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© Psychology, Society, & Education, 2015. Vol. 7(3), pp. 295-310
ISSN 2171-2085 (print) / ISSN 1989-709X (online)
Teacher Professional Development in Hong Kong Compared
to Anglosphere: the Role of Confucian Philosophy
LAM Bick Har
The Hong Kong Institute of Education (Hong Kong)
(Received on January 20, 2015; Accepted on April 4, 2015)
ABSTRACT: Teacher Professional Development” (aka teacher PD) has garnered research
attention in recent years. Scholars seek to understand the teacher PD process, while
practitioners are interested in deriving policies to facilitate teacher PD. The consensus
emerging from the pool of literature is that teacher PD should be “individualized”: more
focused on fostering teachers’ personal growth instead of enforcing “standard practices”.
The Anglosphere has been leading in the domain of teacher PD, causing many regions to
imitate its practices. Using documentary analysis, this paper reviews teacher PD policies in
Hong Kong over the past forty years and compares them with practices typically adopted in
the Anglosphere. The paper suggests that the PD policies of Hong Kong progressed from
‘solely teacher training’, to ‘emphasis on generic skills’, to ‘lifelong learning’. The concept
of ‘Confucian Heritage Culture’ is used to explain the differences between the Angloshpere
and Hong Kong in terms of PD practices. Implications for adapting teacher PD practices
cross-culturally are discussed.
Keywords: culture, education policies, Hong Kong, teacher professional development
Correspondence: LAM Bick Har. Associate Professor. Room 32, Department of
Curriculum and Instruction, Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po,
New Territories (Hong Kong). Email: bhlam@ied.edu.hk
How to cite this article?
Lam, B. H. (2015). Teacher professional development in Hong Kong compared to
anglosphere: the role of Confucian philosophy. Psychology, Society and Education, 7(3),
295-310.
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Introduction
“Professional Development” has been a widely researched phenomenon in social
science (e.g., Guskey, 2002; Speck & Knipe, 2005). The term was at first coined by
scholars from organizational behaviors to refer to an individual’s acquisition of skills
and knowledge he/she needs to advance in his/her career (Speck & Knipe, 2005), and
is applied to study employees of various occupations, including nurse managers
(Neary, 2000), scientists (Hunter, Laursen & Seymour, 2007) and teachers (Guskey,
2002). Studies of teacher professional development in particular have drawn
scholarly attention from educators – in education, a domain has formed on “Teacher
Professional Development” (aka “Teacher Development” or “Teacher PD”). Teacher
PD is now defined as processes through which a teacher acquires the skills and
knowledge he/she needs to advance in his/her career (Guskey, 2002), and has a set of
theories of its own. We know that teacher PD is linked to various teacher job
outcomes: studies found that advancement in one’s career is positively related to job
commitment (Day & Gu, 2007), and well-developed teachers tend to have students
who achieve higher academically (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Steca & Malone, 2006).
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong education system suffers from two problems:
local school teachers responded that they bear high amounts of stress, which harms
their job commitment (Choi & Tang, 2009); moreover, although Hong Kong has had
above-average scores in international tests, the falling standards of its students’
proficiency in languages and other disciplines has been a regular complaint of local
educators (Chan, 2002). As a result, teacher PD research has attracted attention
among educators in Hong Kong (Chan, 1998; Lam, 2014). This article will serve to
(1) review the trends of teacher PD in the ‘Anglosphere’ (the English-speaking world,
including the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United
Kingdom); (2) compare them with the practices of Hong Kong; and (3) draw insights
from which other regions could learn. By comparing teacher PD in Hong Kong to
what is being done in the Anglosphere, we will highlight key features of teacher PD
in Hong Kong. We will also point out issues specific to the culture of CHCs. Via this,
we will identify problems in adapting Anglosphere’s practices to other cultures, and
discuss possible solutions.
The New Trend of Teacher PD in the Anglosphere
A large number of studies have been conducted on teacher PD, each focusing on
certain aspects (Avalos, 2011). All of them, however, had undergone a paradigm shift,
in that teacher PD is increasingly seen as a long-term process which involves growth
and development, rather than only pre- or in-service training programmes (Walling &
Lewis, 2000). Within this model, teachers are seen as active learners and reflective
practitioners who are motivated to collaborate to learn (Darling-Hammond &
Richardson, 2009), and teachers’ learning is contextualized, instead of revolving
around a set of standard ‘measures’ to be applied to every single case (McLaughlin &
Zarrow, 2001) – an approach to teacher PD that is more catering to the individual, to
be precise.
This trend has led to changes in teacher PD research and practices. In the past,
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research and practices often emphasized ‘Teacher PD as acquiring knowledge’
(Shulman, 1986; 1987). Thiessen (2000), for instance, stated that “At the heart of this
orientation is the image of teaching as knowledge work. Such work […] involves the
interrelated use of practical knowledge (routines, procedures, processes) and
propositional knowledge (discipline-based theories and concepts, pedagogical
principles, situation-specific propositions)” (p. 528). As a result, early practices of
teacher PD (before the 1980s) were heavy with training workshops and programmes
(Ben-Peretz, 2011). There were also discussions of extending the length and depth of
initial teacher education training in the English-speaking world (e.g., Cobb, 1999).
Later teacher PD (from the 1990s onwards), in contrast, became more
inclined to emphasize how teachers can continually enhance their teaching based on
their experience. Common practices include action research (Ross & Bruce, 2007),
where teachers are prompted to do small-scale studies that evaluate the effectiveness
of their own teaching practices, rather than applying the standardized practices they
learn during teacher training courses. This new model also has a ‘collaborative’
element, in that it brought about the practice of mentorship (Hagger, McIntyre, &
Wilkin, 2013), a process of relationship-based communication in which a ‘mentor’
transmits knowledge and gives psychological support to a ‘mentee’. Research that
evaluates the outcomes of teacher PD suggests that the new practices, including
self-reflection (McKernan & McKernan, 2013), action research (Stringer, 2007), and
mentorship (Hagger et al., 2013) have been successful in fostering higher levels of
job commitment and performance among teachers. As examples, Bustingorry (2008)
examined a group of Chilean teachers who received action research training and
found that the training enhanced the grades of students taught by those teachers.
Hagger and colleagues’ (2013) review on mentorship practices also indicated that the
practice is generally helpful in enhancing teachers’ performance. Overall, this body
of new practices for teacher PD has been successful. As a result, many regions
(including Hong Kong) are now adapting them to fit their needs with regard to
teacher PD.
Teacher PD in Hong Kong
Policy documents published by the Hong Kong government in the past 40 years were
the primary focus of the current article. Relevant texts were identified via the official
websites of (1) the Education Bureau; (2) the Education Commission; and (3) the
Committee on Professional Development of Principals and Teacher (aka COTAP,
formerly the Advisory Committee on teacher Education and Qualifications, ACTEQ).
We also consider the survey results that the Hong Kong Government obtained in
2006 and 2009, when evaluating the effectiveness of PD in Hong Kong. Even though
the results of the two surveys could not be systematically compared with each other
because the formats of the surveys were different, these results offer insights about
the context of teacher PD in Hong Kong. All these documents and the statements of
purposes of these three government bodies were included within the scope of the
current review.
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The trajectory of teacher PD in Hong Kong
Our review of Hong Kong’s teacher PD in the last four decades revealed that
Hong Kong has followed a similar trajectory as the Anglosphere. In the early years
(the 1980s and before), the Hong Kong government treated teacher PD as ‘teacher
training’. The training courses of local institutions were the sole teacher PD practices.
Teachers were viewed as workers to be trained, as explicitly stated in a White Paper
produced by the Hong Kong Government in 1978: “account must also be taken of
other objectives, in particular ensuring a regular supply of trained teachers to meet
teaching vacancies as they arise and providing basic training for untrained serving
teachers” (p. 13). In the mid-1980s, the Hong Kong Education System (including the
parts on teacher PD) was criticized by the Visiting Panel (1982), who conducted a
series of observations in Hong Kong schools. One major point raised by the panel
was that Hong Kong education was almost fully teacher-centered, and placed
excessive emphasis on ‘quantity’ (training more teachers and producing more
students) over ‘quality’ (providing high-quality education).
In response, the Hong Kong Government began to implement new policies to
promote quality education in the 1990s. Educational interventions that focused not on
students’ grades, but on their non-academic development, became a part of the
official policy for the first time (Educational and Manpower Branch, 1993). To cater
to this, teacher PD also became geared towards equipping teachers with generic skills
(Education Commission, 2000). Teachers were required to develop skills in
counseling, information technology and languages, finished with examinations in
which they were assessed on these competencies. Resources centers were set up to
provide teachers with exemplary teaching materials. These paved a way for the shift
to a more advanced teacher PD approach; as Education Commission (2000) stated,
the new measures in the 2000s would serve “to promote the professional
development of teachers and enhance their professionalism, sense of commitment
and enthusiasm” (p. 151). Thus, into the 2000s, the new paradigm of teacher PD
gained momentum.
Hong Kong teacher PD beyond year 2000
The Education Bureau of Hong Kong has put forth the teacher Induction
Scheme from 2005 onward (Education Bureau, 2014a). It is targeted at first-year
post-qualification teachers, who are expected to be “provided with encouragement
and support so that they enjoy positive learning experiences and a pleasant start to
their careers”, by their schools and seniors, via activities with “an element of
self-reflection”, instruments that serve to “document each beginning teacher’s path of
development”, evaluations that “inform the future development of schools’ induction
systems”, and the mentorship programmes (p. 2, Education Bureau, 2014a). This
scheme did not officially dictate a set of procedures, but instead advised the use of
techniques proposed by the ACTEQ (2009a). The ACTEQ’s guidelines included
specific actions which schools could engage in to induct their beginning teachers and
have been empirically demonstrated to be helpful.
Another key theme of teacher PD practices in Hong Kong is the establishment
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of social networks among teachers. Collaborative Lesson Planning (Education
Bureau, 2012), for example, prompts teachers to engage in scheduled meetings where
they collaboratively plan their lessons and do sharing and reflections on teaching,
with the goal of fostering exchanges of ideas among teachers, hence achieving
teacher PD. The Education Bureau has also added sharing sessions both within and
outside schools (2010) – each year, teachers from multiple schools will present
sharing sessions on specific themes to inform fellow teachers about their own
practices. To strengthen the networks even further, the Education Bureau also
provided exchange programmes, in which Hong Kong school teachers were sent to
teach in schools in Mainland China and Taiwan to learn about the education systems
and techniques of these regions (e.g., Education Bureau, 2014b).
The practices related to the above two themes have been received favorably.
According to ACTEQ’s 2006 survey, about 80% of the teachers in Hong Kong
responded that the above practices had been implemented in their schools, and more
than 80% of them replied that they considered these practices to be helpful. More
than 90% of the respondents replied that they believed the practices to have helped
them (1) enhance their own teaching competence; (2) improve the effectiveness of
learning and teaching; (3) enhance their understanding of subject matter knowledge;
and (4) enhance their capacity for dealing with students’ diverse learning needs.
Therefore, these practices are an overall success.
Training aligned with these two themes were also provided to Hong Kong
teachers. For instance, workshops that train teachers in mentorship are included in the
teacher Induction Scheme (Education Bureau, 2014a). Specialized courses about
leadership have also been provided to teachers since early 2000s (Hong Kong
Institute of Education, 2014). The tradition of working to enhance teachers’
qualifications is ongoing. For example, from the 2000 onward, teachers are required
to obtain recognized certificates before they can be appointed in schools (Education
Bureau, 2014c). Back in the 1990s, many teachers were unqualified but were allowed
to teach due to shortage. By contrast, now over 95% of primary and secondary school
teachers of Hong Kong fulfill the qualification requirement (Education Bureau,
2014d).
Contrasting Hong Kong Practices with the Anglosphere
The main teacher PD practices put forward by the Education Bureau are summarized
in Annex 1. Overall, the teacher PD practices in Hong Kong resemble but also differ
from those in the Anglosphere in many ways. Much as in the Anglosphere, teacher
PD in Hong Kong began as ‘merely training’, but once the criticism against the
approach arose, the government responded by implementing teacher PD practices
that emphasized long-term growth and development for teachers. To accomplish this
goal, Hong Kong worked to create cooperative ties between schools and universities
(Wise, 2000), who served as the providers of professional development programmes
and workshops. Training content is similar to the Anglosphere. Hong Kong also
extensively used collaborative learning along with mentorship, two approaches
commonly adopted by the Anglosphere (Sandholtz, 2000).
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Overall, teacher PD practices of Hong Kong resemble those in the dominant
literature, with one critical difference: the lack of self-direction in Hong Kong.
Although the majority of the common practices in the literature (as shown above) had
been adapted into Hong Kong to some degree, practices with the element of
‘self-direction’ in development are noticeably missing. Glatthorn (1987), for example,
described the idea of ‘collegial development’, where teachers are to discuss
professional issues with personal interests (i.e., how they themselves, as individuals,
should develop) with each other, to form individual professional development plans.
Clarke (1995) later proposed the model about reflective practitioners, in which
teachers are expected to be curious about the practice setting. Emerging from these, a
recurrent theme of later teacher PD methods is that teachers are to be given
“autonomy” in their development. In this regard, however, Hong Kong is quite
lacking. Jin, Yeung, Tang and Low (2008) investigated the sources of stresses for
Hong Kong high school teachers. The most common cited sources were high
expectations of schools and parents. Interview studies also suggested that the dense
reform syllabi led schools to ‘compete’ in training their teachers, exerting notable
amount of stress (e.g., Chan, 1998; Tang, Au, Schwarzer & Schmitz, 2001). In line
with this, a recent study by Hargreaves and colleagues (2013) found that though
Hong Kong teachers generally view collaborative learning positively, they reported
lower levels of perceived autonomy (i.e., less inclination to think of their
participation as voluntary) than the teachers from London. The results suggest a
general trend of stakeholders pressuring teachers to engage in certain forms of
teacher PD. As a result, the context in Hong Kong is that many (if not most) teachers
do not have much autonomy over their PD, which can degenerate into a competition
among schools in training teachers.
While teachers of Hong Kong are still mostly engaged in and committed to
their careers in general (Choi & Tang, 2009), there is an underlying worry of the
long-term impacts of the teacher PD effort implemented by the Education Bureau.
This is especially true considering that the negative effects of job stress on job
commitment are often felt only over time (Lam, 2011, 2012), and the new teacher PD
practices have been a relatively recent development in Hong Kong (Kennedy, 2005).
Though the new measures implemented by the Hong Kong government seemed to
have been reasonably well received, it does have its own underlying problems and
worries.
How Culture Shapes Hong Kong’s Teacher PD
Hong Kong is a Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC), whose values are shaped by the
philosophy of Confucius (Penfold & van der Veen, 2014). Based on our summary,
the current trend of teacher PD practices in Hong Kong aligns with a pattern we
expect from a CHC that tries to adopt western practices. As the Education
Commission (2000) explicitly proposed: “our education system is infused with the
essence of eastern and western cultures, preserving the basic elements of traditional
Chinese education while absorbing the most advanced concepts, theories and
experiences from modern western education” (p. 2); “Hong Kong’s long term
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objective is not only to become one of the outstanding cities in China, but also a
democratic and civilized international city embracing the cultural essence of the East
and the West.” (p. 28). This indicates the conscious effort to cater the teacher PD
practices to Eastern culture and values. In CHCs, education systems are shaped by
Confucian philosophy, whose influences on the behavior of teachers and students are
widely known and studied (e.g., Nguyen, Terlouw & Pilot, 2006). By analyzing how
CHC has affected practices of teacher PD in Hong Kong, the current paper highlights
that Hong Kong has placed emphasis on training workshops and courses and
teachers’ social networking in teacher PD. However, it may also have led to the more
problematic aspects of Hong Kong’s practices.
First, CHC would have explained why Hong Kong easily accepted the needs
for training workshops and courses in teacher PD. At the core of such culture is
Confucianism. The work of Confucian philosophers, ‘The Three Character Classic’,
explicitly spells out its message: “It rewards one to work, but there is no reward to
play”. Traditionally, an ideal Confucian man is well-educated in philosophy and the
humanities, much unlike an ideal western man, who is more akin to a knight; the
ideal western man displays chivalry, courage, physical strength and wits (Li, 2003).
Shaped by such an ideal, CHCs such as Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan are
well-known for having a strong obsession with academic pursuits, though frequently
through rote-learning (Biggs, 1990, 1998). Therefore, it is not surprising that Hong
Kong could easily comprehend the need to put forth teacher training workshops and
courses in the promotion of teacher PD, as shown in the review. Indeed, in the
statistics of the ACTEQ (2009b), teachers’ responses suggested that they favored
such learning. More than 90% of the teachers said that they found “structured
learning” activities (such as workshops and courses) helpful for their PD, making
these activities the most popular class among teacher PD activities provided by the
Hong Kong government.
Another characteristic of CHCs is a general emphasis on social networks.
Confucianism places importance on the ‘Five Basic Relationships of Society’ – a
ruler and his subjects, fathers and sons, elder and younger brothers, husbands and
wives, and friends. Confucius and his followers went through great lengths to work to
promote the proper behaviors expected from these relationships. For example, the
‘Book of Filial Piety’, a very lengthy set of codes which Confucius derived to suggest
how children should relate to their parents, proposes that while parents are obligated
to protect and provide moral guidance for their young children, it is up to adult
children to support their parents once the latter grow elderly. Similar works have
been produced on the other four basic relationships. Hence, it is often said that the
very foundation of each CHC lies in the relationships between individuals (e.g., Ip,
1996). Buddhism, another dominant philosophy among CHCs, also emphasizes the
importance of relationships, albeit in a more metaphysical way. Buddhism taught that
via pious practices (e.g., studies of scriptures and meditation), human beings can
bring themselves closer to Enlightenment, which is necessary to reach Nirvana, a
state of ultimate liberation from suffering and hence the noblest status a being can
reach, according to Buddhist beliefs. A crucial stage before Enlightenment, however,
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is to become a Bodhisattva, a status where the being strives to help other beings on
their way to reach Enlightenment. Even the Buddha himself, in Buddhist tradition,
reckoned that he used to be a Bodhisattva before he attained True Enlightenment, and
the worship of Bodhisattvas is a common practice of Buddhists who belongs to CHCs
(Kariyawasam, 2002). Hence, there is little surprise that people of CHCs are reported
to be more concerned about relationships than those from outside CHCs. People from
CHCs are far more inclined to attend to relationships (Gold, Guthrie & Wank, 2002),
and to see themselves as members of groups instead of as individuals (Triandis,
2001). Hence, it is conceivable why Hong Kong, being a CHC, has used so many
teacher PD practices related to social networking. The teacher Induction Scheme,
Collaborative Lesson Planning, and mentorship programmes all have social network
elements. Local teachers have also responded favorably to these practices, with over
70% stating that mentorship is helpful for their development (Lopez-Real & Kwan,
2005). The survey of the ACTEQ (2006) suggested that 88% of the teachers in Hong
Kong had engaged in peer lesson observations and 84% had participated in collegial
collaboration like joint lesson preparation, reflecting high willingness to engage in
practices oriented towards fostering relationships among teachers.
These elements of CHCs, however, have likely also contributed to the more
problematic aspects of the teacher PD practices in Hong Kong. As one would expect
from cultures that emphasize relationships, CHCs also tend to downplay or outright
suppress the expressions of individuality (Triandis, 2001). As stated by Lam (2011):
The new demand for Hong Kong teachers to be involved in a process of
enquiry – in a constructivist and learner-centered approach – has presented
them with a major challenge as it is in conflict with the traditional role
perception of teachers and students in Chinese classrooms, where teachers
are authorities and students receive book knowledge passively. (p. 269)
This can explain why Hong Kong has ignored providing teachers with
autonomy. While the latest trend of teacher PD practices encourages teachers to
design their own professional development plans, teacher PD practices in Hong Kong
have little (if any) of such elements. On the contrary, the measures the Education
Bureau has implemented are mostly concerned with ‘raising the standards’ (e.g.,
requiring teachers to have certain qualifications or reach certain arbitrary
performance criteria). Expectations from other stakeholders have also been reported
to be the greatest source of stress for teachers in Hong Kong (Jin et al., 2008),
supporting this idea. This is also likely a critical reason in Hong Kong’s late adoption
of the new approach to teacher PD, as compared to many parts of the globe. Despite
not being especially backward, Hong Kong has not favored such practices as
mentorship and collaborative learning until well into the early 2000s. By then, such
practices were already normative in the Anglosphere (e.g., Villegas-Reimers, 2003).
CHC’s obsessions with ‘raising the standards’ may have made it more difficult to
accept the notion about students’ needs for non-academic development (and also,
teachers’ needs in this aspect). Hence, we suggest that many of the properties of
teacher PD in Hong Kong can be partly attributed to its status as a CHC.
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Lessons Learned from Hong Kong’s Teacher PD Practices
As a whole, Hong Kong has tried to adapt Anglosphere teacher PD practices to
adhere to their new trends. However, it does not simply adopt every practice, but has
instead been selective in choosing which measures to adopt. Namely, Hong Kong has
deployed in-service trainings, teacher induction and school networking extensively,
and local teachers responded to them favorably, especially teacher induction and
school networking (Lopez-Real & Kwan, 2005; Kwan & Lopez-Real, 2005). In
self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), relatedness could motivate humans
to do a task out of the pleasure associated with it. When a warm, supportive figure is
present during a certain task, humans experience a sense of security because the
figure’s presence signals availability of support (Deci & Ryan, 2008). In turn, they
would become more willing to take risk and learn through trial-and-error. This has
been an empirically supported explanation for the motivation-enhancing effect of the
presence of supportive others (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). Although this effect has been
mostly demonstrated in the Anglosphere, it may be particularly crucial for members
of CHCs.
This is because members of CHCs have been shown to be more in need of
support and reassurance of others and conform to group opinions (Triandis, 2001),
and hence may be more vulnerable to the negative effect of the absence of supportive
others. Considering this, practices such as teacher induction and mentorship would be
especially suitable for Hong Kong, and based on our reasoning, for CHCs in general.
This suggests that when other CHCs (China, Taiwan, and Singapore) adapt teacher
PD practices from the Anglosphere, they should consider focusing on practices based
on social networking and inter-teacher relationships. On a broader scale, we suggest
that different parts of the world should not blindly use practices demonstrated to be
helpful in other countries, but should consider what motivates the people of their
cultures. For instance, teachers in the USA and Australia may be more open to
self-directed development compared to their counterparts in CHCs, because members
of these cultures are far more inclined to need autonomy and self-assertions than to
follow norms in making decisions (Rhee, Uleman, Lee, & Roman, 1995).
Moreover, one phenomenon we have observed from Hong Kong is that the
teacher PD practices have exerted stress on teachers primarily through the high
expectations from various stakeholders and the anxiety that comes with it (Jin et al.,
2008). This is explained via CHCs’ tendency to emphasize “faces”, and therefore fear
looking incompetent (Thoma, McNaught, Wong, & Li, 2011). In contrast, in the USA
and Australia, teachers are more likely to report salary and promotion opportunities
as their sources of stress (e.g., Zhai, Raver & Li-Grining, 2011). This implies that
when dealing with the problem of teacher stress, CHCs should consider approaches
different from the ones used by the Anglosphere. A possible solution would be
self-esteem training for teachers. One of the ways in which members of collectivistic
cultures like CHCs diverge from their more individualistic counterparts (e.g., the
Anglosphere) is that they, in general, tend to have lower self-esteem (Twenge &
Crocker, 2002). Self-esteem is essential for assuring an individual of his/her
competence and thus, buffer against anxiety, the state in which a person experience
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negative emotions because of uncertainty about whether he/she could obtain what
he/she wants. Also, a person with a high self-esteem also tends to be confident of
his/her competence, thus more resilient against negative judgments (Kumpfer, 2002).
Hence, self-esteem training can be of conceivably help to teachers in Hong Kong,
and once again, probably teachers of CHCs in general. This point is important to
remember as the Anglosphere is already taking actions to tackle the problem of high
job stress reported among teachers (e.g., Collie, Shapka & Perry, 2012). In this regard,
we advise that it is not likely to be appropriate for CHCs to directly adapt the
practices from the Anglosphere. Instead, they should derive their own practices in
this regard, by catering to the needs of their own cultures.
Concluding Remarks
Currently, the Anglosphere is experiencing a trend in which teacher PD practices are
to become more individualized and less focused on ‘standard practices’. In response
to this, the Hong Kong education system had adapted some of the new practices that
were spawned from this trend. Specifically, they have adopted teacher induction, the
establishment of social networks among teachers, and training local teachers in the
required skills. The Hong Kong authorities, however, do not blindly adapt the
practices from Anglosphere, but instead are explicit in their attempts to cater their
measures to Eastern values and cultures. With this in mind, we identify how such
values and cultures have influenced the teacher PD practices of Hong Kong and
explained the teachers’ responses to it. We identified a lack of self-direction as
characteristic of teacher PD in Hong Kong, and discussed what education systems
from other parts of the globe could learn from our analysis.
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Annex 1. Evolving Concepts and Enacted Activities of Teacher Professional Development in Hong Kong
The Early Period:
1980s and before
The Recent Period:
1990s
The Current Situation:
2000s and beyond
Rationales
TEACHERS AS WORKERS
TEACHERS AS MULTI-TASKERS
TEACHERS AS LIFELONG LEARNERS
Teacher PD is largely equated with
‘Initial and In-service training on subject
knowledge and pedagogies’.
Teacher PD is regarded as ‘Training on subject
knowledge, pedagogies, plus generic skills for
them to multi-task in schools’.
Teacher PD is defined as ‘Teachers’
self- directed lifelong learning in the
communities’ by the ACTEQ.
Policy Directions
- “Account must also be taken of other
objectives, in particular ensuring a
regular supply of trained teachers to
meet teaching vacancies as they arise
and providing basic training for
untrained serving teachers.” (Hong Kong
Government, 1978, p. 13)
- “The lessons we observed tended to be
teacher-centred, with little use of aids
beyond chalk and blackboard.” (Visiting
Panel, 1982, p. 51) “… Students spend
too little time in critical or analytical
thinking.” (p. 55) “… The school system
should focus now on some of the
challenges caused by this rapid
enrolment build-up – the new issues
relate to quality rather than quantity.” (p.
56).
- “Schools […] should contribute to the personal
growth of their students, by helping them develop
a sense of morality and prepare for the physical,
emotional and mental transition to adulthood.”
(Educational and Manpower Branch, 1993, p. 5)
- “The recommendations (in that paper) mainly
focus on ways to improve school management and
performance towards the provision of quality
school education to better meet the needs of
students. […] EC (Education Commission) finds
that there is a need to enhance the quality of the
present school system.” (Education Commission,
1997, p. 5)
- “… ACTEQ recommends that teacher
education institutions should be
constructed as learning communities
favourable to developing teachers’
capacity for lifelong learning. ACTEQ
also recommends an internship system
in order to provide new teachers with a
comprehensive environment conducive
to their development in
professionalism.” (ACTEQ, 2003, p. i)
- “COTAP will continue to champion the
robust development of our dedicated
teaching profession, a learning
profession … quality and professional
teaching workforce will drive quality
education for the improvement of
student learning” (Committee on
Professional Development of Teachers
and Principals; COTAP, 2014)
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Exemplar Practices
Lifelong Learning
N/A at this period
N/A at this period
- The Generic Teacher Competencies
framework (2003)
- The Teacher Induction Scheme (2005)
- Collaborative Lesson Planning, Peer
Lesson Observation and Exchange
programmes
- Sharing sessions within and outside
schools
- Surveys on teachers’ views on Teacher
PD practices
Generic Skills
N/A at this period
- Setting up resource centers on specific topics:
The Guidance Teacher Resources Center in
1995, which deals with counseling and
guidance for students
The Gifted Education Centre established in
1995 to cope with gifted education
- Information Technology Competence Levels to
develop teachers to be “able to use IT as
productivity tools to enhance the efficiency and
effectiveness of a teacher’s work” (Au et al., 1999)
- Specific grants provided for training
teachers (e.g., the Student Guidance
Service Grant)
- Learning and Teacher Resources
provided on government’s websites on
Gifted Education
Training
- 3-year full-time training for
non-graduate initial teachers in 3
colleges of education
- Graduate-level training courses offered
by the School of Education in 2 local
universities
- In-service evening training courses
offered by the Technical Teachers’
College
- Mandated 8-week retraining courses 10
years after entry into the profession
- No promotion opportunities for teachers
without qualification
- School Inspection, with inspectors who
could inform schools about
underperforming teachers
- Continuation of the previous requirements of
training and provision of courses
- Requirements that all teachers must be at least
trained graduates (1997)
- Number of places in teacher education at degree or
above level increased (1998)
- Full-time and part-time courses on counseling and
guidance offered to teachers by the major
universities
- Courses offered on specific competence
requirements and proficiency examination (e.g., IT
and language proficiency)
- Continuation of the previous training
offered by the major universities
- Mentorship workshops, seminars and
courses provided for teacher mentors
- Courses, workshops and seminars
provided for teachers on collaborative
lesson planning and lesson observation
- Training courses on coordinating
teacher PD for school management
- Teachers encouraged to obtain
postgraduate (Master and PhD)
qualifications in education
- IT Leadership training (since 2000s,
ongoing)
