Professional learning for teachers is important if they are to be prepared for teaching in inclusive classrooms. This is particularly pertinent in Hong Kong where teachers have little personal experience of inclusion and where teaching continues to be didactic and examination oriented. Since Hong Kong implemented a whole school approach to…

Teachers beliefs about their ability to affect students' performance is an important part of professionalism. This study compared 725 Hong Kong and 575 Shanghai primary in-service teachers on their teacher efficacy. Two Chinese versions of the 12-item Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale were used in this study since some wordings of the Hong Kong…

This study assessed the three components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment), perceived self-efficacy, and the three triarchic abilities (analytical, synthetic, and practical) of successful intelligence in a sample of 267 Chinese prospective and in-service teachers in Hong Kong. The aim was to…

Job satisfaction is an important topic in teacher education research. Exploring the issue of teacher job satisfaction helps us gain a deeper understanding of teachers' mental state, such as their occupational attitudes, zeal for teaching, and work enthusiasm, which affects the quality of teaching and education. From an examination of teachers' job…

The life history method, which achieved a prominent position in the Chicago tradition of sociological research in the early 1920s, has been widely adopted for educational inquiries since the 1980s. The power of the life history method in illuminating subjective teacher experiences in social historical contexts has made it "probably the only…

Twenty-one in-service early childhood students participated in a teaching practicum in Australia as part of the final year of a Bachelor of Arts in Hong Kong. Students spent two weeks visiting a university and early childhood settings in Australia. The university based component of the program included workshops and discussions with lecturing…

Background: The need for effective teachers to reflect on their students' thinking is now generally recognized. Moreover, the study of students' conceptions of learning and their impact on learning outcomes has become a popular area of research. But are teachers aware of their students' conceptions and do they reflect on them when planning their…

This study sought to measure general teacher efficacy levels of in-service primary teachers in Hong Kong. Participants included 725 Hong Kong in-service teachers, who were invited to take part in the study. These in-service teachers came from 28 different primary schools ranging from government, aided, private and direct subsidy schools. The…

Describes a quantitative study of secondary school teachers' beliefs about curriculum design. Uses the 33-item Science Curriculum Orientation Inventory (SCOI) to measure five distinct orientations to curriculum: academic, cognitive process, society-centered, humanistic, and technological. Collects data from 810 integrated science, chemistry,…

Extends a model of rejected helpers' reactions to the experience of secondary-school teachers by examining (1) effects of being spurned on burnout; (2) whether problem-focused coping styles are more effective than emotion-focused styles in reducing negative impacts; and (3) whether preparedness for job stress prevents the experience of being…

Draws on an experience of teaching in Hong Kong to discuss (1) the challenges of intercultural teaching, such as culture shock, organizational demands, and communication differences; (2) strategies for adapting instruction to address obstacles; and (3) the ways an international teaching experience can enrich instruction. (CMK)

Investigates teachers' concerns about the Target-Oriented Curriculum (TOC) in Hong Kong (China). Finds that most teachers showed concern about the management of TOC (found in the third stage) and most were concerned with efficiency, time demands, organization, scheduling, and the best use of resources. Includes references. (CMK)

Investigates how a sample of 27 student teachers in Hong Kong developed a personal sense of teaching efficacy by employing the repertory grid technique. Finds that third-year student perceptions were more homogenous and experiences of teaching practice, electives, pupils, and supervisors affected the development of efficacy. (CMK)

The paper focuses on the development of teacher thinking, specifically L2 teachers' subject-matter cognitions, i.e. their Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) (see e.g. Andrews 2001, 2003). The study examines the evolving TLA, as it relates to grammar, of three teachers, each a graduate with more than 10 years' experience of teaching English in Hong…

Teacher promotion is an important issue in school administration that deserves more academic attention. In business management a commonly used tool for employee motivation, aside from promotion, is the compensation system, which can be flexibly and frequently adjusted with the performance of individual staff members. However, in the existing…