Professional development in a local Hong Kong secondary school: a case study

Abstract

This paper is a case study of teacher professional development in a local Hong Kong secondary school. By examining the tension among various influencing parties - i.e. Education Bureau (EDB), school sponsoring body, school, principal and teachers - as well as the dilemmas arising from the planning and implementation of professional development programs, this research seeks to explore areas of improvements and provide recommendations. The discussions centre on the needs identification and program evaluation processes, and are based on theoretical principles of organizational learning, individualization of learning, training evaluation and transfer of learning. Following analysis of the research findings, this paper goes on to suggest that school leaders should promote the principles of professional learning to all teachers. In particular, teachers should be empowered with the autonomy to manage their own professional development as their responsibility. Also, school leaders should encourage teachers to integrate school development needs with their own professional needs. The findings may be applied to other local secondary schools with staff development structures and processes at a comparable level of maturity.