Hong Kong teachers' perceptions towards teaching competition as a means for staff development

Abstract

Teaching competition is a common and standardized practice in mainland China, but until then it is rather new to teachers in Hong Kong. Teaching competition can have dual roles: being an activity for teacher development and as a kind of standard enforcement of teachers’ performances. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to examine the perceptions of teachers in Hong Kong towards teaching competition as a means for staff development. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this research study. A questionnaire containing both multiple choices and open-ended questions was used to collect data anonymously from secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. This study also attempted to explore other areas relating to teaching competition, including teacher collaboration, teaching performance assessment, teacher identity, and teacher standards.

The results of this study showed that in general Hong Kong teachers did not reject the idea of using teaching competition as a platform for sharing and developing teaching skills. However, some teachers considered that teaching competition might, to a certain extent, induce tensions among teachers and jeopardize teacher collaboration. Judging teachers’ performances in teaching competition can be considered as a process of assessment. As such, applying theories of assessment could gain better understanding of the judgment itself, maintain fairness of judgment and clear up the misunderstanding of ostentation in teaching competition and non-determinacy of teaching performance.

Moreover, the results of judgments in teaching competitions must be correctly interpreted. Judgments accompanied with feedback instead of simply feedouts could serve better for teacher development purpose. Finally, teaching competition could enforce performance standards to teachers. Findings from this research study revealed that recent education reform in Hong Kong would affect teachers’ views on teaching competition. It was argued that teaching competition might be an appropriate means to help teachers establish and re-establishing their discredited professional identity under the cultural change of marketization.