In recent years, teachers in Hong Kong have been faced with many changes, which have largely been imposed upon them. The majority of these changes have focused on curriculum innovation and teachers have been expected to accept major alterations to the content of their teaching and also change their inherent beliefs. The result, in most schools, has been a veneer of acceptance of each new initiative, as teachers assimilated the superficial elements. For the most part, their way of coping has been to tack on some of the new ideas, while retaining their traditional classroom behaviour.

What has been lacking in these often worthy attempts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools, has been a focus on influencing the culture of Hong Kong schools. There has been little or no attempt to help all teachers in individual schools develop their levels of professional responsibility and confidence or enable them to understand the reasons for such drastic change, such that they gradually alter their lesson content and teaching methods in a supportive collegial environment.

At the same time, Hong Kong teachers, as in most other places, have been slow to open their doors and encourage colleagues to share and discuss their classroom experiences. In Hong Kong schools this has been further hindered by the fact that teachers have few opportunities to discuss professional issues in informal settings. Hong Kong staffrooms are places where teachers sit and mark skyscraper high columns of books, not rooms where colleagues can relax for ten minutes with a cup of tea and become involved in professional dialogue.

When teacher appraisal and peer review were first introduced, the majority of teachers viewed them with fear and trepidation. Far from being seen as an attempt to help teachers improve the quality of their work, they were viewed by most teachers as assessment - summative assessment rather than formative and developmental. It should be very clear to everyone involved in using these materials that the aim is get away from the scenario where teachers sit in judgement on one another. Rather, they aim to provide an opportunity for teachers to engage in supportive learning experiences, involving both the appraisers and the teacher being appraised. In that way all colleagues in schools can develop professionally to the benefit of everyone, particularly the children in the school.

I very much hope that you will find these materials professionally challenging and useful.

 

Jenny Tyrrell.

Primary education specialist. Author of The Power of Fantasy in Early Learning ( 2001 )