondary Biology curriculum, with its emphasis on NOS, was introduced. Three of the 18 teachers participating in the programme were chosen for in-depth case studies to illuminate their process of learning to teach NOS. Over a 20-month period, the teachers worked collaboratively to learn how to teach NOS in study group settings. Initially, the teachers were given curriculum materials designed for the explicit and reflective teaching of NOS. They selected, adapted and refined the curriculum materials to suit their own students. They then taught NOS to their students using the modified curriculum materials in their classroom, and the lessons were videotaped. These videos were later shared and analyzed collaboratively in study group meetings and workshops. To monitor their learning, the teachers were asked to complete reflection tasks and follow-up interviews after participating in each of the TPD activities, including the trial teaching of NOS in their own classroom, reflecting on the lesson, reflecting on the lesson video, and discussing the lesson video with their peers. Using an interpretive approach, other data sources, including field notes from classroom observations, transcripts of teacher discussions in meetings and workshops, and interviews with individual teachers before and after the programme on their confidence and concerns about NOS teaching, were also collected for triangulation purposes, and for the production of individual case reports for each teacher. It was found that the teachers had improved their NOS knowledge, NOS teaching skills, confidence as well as intention to teach NOS after participating in the programme. The process of learning to teach NOS can be characterized as lengthy, recursive and closely embedded in authentic classroom practices. Four major factors related to the TPD programme were identified as contributory to teachers’ learning to teach NOS. They are: (1) the formation of a community of practice with a shared goal to improve NOS teaching, (2) the provision of educative curriculum resources for explicit and reflective teaching of NOS, (3) first-hand experience of teaching NOS in authentic classroom settings, and (4) video-based discussions on NOS teaching in meetings and workshops. Based on the findings, an emergent model of effective use of video for learning to teach NOS was also proposed. The implications of the findings on the design of effective TPD programmes for learning to teach NOS were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This qualitative study investigated the extent of Teachers’ Private Theories on the level of instructional technology integration within a Hong Kong international school. Such private theories develop as a result of personal and pedagogical experiences influencing how teachers think, manage their classrooms and make decisions, essentially acting as a foundation for instructional decision-making practices. The participants within this study consisted of three teachers with various degrees of experience. Lesson observations and interviews were conducted, and an intervention measure in the form of Moodle, a course management system, was introduced to enhance existing pedagogical practice and provide an opportunity for the teachers to facilitate a higher level of technology integration; something that is generally attributed to a strong focus on student centered pedagogy. Private theories were categorized into six key areas - student learning, management, assessment, teaching, technology and support. Results from the study indicated that intervention measures used to facilitate higher-levels of technology integration for teachers who already focus on student-centered pedagogy, do not result in any noticeable transformation of their private theories. Instead, teachers develop a deeper cognitive understanding of the intervention, and begin to question how they can modify existing teaching and learning practices. Teachers that participate in comprehensive school wide technology programs need continuous support to ensure they achieve higher-levels of technology integration, and continue to develop student-centered pedagogy. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

Teaching competition is a common and standardized practice in mainland China, but until then it is rather new to teachers in Hong Kong. Teaching competition can have dual roles: being an activity for teacher development and as a kind of standard enforcement of teachers’ performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to examine the perceptions of teachers in Hong Kong towards teaching competition as a means for staff development. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this research study. A questionnaire containing both multiple choices and open-ended questions was used to collect data anonymously from secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. This study also attempted to explore other areas relating to teaching competition, including teacher collaboration, teaching performance assessment, teacher identity, and teacher standards. The results of this study showed that in general Hong Kong teachers did not reject the idea of using teaching competition as a platform for sharing and developing teaching skills. However, some teachers considered that teaching competition might, to a certain extent, induce tensions among teachers and jeopardize teacher collaboration. Judging teachers’ performances in teaching competition can be considered as a process of assessment. As such, applying theories of assessment could gain better understanding of the judgment itself, maintain fairness of judgment and clear up the misunderstanding of ostentation in teaching competition and non-determinacy of teaching performance. Moreover, the results of judgments in teaching competitions must be correctly interpreted. Judgments accompanied with feedback instead of simply feedouts could serve better for teacher development purpose. Finally, teaching competition could enforce performance standards to teachers. Findings from this research study revealed that recent education reform in Hong Kong would affect teachers’ views on teaching competition. It was argued that teaching competition might be an appropriate means to help teachers establish and re-establishing their discredited professional identity under the cultural change of marketization. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education