Search

Changes in assessment practices in the direction of assessment for learning (AfL) can be a powerful force to enhance student learning. This article presents a case study of teacher learning in an AfL project in Hong Kong. In the Project, AfL strategies were adopted in Chinese Language and English Language classrooms at the junior secondary level. By examining subject leaders' and classroom teachers' experiences with the project reported in interviews, the paper enriches our understanding of the variations in the subject department contexts of teacher learning, the situatedness of teacher learning in terms of knowledge about student learning, understanding of AfL and curriculum leadership, as well as the relationship between teacher learning and changes in assessment practices. The article concludes with suggestions on fostering subject departments to be expansive environments for teacher professional learning and to be a vehicle of internal change, alerts the importance of integration of AfL into teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and the subject curriculum, and highlights the cultural dimension as an issue for further study in AfL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study measuring support from primary and secondary school leaders for the implementation of curriculum reforms initiated by Hong Kong's Special Administrative Region (SAR) government. Changes to the curriculum were intended to increase student learning, creativity and communication. Distinctions between reforms and educational innovations are noted. Surveys, questionnaires and focus group interviews were used to investigate attitudes of school principals and teachers regarding principles, educational goals and the curriculum framework established in reforms. The authors note that senior management staff and frontier teachers had different views regarding reforms.

Teacher promotion is an important issue in school administration that deserves more academic attention. In business management a commonly used tool for employee motivation, aside from promotion, is the compensation system, which can be flexibly and frequently adjusted with the performance of individual staff members. However, in the existing education system, pay levels and structure are relatively fixed and it is difficult for principals to use the compensation system as a tool to motivate teachers. Promotion is therefore the most important reward that principals can use. Using Hong Kong as an example, and with a sample of 210 principals and teachers from both primary and secondary schools, this article attempts to find answers and make suggestions to improve the current promotion system. It is hoped that this study will provide a better understanding of teacher promotion in general, and in Hong Kong in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]