Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, was awarded The Edwin M. Bridges Award at the 2015 annual meeting of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) in recognition of his significant contributions to the preparation and development of school leaders.  The award was presented in November 2015.

The UCEA is a national consortium of major universities in the US and Canada that offer doctoral training in the field of educational administration. The Edwin. M. Bridges Award is the most prestigious award in the field. It is presented annually for original and outstanding work in the area educational leadership. Key criteria include the design and implementation of innovative school leadership development programmes, high quality conceptual and empirical research that illuminates important issues, research-based tools which enhancing leadership education, and long term, high impact contributions to leader development.

Professor Allan Walker is Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development and Director of the Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.  His research focuses on expanding knowledge of school leadership in Chinese and other Asian societies and disseminating this internationally. He has acted as a consultant and advisor on large-scale research, numerous academic projects, and development activities in more than 20 countries in the Americas, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and across the Asia Pacific.  Professor Walker serves on the editorial boards of the top ranked journals in his field and has published over 300 books and articles with international publishers and in the world’s most prestigious academic journals.  He is also co-editor of the Journal of Educational Administration. He contributes regularly as a keynote speaker at major conferences around the world is known internationally for his passion for school leadership in the Asia Pacific Region, innovative approaches to leader development and leadership in international, intercultural schools. Professor Allan Walker is the first non-American scholar to win this Award.

Dr. James Ko, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Seminar on 'Consistency of teaching effectiveness and differential effectiveness among teachers: Same preliminary findings from an ECS study ' for HKIEd academic staff and students on December 15, 2015.

The latest batch of graduates of the Executive Master of Arts in International Educational Leadership and Change (IELC) programme came from all corners of world. The programme is designed for aspiring and serving school leaders in international schools across the region and around the world. It is renowned for it’s innovative on-line format and its focus on applying theoretical knowledge to real leadership situations. This year, graduates came from schools in Malaysia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, South Africa, mainland China and Serbia – bringing a tremendous range of experience. Students graduating from the IELC are eligible for the award of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Certificate in Leadership Practice and IB Certificate in Leadership Research. HKIEd is one of only five universities formally authorised by IB to offer these prestigious certificates. The programme continues to pioneer cutting edge online learning approaches to bring up-to-date leadership knowledge, generated at HKIEd from across the region, to cohorts of experienced global leaders. More information about the IELC can be found at http://www.ied.edu.hk/ielc/

Dr. Darren Bryant, Prof. Allan Walker, Dr. Theresa Alviar, in partnership with Prof. Jim Spillane of Northwestern University in the US were awarded a competitive research grant to investigate the enactment of middle leadership in International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum schools from a distributed leadership perspective.

This study aims to

For more information about the project, please visit the project website.

Paper presentation at 2015 UCEA Annual Convention

Prof. Allan Walker and his HK counter parts (Dr Darren Bryant and Dr Qian Haiyan, APCLC research fellows) gave presentation at the University Council of Educational Administration Convention 2015 in San Diego, California on November 21, 2015.  Prof. Walker’s presentation entitled “Leadership development across the globe” and was given at the Symposium of “The Handbook of Research on the Education of School Leaders: The Historical, Social and Political Context of Preparation and Research on Preparation” of the Convention.

To know more about the paper presentation, please visit UCEA website.

The APCLC-HKPI Monograph "Teachers’ Conceptions of Excellent Teaching and Its Relationships to Self-reported Teaching Practices " by
Dr. Junjun Chen, Prof. Gavin T. L. Brown, Prof. John A.C. Hattie and Prof. Pam Millward was released in late November 2015.

This study surveyed Chinese middle school (n=951) teachers’ conceptions of excellent teaching and examined the relationship of those conceptions to their self-reported teaching practices. Responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. These teachers identified one examination-oriented dimension and four interactive, pedagogical dimensions of excellent teaching and four dimensions of teaching practice. The structural model indicated a high consistency rate (83%) between teachers’ conceptions of excellent teaching and the corresponding self-reported practices. Implications for teaching standards, teacher professional development, and examination system are discussed.

The Monograph can be accessed at http://www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/monographs.html.

Visit for Director of Schools Raffles Group of Schools

Dr. Gary Tan, Director of Schools Raffles Group of Schools will visit the APCLC on November 5, 2015. During his visit, he and Dr. Darren Bryant, Associate Director of APCLC discussed possible collaborative research endeavours between the Raffles Group of Schools and the APCLC.

Around 100 Educational leaders from aided, government, direct subsidy and international schools, school sponsoring bodies as well as the Curriculum Development Institute and Quality Assurance Division of the Education Bureau came to the School Principal Forum organized by the Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) to discuss high impact leadership and school improvement. The Forum was held on Oct 9 at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel. Participants engaged with Chair Professor Andy Hargreaves of Boston College who presented improvement strategies informed by research in high performing organisations from across business, sport, industrial and education sectors. The forum allowed participants to identify approaches to support higher achievement in their own organisations.

Our regular high profile Principal Forums are part of the APCLC's commitment to supporting high quality school leadership in Hong Kong and across the region.

Visit for Dean and Senior Associate Dean, Faculty of Education at The University of British Columbia

Prof. Bly Frank, Dean of Faculty of Education and Prof. Tom Sork, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty of Education visited the APCLC on October 22, 2015. During their visit, they and Dr. Darren Bryant, Associate Director of APCLC discussed possible collaborative research endeavours between the University of British Columbia and the APCLC.

The APCLC offered a Leading Learning programme for Leaders from Northern Territiories, Australia and Queensland Educational Leadership Institute (QELi) from October 16-17, 2015.

At the formal learning session, Dr. Darren Bryant, Associate Director of APCLC and Assistant Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership discussed about the educational reforms of HK in the past two decades and developing teacher leaders. Dr. Qian Haiyan, Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership led discussions related to leading world class schools and educational development in Shanghai. Dr. Steven Brown, CEO of QELi, and Dr. Gretchen Gang, Senior Lecturer from Charles Darwin University provided leader learning workshop. During the programme, leaders from the Executive Development for Educational Leaders Program Northern Territories and the QELi also visited the Diocesan Boys' School (Primary Division).

Prof. Andy Hargreaves will conduct a School Principal forum on 'Uplifting Leadership ' for APCLC in October.  Details below:

    Date:      October 9, 2015 (Friday)
    Time:      8:30am to 4:00pm
    Venue:    Ballrooms, Marriott Courtyard Shatin
    Enquires: Tel: 2948 6257 or 9759 1649 (Anthon CHU) Email: adw-pd@ied.edu.hk

About the Forum
How do you start something from almost nothing, do a lot with a little and turn failure into success? Drawing on his coauthored book on Uplifting Leadership with Alan Boyle and Alma Harris, internationally acclaimed author, Andy Hargreaves, explains the 6 key principles of uplifting leadership that bring about remarkable transformations in education, business and sports.

Through compelling stories from rigorous research undertaken with 15 inspiring organizations in 8 countries on 4 continents, Hargreaves will show how we uplift performance by uplifting ourselves and each other in pursuit of a higher purpose and calling that is greater than any one of us.

Participants in this all-day, interactive workshop will engage with the evidence, examples and ideas and apply each of the six principles of uplifting leadership to their own practice, coming away with new strategies to renew their leadership and improve their workplaces.

About Prof. Andy Hargreaves
Andy Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education and Professor in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College where he  received the 2015 Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award. Previously, he was the co-founder and director of the International Centre for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Andy has authored or edited over 30 books, several of which have achieved outstanding writing awards from the American Educational Research Association, the American Libraries Association, and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. One of these, Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School (with Michael Fullan), has received three prizes including the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Education for 2015.

Andy serves as adviser in education to the Premier of Ontario, is founding editor of two scholarly journals, and is President Elect of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala in Sweden and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK. In 2015, he was ranked the #6 scholar with most influence on US education policy debate.

Andy consults with organizations and governments all over the world. His other most recent books are Uplifting Leadership (with Alan Boyle and Alma Harris) published by Jossey Bass Business, 2014; and The Global Fourth Way (with Dennis Shirley) published by Corwin, 2012.

On Wednesday, 30th September 2015, Dr. Darren Bryant, Associate Director of the APCLC, led a two hour workshop on Action Planning with 15 senior and middle leaders at St. Margaret’s Co-Educational English Secondary and Primary School. During the session, participants worked on developing action plans by using an approach that applies concepts related to educational change and distributed leadership to strategic school improvement.

Prof. Cheng Yin-cheong, APCLC Senior Research Fellow and Research Chair Professor of Leadership and Change, was invited to give presentation with his international and Hong Kong counterparts at Symposium of WERA’s annual Focal Meeting 2015 in Budapest.

At the Symposium of “International Study on School Autonomy & 21st Century Learning - Hong Kong, Israel, & Singapore”, Prof. Cheng and his HK counterparts (APCLC Research Fellows and Assistant Professors of Department of Education Policy and Leadership: Dr James Ko, Theodore, T.H. Lee) as well as international counterparts (Toby Greany, Ami Volansky, Ronit Bogler, Adi Ben-David, Dan Inbar, Adam Nir, Yancy Toh, David Hung, Paul Meng-Huat Chua, Sujin) reported implications for their international research on school autonomy and 21st century learning: Hong Kong and beyond

During WERA’s Annual Focal Meeting 2015, Prof. Cheng has also been invited to attend different expert discussions, including “International Study of School Autonomy and the 21st Century Learning - Australia”, “Indicators of Supportive Environments in Education from Global Perspectives and “Perspectives in Education Association Presidents”.

To know more about Prof. Cheng’s international study on school autonomy and 21st century learning, please visit the WERA website.

Dr. James Ko (Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership) gave paper presentations at the European Education Research Association (EERA) Annual Meeting 2015, Budapest on September 8, 2015. His presentation topic is “Two dimensions of consistency in teacher effectiveness: preliminary findings from Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou”.

To know more about Dr. Ko’s paper presentations, please visit the EERA 2015 website.

Dr. Qian Haiyan (Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor at Department of Education and Policy Leadership) and Prof. Allan Walker (Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership and Director of APCLC) and their China counterpart gave paper presentation at The Education Symposium Switzerland and International School Leadership Symposium the Symposium, Switzerland on September 3, 2015. Their paper presentation topic is “The Education of Migrant Children in Shanghai: Battle for Equity”.

The Symposium is a conference for School Effectiveness, School Improvement, School Management. The conference is hosted by the Institute for the Management and Economics of Education (IBB) of the University of Teacher Education Zug in co-operation with various partners. The Symposium focuses on the challenges and opportunities for schools and school leadership.

To know more about their presentation, please visit the conference website.

Prof. CHIU, Chi-shing, Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership, has been appointed as Associate Director of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) and the Centre for Excellence Learning and Teaching (CELT) at The Hong Kong Institute of Education with effect from September 1, 2015.

Prior joining the HKIEd, Prof. Chiu worked as the Project Director of the Quality School Improvement Project (QSIP) and Professional Consultant of the Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In the past two decades, he secured gigantic grants for leading teams of professionals to provide sustainable, long term support for more than 300 schools and school sponsoring bodies. He is renowned scholar in school improvement and University-School-Business Organizations Partnership. He has also conducted more than 20 series of workshops tendered by EDB on teacher development, school leader training, effective teaching and learning, lesson observation, assessment for learning as well as project and inquiry learning. Prof. Chiu served as member of Board of Education and the PSHE of the Curriculum Development Council Hong Kong.

The APCLC-HKPI Monograph"Instructional Leadership Practices in Singapore" by Dr. David Ng Foo Seong is released in September 2015.

Singapore education is widely recognized as a robust system that produces one of the highest levels of student achievement in international studies such as TIMMS, PIRLS and PISA. However, a recent review of the extant literature on educational leadership in Singapore has revealed a dearth of empirical research on principalship in general and on principal instructional leadership in particular. This quantitative study seeks to advance the understanding of Singapore principals’ instructional leadership practices. Findings form this monograph would also help to enrich the comparative literature on instructional leadership.

The Monograph can be accessed at http://www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/monographs.html.

The APCLC-HKPI Monograph "Review of Research on Educational Leadership and Management in Hong Kong, 1995-2012: Topographical Analysis of an Emergent Knowledge Base" by Prof. Philip Hallinger, Dr. Theodore Lee and Dr. Elson Szeto is released in September 2015.

A recent study of scholarship on educational leadership and management in East Asia identified a rapidly growing corpus of published studies focusing on educational leadership and management in Hong Kong. This monograph undertakes a “topographical analysis” of this literature with the aim of describing the nature of topics and research methods employed over the past decade. The authors analyze the body of articles published in a “core” set of eight educational leadership and management journals between 1995 and 2012. The descriptive study offers insights into the nature of this emergent literature from a single non-Western society.

The Monograph can be accessed at http://www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/monographs.html.

The APCLC-HKPI Monograph "Giving Children Hope: Implications for Schools and Leaders" by Prof Bruce Barnett is released in August 2015.

Growing concerns about violence, drug abuse, school drop outs, and the civic and political disenchantment of our youth have caught the attention of policymakers, community agencies, religious institutions, and school systems. A significant consequence of these social conditions is the sense of hopelessness expressed by children and young adults. In America, upwards of 30% of adolescents have a sense of hopelessness (Child Trends, 2012), which poses significant challenges for school systems and leaders, whose role is to prepare students for future success. Given these circumstances, this monograph proposes the moral imperative for 21st century school leaders is to build students’ hope for a bright future. To build this argument, the article asserts school leaders must become moral stewards by helping students develop a greater sense of future success. Using elements of hope theory--goal development, motivation, and pathways--as the foundation for action, promising ways for how school leaders can understand and apply these elements to become agents of hope for our youth are explored.

The Monograph can be accessed at http://www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/monographs.html.

Dr. James Ko, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Seminar on 'Crisis Management and Media Relations' for Hong Kong Principals and teachers on August 18, 2015.

About the Seminar
After an open verdict on the death of 10-year-old Law Cheuk-ki, it raises the awareness of procedures and measures for handling school crisis, as well as the media coverage and the schools’ reputation. This seminar discussed how to revise the guidelines on managing crises in schools appropriately and share the information of task force establishment and how its work. Furthermore, it will illustrate the communication technique for dealing with the media in order to facilitate school to manage crisis effectively and in an organized manner.

To know more about the seminar and online registration, please visit the website.

Dr. Lu Jiafang (Associate Director of APCLC and Associate Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership) and her research counterparts gave a paper presentation and received the Best Paper Award of Organizational Behavior Division at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Vancouver on August 7-11, 2015. Their presentation topic is “The Antecedents of Engagement in Team Leadership: A Leader-Member Interaction Perspective”.

To know more about their paper presentation, please visit the website.

Dr Gerard Calnin, IBO Consultant and Senior Evaluator and Fellow of Centre for Program Evaluation, Graduate School of Education at The University of Melbourne, visited the APCLC on August 8-12, 2015. During the visit, he will discuss and provide professional consultation to the APCLC and FEHD in developing the undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes of Teaching IB in HK schools.   

Dr. Choi Taehee, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Knowledge Transfer Seminar on 'L1 and L2 as resources for student learning: A language teacher's navigation through multiple demands on medium of instruction in South Korea' for HKIEd faculty on July 30, 2015.

About the Seminar
This seminar shows how an English language teacher used L1 (Korean) and L2 (English) as resources for student learning in an EFL classroom. In South Korea the choice of medium of instruction (MoI) is a contentious and highly charged issue. Senior high school teachers, in particular, face the dilemma of whether to adopt L1 or L2 as the MoI: the former is perceived to be more efficient in helping students to develop the type of grammar-oriented knowledge measured in the college entrance exam, and the latter is advocated by the government which is committed to developing students' communicative proficiency in the target language, perceived to be a key ingredient in ensuring individual and national competitiveness in the era of globalization.

In this seminar Dr. Choi focused on the ways in which Korean and English are used for formative assessment purposes, and the rationales behind the use. Through discourse analysis, Dr. Choi illustrated the relationship between languages-in-use, contextual features and teachers' belief and knowledge. It is hoped that this discussion will contribute to the debate on the use of L1 in L2 learning and teaching.

About Dr. Choi Taehee
Dr. CHOI Tae Hee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Policy and Leadership (EPL), Hong Kong Institute of Education. She is also a Research Fellow of the Institute's Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She was visiting lecturer at King's College London, UK (2010- Jul 2013), and actively involved in teacher education of pre- and in-service teachers and policy advisory in South Korea (2005-2009). English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching (1995-2009) and publication of numerous EFL learning EFL learning and teaching resources. Her current research focuses implementation and impact of educational reforms, particularly issue related to neoliberal policy agendas and English as a foreign language policy/ education in the Asia-Pacific region.

Prof. Allan Walker (Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Director of APCLC and Dean of FEHD) was invited to give a keynote presentation at the Council of International Schools Regional Conference in Gold Coast on July 23, 2015.  This multidisciplinary conference links research in education for global citizenship, research in the role of the school leaders in promoting global citizenship education and classroom teaching practice. Prof. Walker’s presentation is entitled “Leading international schools – the leaders we want? ”.

CIS is a membership community working collaboratively to shape international education through professional services to schools, higher education institutions, and individuals. The CIS vision is to inspire the development of global citizens through high quality international education: connecting ideas, cultures and educators from every corner of the world.

To know more about Prof Walker’s presentation and the conference, please visit the website.

Dr. Choi Tae Hee (Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership) gave a paper presentation at the 2015 British Association of Applied Linguistics Annual LLT SIG Conference, Edinburgh on July 2-3, 2015. Her presentation topic is “L1 & L2 in Formative Assessment: Bilingual Repertoires in Language Classrooms in South Korea”.

To know more about Dr. Choi’s paper presentations, please visit the website.

Prof. Sue Shore, Director of International Graduate Centre of Education, Faculty of Law, Education, Business and Arts (IGCE), visited the APCLC on 14 July, 2015. During the visit, she discussed the collaboration between APCLC and IGCE with Prof. Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership and Director of APCLC.

Each year the Executive MA in Leadership and Change (EMA) hosts a School Improvement Institute (SII) for school leaders from throughout the region. The 5th such Institute was held in Hong Kong in early July. The key theme this year is Conflict, Crises and Culture – this year’s theme addresses challenges we face to our leadership. These challenges could come from factors external to the school, but most often they arise in day-to-day contexts. The EMA is a cutting-edge online program that has attracted school leaders and professionals from Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Mainland China.

For more information of the Summer Improvement Institute and the EMA programme, please visit: http://www.ied.edu.hk/ielc/.

Dr. Qian Haiyan, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Knowledge Transfer Seminar on 'Research on Chinese Principals and Their Work: A Synthesis of International and Chinese Literature' for HKIEd faculty on July 3, 2015.

About the Seminar
This seminar reported and synthesized two literature reviews. Dr. Qian and her team have recently conducted. One is an exhaustive review of journal articles and book chapters about Chinese school principalship published in the English Language between 1998 and 2013. The other is review of research on Chinese school principalship published in Chinese journals between 2008 and 2013. Some basic patterns of authorship, topics, methods and key findings emerge from the reviews. The two reviews help to sketch the landscape of school principalship in China as reflected in the international and Chinese literature and indicate the ways that this landscape has changed or remained the same over the years. The results of the review have a number of important implications for our understanding of the relationships amongst Chinese principalship, the international knowledge base and the national reform context.

About Dr. Qian Haiyan
Dr Qian is Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of APCLC. Her research focuses on understanding the cultural and contextual influence on rapidly changing face of school leadership and educational change in China.

School Principal Forum
Engaging with the Real Challenges of Instructional Improvement in Schools

Around 100 principals and other educational leaders from 17 international and ESF schools, and more than 50 Hong Kong Primary, Secondary and Special Schools representing 32 school sponsoring bodies came together to discuss the latest research around school design and redesign. The Forum was held on May 29 in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The APCLC sponsored Forum was run by Professor James Spillane, one of the world’s preeminent thinkers in the area. James is the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change at Northwestern University where he chairs the Human Development and Social Policy graduate programme. He is also a professor of Learning Sciences and Management and Organizations, a Faculty Associate at the Institute for Policy Research and Senior Research fellow of APCLC, HKIEd.

The Forum asked leaders to rethink the work of instructional improvement by helping them to focus on the educational infrastructure at the school and school systems levels. The Forum was designed to help participants challenge dominant notions of expertise and capacity and consider new distributed notions of expertise and instructional leadership and management. The principals discussed the essentials of a distributed perspective on expertise, engaged in applying the distributed perspective for diagnosis and design work in leading and managing instructional quality and improvement.

Dr. Qian Haiyan embarked on a collaborative study between academics in Hong Kong and Shanghai

Dr Qian recently embarked on a collaborative study between academics in Hong Kong and Shanghai to investigate how school leaders perform their roles to lead school-based research and develop teacher and school capacity. Titled “Leading school-based research to improve student learning: Lessons from Shanghai”, the study aims to identify and analyze the key roles of school leaders in leading school-based research to improve student learning, build an in-depth understanding of the leadership strategies and practices associated with the successful promotion and implementation of school-based research.

The research findings will offer a better understanding of how school leaders perceive school-based research, the strategies they adopt to engage teachers, how they embed research findings in school practices, and how teachers perceive and make use of the research process and outcomes.

The study is located in Shanghai because school-based research as a change strategy has been promoted and mobilised at a large scale, with most schools incorporating school-based research into their routine activities. The two-year project will begin with a review of the policy development in Shanghai to understand the framework, guidelines, and conditions under which individual schools conduct school-based research. After identifying high schools conducting major research projects, the team will select six schools that reflect a diverse range of resources and results for the study. Dr Qian will focus on high schools due to the challenges faced by school leaders and teachers accountable for exam results and the implementation of innovative initiatives.

For the main part of the project, the team will draw data from principals, vice principals, key mid-level leaders, and teachers through individual and focus group interviews. In-school observations will be used to examine research practices and identify characteristics that facilitate and inhibit teacher participation in school-based research, and school publications and research reports collected to gain insight into school-based research practices. After producing six case analyses that describe the role of school leadership in each case, the team will synthesise a set of propositions about the structural, organisational and leadership strategies that Hong Kong, and other societies, can learn from.

Dr Qian is confident that the research findings will offer a better understanding of how school leaders perceive school-based research, the strategies they adopt to engage teachers, how they embed research findings in school practices, and how teachers perceive and make use of the research process and outcomes. “As Shanghai and Hong Kong share a cultural heritage and have to cope with some common issues in education, the experience of Shanghai is believed to have substantial implications for Hong Kong and for other societies as well,” she concluded.

Dr. Darren Bryant, Associate Director of APCLC and Assistant Professor of EPL and Dr. Lam Bick Har, Research Fellow of APCLC and Associate Professor of C&I shared their experience in the sharing session, 'Blended Learning @ FEHD: Stories from the Frontline' for HKIEd faculty on Jun 3, 2015.

• Date: 3 Jun 2015 (Wednesday)
• Time: 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m. (light lunch provided)
• Venue: B4-LP-06, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po Campus
• Enquires / Registration: Tel: Miss 2948 8768 (Lynn Yang) Email: dyang@ied.edu.hk
  

About the Sharing Session
This sharing session is part of the Blended & Online Learning & Teaching (BOLT) project that seeks to build a professional learning community, develop a toolkit of resources to support professional development, and foster a culture of blended learning and teaching across multiple faculties in Hong Kong higher education. This session will enable the blended learning ambassadors of FEHD to exchange ideas and share practices with faculty colleagues and projects members from other institutions, and lay the foundation for a professional learning community.

APCLC Leaders' Forum on May 29, 2015

Prof. James Spillane conducted a leaders' forum on 'Educational Infrastructure Design and Redesign: Engaging with the Real Challenge of Instructional Improvement in Schools' for APCLC in May. Details below:

About the Forum

This Forum engaged leaders in rethinking the work of instructional improvement by helping them to focus on the educational infrastructure at the school and school systems levels. The workshop is designed to help participants move beyond dominant notions about expertise and capacity and engage instead in a new paradigm centered on distributed notions of expertise and instructional leadership and management.

Participants learned about the essentials of a distributed perspective on expertise, engage in applying the distributed perspective for diagnosis and design work in leading and managing instructional quality and improvement. They developed the ability to engage in both diagnosis and design work from a distributed perspective.

About Prof. James Spillane

James Spillane is the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change at Northwestern University where he chairs the Human Development and Social Policy graduate programme. He is also a professor of Learning Sciences and Management and Organizations, a faculty associate at the Institute for Policy Research and senior Research fellow of APCLC, HKIEd. Spillane’s work explores relations between policy and local practice at the school district, school, and classroom levels. He is principal investigator of the Distributed Leadership Studies, a programme of research that investigates school administrative practice. Spillane is author of several books including Distributed Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2006) and Diagnosis and Design for School Improvement (Teachers College Press, 2011) as well as numerous journal articles.

Prof. Cheng Yin-cheong, APCLC Senior Research Fellow and Research Chair Professor of Leadership and Change, was invited to give a plenary speech at the International Seminar on School Leadership organized by School of Education of University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.  The topic of Prof. Cheng’s plenary speech is “Re-define school leadership for learning: Missing links and future developments”.

The School of Education at the University of Tampere organises an international seminar on the future of primary and secondary school with the special emphasis on the school leadership and the school autonomy. School leadership is currently under change and more research is needed in providing understanding on the practices of developing modern learning environments for better learning, leading bigger school units as well as on the importance of developing future skills.

To know more about the conference, please visit the website.

Dr. Liu Peng, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Knowledge Transfer Seminar on 'Motivating Teachers' Commitment to Change by Transformational School Leadership in Chinese Urban Upper Secondary Schools' for HKIEd faculty on May 28, 2015.

About the Seminar
In this seminar, Dr. Liu examined the effects of transformational school leadership on teachers' commitment to change in Chinese urban upper secondary school context. The results of statistical analysis showed that the effect of transformational school leadership was moderate when transformational school leadership and teachers' commitment to change were treated as a single variable. Four dimensions of transformational leadership practices together explained the moderate effects on the four dimensions of teachers' commitment to change respectively, among which the effect of managing the instructional programme was the most prominent.

This study represents an original attempt to understand how the effects of transformational school leadership on teachers' commitment to change in the Chinese urban upper secondary school context. This research seeks to contribute to leadership development and school change practices in the Chinese school context.

Dr. Graham Ranger, Director of School Support & Evaluation of Council of International Schools (CoIS), The Netherlands, visited the APCLC on May 2, 2015. During the visit, he discussed the collaborative school improvement and student experiential learning projects of international schools in Hong Kong, Asia Pacific and Europe to be jointly hosted by the APCLC and the CoIS with Prof. Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership and Director of APCLC.

EPL-APCLC Research Seminar on May 8, 2015

Dr. Annie Cheng, Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of EPL conducted a Research Seminar on'Can early career teachers develop teacher leadership?' for HKIEd faculty in May. Details below:

• Date: May 8, 2015
• Time:12:30 pm – 1:30pm 
• Venue: D2-LP-02, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po Campus
• Enquires / Registration: Tel: 2948 8008 or Email: tyeelai@ied.edu.hk

Dr. Liu Peng, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Knowledge Transfer Talk on 'Transformational Leadership Research' for faculty and students from Southwest University on May 18, 2015.

Memorandum of Understanding Signed
Between International School Leadership of Ontario Principals’ Council (ISL) and the APCLC

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between International School Leadership of Ontario Principals’ Council (ISL) and the Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at the Hong Kong Institute of Education on April 14, 2015.

The MoU was signed between Dr. Joanne Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of ISL and Prof. Allan Walker, the Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership; Dean, Faculty of Education and Human Development, and Director, Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change on behalf of The Hong Kong Institute of Education. The MoU was to strengthen mutual understanding and foster friendly co-operation for exchange of research findings and publications, collaboration activities and dissemination of knowledge to benefit and serve the Asia-Pacific region.

ISL is a subsidiary of the Ontario Principals’ Council devoted to the provision of exemplary professional development for teachers, principals, school heads and system leaders around the world. Their programmes are grounded in current research from around the globe, the Ontario (Canada) experience in striving for excellence, and the Ontario Principals’ Council history of delivering exemplary professional development.

APCLC is a research and development centre focusing on Leadership and Change in education. The APCLC was established in 2009 with the aim of contributing to the global interest in the role and impact of leadership, and more specifically leadership in educational, human service and professional organizations. The Centre stresses the importance of leadership and leadership development for achieving sustainable change in school systems. These represent key targets for the Centre which focuses on creating research-based knowledge on the practices of leading change, innovation and school improvement in this region.

EPL-APCLC Research Seminar on April 22, 2015

Dr. Theodore Lee, Research Fellow of APCLC and Lecturer of EPL conducted a Research Seminar on'Inquiry learning in a special education setting: Managing the cognitive loads of intellectually disabled students' for HKIEd faculty in April. Details below:

• Date: April 22, 2015
• Time:12:30 pm – 1:30pm 
• Venue: D4-G-02, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po Campus
• Enquires / Registration: Tel: 2948 8476 or Email: ayfchan@ied.edu.hk

Visit for Peabody College of Vanderbilt University

Dr Xiu Cravens on behalf of the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University visited the APCLC on April 10, 2015. During the visit, Dr Cravens and Prof Allan Walker discussed possible education collaboration endeavours between the Vanderbilt University and the APCLC.

Prof. Edmond Law, Professor at C&I and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a Knowledge Transfer Seminar on 'Learning Theories' for Senior Teachers in Futian District Shenzhen City on 11 April, 2015.

Dr Qian Haiyan Gave Keynote Presentation at Asia Leadership Roundtable 2015

Dr Qian Haiyan, Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor at Department of Education Policy and Leadership at The Hong Kong Institute of Education, was invited to give keynote presentation at the Asia Leadership Roundtable 2015 (ALR 2015), which was held in Bangkok from 9 to 10 March 2015.

In her talk "Building a Knowledge Base from the Inside", Dr Qian examined the issues about building a knowledge base of educational leadership from the perspective of an insider (an indigenous Asian researcher). More specifically, she examined three questions related to building Asian knowledge base – Who are knowledge actors? What comprises of knowledge? And How is knowledge produced and disseminated?

She argued that answers to each of these questions involved pitfalls, puzzles and promises. The pitfalls are problems that often drag local researchers away from building a solid knowledge base. They include: (i) researchers are still constrained by stereotyped views about the East and the West where researchers from the inside tend to use the Western models as reference points to identify the gaps; (ii) When we use concepts and terms borrowed from the Western literature to examine our realities, we are often encountered with the difficulties to capture the complexities and nuances; and (iii) The research conventions are built on the basis of the Western standards and we do not give due recognition to research conducted in different traditions. 

Examining the three questions also leaves us with some puzzles which may lead to further uncertainties in building the indigenous knowledge base:

To learn more about Dr Qian’s presentation, please visit the Asia Leadership Roundtable website.

Professor Allan Walker Gave International Educational Leadership Learning Workshops at the IB Asia Pacific Annual Conference 2015

In March 2015, Professor Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development and Director of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at The Hong Kong Institute of Education, was invited to conduct the International Education Leaders’ Learning Workshops at the IB Asia Pacific Annual Conference from 19-21 March 2015, in Macao, China.

The first learning workshop was held on 18 March. During the session Prof. Walker in collaboration with Prof. Philip Hallinger (Visiting Professor at Chulalongkorn University) worked with school leaders as they position themselves as successful instructional leaders. The talk was framed by five central tenets. These are, successful leaders: Know what they believe, and why; Know what they want to do, and why; Know how to bring others with them; Know how to pull things together; and Know they don’t know it all. Prof. Walker and Prof. Hallinger pulled these themes together into a framework for instructional leadership and examined how successful leaders enact these practices in international schools.

The second learning workshop was held on 19 March. During the session Prof. Walker in collaboration with Prof. Philip Hallinger worked with aspiring leaders to identify what it means to be a leader in a global context, and to share a range strategies and ideas employed by successful school leaders in cross-cultural settings. The main focus was on leading schools in the Asia-Pacific Region. Ideas covered include cultural frameworks, cross-cultural communication, cultural intelligence, connecting cultures, structures and relationships and working in cross-cultural teams.

To know more about Prof Walker’s International Educational Leadership Learning Workshops, please visit the Conference website.

To learn more about Professor Walker's work on international education and international educational leadership, please visit: http://www.ied.edu.hk/media/research_experts.php?id=50 and http://www.allandavidwalker.net.

Visit for Dr Richard Hickman, Dean of Homerton College at University of Cambridge

Dr Richard Hickman, Dean of Homerton College at University of Cambridge visited the APCLC on March 18-20, 2015. During his visit, he and Prof. Allan Walker discussed possible collaborative research endeavours between the University of Cambridge and the APCLC.

Paper presentation at IB Asia Pacific Conference 2015

Dr Darren Bryant, APCLC Associate Director and Assistant Professor at Department of Education Policy Leadership, HKIEd gave a paper presentation at the IB Asia Pacific Conference 2015 at Macau on March 19-21, 2015. His paper topic is “Developing Middle Leaders in IB schools: Opportunities, Challenges, and Support Structures”.

Paper presentation at The Learning and Teaching @HKIEd Festival 2015

APCLC Research Fellows gave presentations at The Learning and Teaching @HKIEd Festival 2015 with the theme “Emerging Practices: Learning and Teaching in Higher Education”, on 20 Mar 2015.

• Sharing the Experiences of Enhancing Pedagogies in Blended Learning: Lessons Learned (Part I)
  Dr Darren Bryant, Associate Director of APCLC and Assistant Professor of EPL
  
  
• Developing Computer Simulations as an Engaging Training Tool
  Dr Lu Jiafang, Associate Director of APCLC and Associate Professor of EPL
  
  
• Sharing the Experiences of Enhancing Pedagogies in Blended Learning: Lessons Learned (Part II)
  Dr Cheng Yan-ni, Annie, Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of EPL
  
  
• Sharing the Experiences of Enhancing Pedagogies in Blended Learning: Lessons Learned (Part III)
  Dr Lee Tai-hoi, Theodore, Research Fellow of APCLC and Assistant Professor of EPL
  

To know more about their presentations, please visit the conference website.

Visit for Mr Ji Chengzhong and Ms Iris Xu, Shenzhen Futian District International Education Centre

Mr Ji Chengzhong, Director of Shenzhen Futian District International Education Centre and Ms Iris Xu, his associate, visited APCLC on March 20, 2015. During their visit, they discussed possible education collaboration endeavours between Shenzhen Futian District International Education Centre and the APCLC.

Prof. Cheng Yin-cheong, APCLC Senior Research Fellow and Research Chair Professor of Leadership and Change, was invited to give a panel speech at the Asia Education Leaders Forum/ Education Partnership Forum at the World-didac Asia, AsiaWorld-ExPo, Hong Kong.  The topic of Prof. Cheng’s panel speech is “How arts reshape learning for imagination, creativity and multiple thinking”.

The 6th Asia Education Leaders Forum (AELF) was held in conjunction with the Worlddidac Asia 2015 Exhibition and the Education Partnership Forum on March 18-20, 2015 at the AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong. The conference is officially supported by Education Bureau, The Government of Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong Education City, the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat, UNESCO Hong Kong Association, and Worlddidac Association. The conference expects to attract education leaders and professionals from across the region. The AELF 2015 conference is with the theme "Towards becoming a centre of Excellence” and it will feature Ministerial keynotes as well as over forty global and regional inspiring speakers under a highly interactive and interesting new format which offer thought provoking discussion in 3 categories: What’s next for education? Shouldn’t Learning be fun? and Learning a living.

To know more about the conference, please visit the website.

Visit for Dr Andreas Rupp, Director of Leadership Training and Education Knowledge Foundation at the Reutlingen University (Germany)

Dr Andreas Rupp, Director of Leadership Training and Education Knowledge Foundation at the Reutlingen University visited the APCLC on March 12, 2015. During his visit, he and Prof. Allan Walker discussed possible collaborative research endeavours between the Knowledge Foundation at the Reutlingen University and the APCLC.

Visit for Dr Misty Kirby, University of Canberra

Dr Misty Kirby, Assistant Professor at Faculty of Education, Science, Technology & Mathematics of University of Canberra and Research Fellow of Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change, HKIEd will visit the APCLC during Feb 23- April 2, 2015.

During her visit, she participated in:

Dr. Kirby works as an Assistant Professor, teaching courses in Education Leadership and Change with Masters and Doctoral students, Doctoral Research Methods, as well as courses in Teacher as Researcher with Teacher Education Undergraduates. She is a former Secondary English classroom teacher, having taught years 6-11 (in the USA: MS, NY, VA), in public schools and in two institutional settings (juvenile detention centre and a prison for young men).

As a first generation university graduate, Dr. Kirby understands the issues and opportunities students deal with when they are the first attending university. As a result of being marginalised and witnessing students and staff being marginalised over the last 15 years in public education, her passion in research is grounded in the desire to improve the life chances of students through effective education leadership and high quality, optimistic learning environments around the globe.

Dr. Kirby completed her Ph.D. at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA., and her Master's degree, in English Education, was earned at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.

In October 2014 and January 2015, Professor Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Human Development and Director of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change at The Hong Kong Institute of Education, presented two talks as an invited keynote speaker at two influential conferences that target the international school leadership community:

In Prof. Walker’s CoIS talk "Intercultural Perspectives: Implications for educational leadership”, Professor Walker illuminated the influence of culture on school leadership and the context of intercultural schools.  Prof Walker suggested a number of learning avenues through which leaders can consciously reframe and better understand problems and solutions around these intercultural school contexts. These interrelated avenues include learning beyond standardised leadership prescriptions, simultaneously trusting and mistrusting experience, learning through student learning, learning through variation, learning through looking beyond culture and learning through curiosity.  More importantly, authentic intercultural leadership is particularly attuned to the values, beliefs and behavioural uniqueness of the students, teachers and others which comprise the community. More than 200 academics, international educators and scholar-practitioners in international education attended the talk.

The IB was founded in 1968 and is a non-profit educational foundation offering four highly respected programmes of international education that develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world. The IB has a hard-earned reputation for high standards of teaching, pedagogical leadership and student achievement. It works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. On 11 December 2014, there were 4,972 IB programmes being offered worldwide, across 3,968 schools.

The CoIS is a membership community committed to high quality international education.  The CoIS provides services to primary and secondary schools, higher education institutions and individuals that share these ideals: a desire to provide students with the knowledge, skills and abilities to pursue their lives as global citizens; and a commitment to high quality international education. The CoIS community includes more than 680 schools and 490 colleges and universities representing 109 countries.

To learn more about Professor Walker’s work on international education and international educational leadership, please visit:  
http://www.ied.edu.hk/web/research_experts.php?id=50 and allandavidwalker.net.

Professor Allan Walker, Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Dean of Faculty of Education and Human Development and Director of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change (APCLC) at The Hong Kong Institute of Education, is pleased to announce the Asia Leadership Roundtable 2015 will be hosted by the APCLC and Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University on March 8-10, 2015 in Bangkok.

Themed “Building and Connecting an Asian Knowledge Base in Educational Leadership” allows 60+ regional and international education scholars, practitioners, training managers, policymakers, and principals from 15 countries and territories in the region and beyond come together to (i) share research findings related to instructional leadership; (ii) build national literature in educational leadership; and, more importantly, (iii) connect an Asian Knowledge Base in educational leadership.

Prof. Dr. Wichit Srisa-an, Former Minister of Education in Thailand, Dr. Qian Haiyan, Assistant Professor of Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Prof. Philip Hallinger, Visiting Professor of Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University will deliver key speeches while Prof. Bruce Barnett from University of Texas at San Antonio, and Dr David Gurr from University of Melbourne will deliver provocateur presentations.

Prof. Alma Harris, Director of the Institute of Educational Leadership at University of Malaya, Prof. Clive Dimmock, Chair in Professional Learning and Leadership at the University of Glasgow and Dr. Truong Dinh Thang of the Quang Tri Teacher Training College in Vietnam will conduct an expert panel discussion on Connecting an Asian Knowledge Base in Educational Leadership. 

APCLC Research Fellows: Prof Wendy Pan, Dr. Saliesh Sharma, Dr. David Ng, Dr Pongsin Viseshsiri, Dr Ori Eyal, Dr Qian Haiyan and Dr Elson Szeto and Dr. Truong Dinh Thang and APCLC Associate Directors Dr. Darren Bryant and Dr. Lu Jiafang will share their knowledge articulated from the reviews of national literatures in educational leadership and research findings related to instructional leadership.   

For details, please visit the Roundtable website at www.ied.edu.hk/apclc/roundtable2015/.

Dr. Choi Tae Hee, Assistant Professor at EPL and Research Fellow of The Joseph Lau Luen Hung Charitable Trust Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change of HKIEd conducted a International Workshop on 'HK educational system & Understanding the process of innovations' for Korean Educational Development Institute in February, 2014.

APCLC-HKPI Monograph Series 2015

The APCLC-HKPI Monograph "Leading International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Schools in Developing Countries: A Review of Issues and Challenges" by Moosung Lee, Ewan Wright, Allan Walker and Lynette Leung will be released in March.

This monograph reports there has been rapid growth in schools offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) over the preceding decade. The phenomenon is global in scope, and increasingly evident in developing countries. This chapter provides a review of emerging leadership issues in the unique and often diverse contexts of IBDP schools in developing countries. More specifically, it outlines the key findings of eleven studies (eight empirical and three discussion based) across eleven developing countries related to the contextual issues and challenges of IBDP school leadership. These include “environmental” factors such as 1) political and policy context, 2) school community context, and 3) external assessments, alongside the “organization” factors of 1) program resource intensity, 2) private self-funded status, and 3) student identities. Implications of these studies for standardization and quality assurance of the IBDP as the program continues to expand across developing countries worldwide are discussed.

Prof. Allan Walker (Joseph Lau Chair Professor of International Educational Leadership, Director of APCLC and Dean of FEHD) was invited to give a presentation cum knowledge transfer summit at the Annual Forum of Council of International Schools (CoIS) in London on January 19, 2015.  An audience of more than 100 international education leaders and scholar-practitioners will attend the forum.  Prof Walker’s presentation is entitled “Intercultural Perspectives: Implications for educational leadership”.

To know more about Prof Walker’s presentation and knowledge transfer summit, please visit the CoIS website.

Dr Zheng Yulian, Associate Professor at Guizhou Normal College and Research Fellow of APCLC, will visit the APCLC during January 11 -24, 2015. During Dr Zheng's visit, she provided HKIEd faculty professional consultation for the development of regional and international research projects of instructional leadership.