Understanding the awakening spirit of a professional teaching force

Social, economic and technological changes on a global scale are challenging traditional forms of knowledge and educational practice. In response, educators worldwide are finding ways to forge new roles, identities and relationships. This paper recognises pressures on the teaching force in a global climate of educational reform. Drawing on data from experienced teachers, the paper elucidates that rich opportunities for professional learning are situated in collective review of challenges and critical incidents where teachers' guilt can be addressed with the choice for personal growth and professional learning. With a framework for tracking how teachers can be liberated from downward drift to negative sentiments, the paper concludes by highlighting the creative energy inside teachers who can rediscover deep values in the realities of their everyday professional lives in a journey of co-learning and reclaiming inner power. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.preprin

Regulating Private Tutoring for Public Good : Policy Options for Supplementary Education in Asia

Fulltext in: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002270/227026E.pdfRecent years have brought global expansion of private supplementary tutoring alongside regular school systems. This expansion has far-reaching implications for the nurturing of new generations, for social and economic development, and for the operation of school systems. Some dimensions are positive while other dimensions are problematic. Supplementary tutoring is especially visible in Asia. The formats of tutoring range from one-to-one provision to large classes. Some tutoring is provided by teachers and by specialist companies, while other tutoring is provided informally by university students and others. Using a comparative lens, this book examines possible government responses to the expansion of private supplementary tutoring. In general, the book suggests, the sector should be given more attention. The work shows wide diversity in the regulations introduced by governments in the Asian region. It notes not only that these governments can learn much from each other, but also that policy makers in other parts of the world can usefully look at patterns in Asia. The book also stresses the value of partnerships between governments, tutoring providers, schools, teachers’ unions, and other bodies

Uncovering the inner power of teachers’ lives: Towards a learning profession

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Liberated to learn: Teacher education as transformation of relationships

This paper reports on a process of curriculum innovation for a pedagogy course with a focus on the perceptual gaps between teacher educators and student teachers. As a collaborative inquiry by teacher educators, it was a response to government-led education reform for a new subject at senior secondary level – Liberal Studies – which aimed to cultivate citizenship with humanitarian values. Observing critical discourse and community learning as desirable pedagogical principles to nurture a new generation of teachers for social awareness and commitment to citizenship, the curriculum innovation began with recognition of student teachers' lack of readiness to embrace such learning orientations due to the pre-university approach to learning for examination performance. The challenges were met with the design of assessment tasks that shaped independent thinking and collaborative inquiry, while building relationships in multiple human and conceptual dimensions. Through analysis of a flow of episodes, the paper captures the meaning of the processes of liberation to learn, and concludes with depiction of a growth model for transformation of relationships amidst a performance-related assessment culture.postprin

Understanding the nexus between mainstream schooling and private supplementary tutoring: patterns and voices of Hong Kong secondary students

While research is increasingly available on the scale and costs of private supplementary tutoring, less information focuses on its pedagogical dimensions. This paper addresses patterns in Hong Kong. The paper begins with the quantitative picture solicited through questionnaires for students in Grades 9 and 12, and then turns to data from interviews. Among the students, some received tutoring while others did not. Those who received tutoring were asked to compare their teachers and tutors, and to indicate what they sought from the tutors that they did not find in their schooling. The students who did not receive tutoring were also asked about the culture of tutoring, and whether they would have liked to have received tutoring if they had had the necessary financial resources. Especially pertinent were statements about learning gaps and ways in which tutoring was perceived to help. The themes of this paper may resonate widely. The paper shows that students’ learning objectives may differ from those of their teachers, and comments on the implications of these patterns for wider processes of government-led reform. The paper helps to explain how well-intentioned top-down innovations may be subverted by conflicting expectations and the divergent agendas of students, teachers and tutors.postprin

Epilogue: scholarship of teaching and learning in progress

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Behind the Façade of Fee-Free Education: Shadow Education and its Implications for Social Justice

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Prologue: a focus on learning as universities change

The prologue has two aims. First, it addresses critical challenges for university renewal, and the centrality of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Second, it sketches issues in Hong Kong's higher education. The prologue provides a context for the selected contributions.published_or_final_versio

The effectiveness of private tutoring: students’ perceptions in comparison with mainstream schooling in Hong Kong.

This paper examines Hong Kong students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of private supplementary tutoring relative to mainstream schooling. Drawing on survey and interview data, it shows that large proportions of secondary school students receive private tutoring. Students generally perceive private tutoring and private tutors to be more effective in the provision of examination support compared with mainstream schooling and teachers. However, perceptions vary according to students’ selfreported academic levels and motives for taking private tutoring. The operations of the parallel sector of private tutoring have significant implications for the nature of schooling and therefore need to be considered by teachers and school administrators. The Hong Kong data contribute to the international analysis of private tutoring and add a significant component to the wider conceptual literature.postprin