This paper aims to present a small group of pre-service English teachers' perceptions towards the overseas field experience programme jointly organised by a university in Canada and the teacher trainer institute in Hong Kong. The study involved seven Canadian Year 3 and 4 B.Ed. TESL students who participated in the investigated eight-week overseas…

One of the characteristics of teaching chemistry through inquiry is that teachers need to encourage students to design their experimental procedures. Although the benefits of inquiry teaching are well documented in the literature, few teachers implement it in schools. The purpose of this study was to develop a guided-inquiry scale (GIS) to measure…

This article discusses the results of a qualitative study that aimed to explore how one group of preservice English language teachers in Hong Kong constructed their identities as teachers. Using in-depth interviews to gain a rich understanding of participants' teacher identity formation in practice and discourse, the paper examines the…

This paper investigates differences in approaches to learning and teaching English as a second language (ESL) as reported by 324 mixed-ability Grade 7 Hong Kong ESL students and 37 ESL secondary school teachers with different backgrounds. Information about participants' perceived approaches to learning/teaching English were collected through a…

In the light of changing needs for the professional development (PD) of ESL teachers in Hong Kong, this study investigates current practice and future needs within the context of the implementation of educational reforms by the Hong Kong Government. A cohort of ESL teachers, members of a knowledge sharing community project, participated in a…

This study investigates the transition from kindergarten to primary school through the experiences of the teachers, parents and children involved. Emphasis is given to the transitional activities participated in by the stakeholders and the effectiveness of these activities. These experiences of children's transition to school will inform further…

This essay presents a reflective account of a preservice teacher's experience in her fieldwork practice. The author, a professor in the preservice teacher's education institute, acted as a critical friend and joined in the reflection as an equal. Based on the voices of the preservice teacher and a group of primary teachers, this essay presents a…

In an increasingly global higher education environment, many universities are taking their educational services overseas. One model of overseas provision is through transnational (offshore) education. Transnational teaching challenges the prevailing understanding of an academic role at every level. Transnational teachers are expected to work in…

This article examines teachers' experience in relation to the massive top-down but ever-changing education reform initiatives in Hong Kong, where "East meets West" in cultures and identities. A life-narrative approach was used to probe the daily experience of 24 secondary school teachers of different ages, genders, and marital statuses…

This paper is a situated biographical reflection on the author's Hong Kong teaching experience written using a narrative inquiry approach, describing attempts to generate innovative pedagogical practices. The journey explores how autocratic, traditional Chinese cultural expectations in Hong Kong education have nurtured a commonsense belief in…

This study explored the validity of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale in a sample of 853 practicing teachers from Australia, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Indonesia, and Oman. The authors used multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to test the factor structure and measurement invariance across settings, after which they examined the relationships…

Positive attitudes of key stakeholders, such as school principals, towards a new policy are considered a necessary pre-requisite to implement any such policy. Hong Kong has recently formulated a policy that supports the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools. This study investigated the attitudes of Hong Kong primary school…

Little research has been done on the choices of mentors when they are offered a comprehensive range of roles. The mentors in this study were in their first attempt as mentors and did not have an assigned "role". They were involved in a mentoring course that sought to facilitate the placement of in-service teachers and school-institute…

An overview is presented of a three-year project aimed at helping Chinese language teachers in Taiwan refine ways that Chinese, an ideographic language that differs markedly from alphabetic English, is taught in primary schools. Guided by university staff in Taiwan, Hong Kong University and a Taiwanese non-government social enterprise, 20…

To explore the burnout situation of teachers in two schools in Macau and to investigate any differences made of demographic characteristics. The relation of burnout on social problem solving and holistic health of teachers is also studied. A self reported questionnaire with the Chinese Maslach Burnout Inventory (C-MBI), Chinese Social Problem…