Enhancing teaching through action learning: helping innovation in Hong Kong

Abstract

Action learning (AL) is an increasingly commonly used strategy for improving the quality of teaching and learning. The focus in AL is not a particular technique or teaching aid, but the process of teaching itself, where the teacher monitors and reflects on the ongoing process in reflect-plan-act-monitor cycles. The outcomes of the cycles progressively become part of the teacher’s ongoing repertoire, so teaching is intended to continue to improve. Previous work suggests that AL is particularly useful in helping teachers cope with innovation. AL has been used with great success in the tertiary sector in Hong Kong, but it does not appear to have been used in the school sector. The aim in the present paper is to describe some of this tertiary work, and to suggest that AL seems particularly well suited to addressing the problems experienced in the implementation of TOC.

「行動學習」是一種越來越普及被採用來提高教和學質素的方法。「行動學習」不是一種特殊的教學技考或輔助，它本身就是教學的過程。教師通過一個反思 — 計劃 — 行動 — 監察的循環過程來自我監察和反思。這個循環過程的結果續漸成為教師工作的一部份,使教學能不斷改進。過往的研究指出「行動學習」最能幫助教師用新的教學方法。「行動學習」在香港的專上教育曾有很大的成果，但是在中學教育中好像還未被採用。本文章的主旨是報導一些專上教育在這方面推行的工作，及對「行動學習」能特別適合及解決一些在推行「目標為本課程」所遇到的困難作出一些建議。