Dealing with Difficulties: The Strategies of Instructional Consultants in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong has launched a large-scale education reform in the last decade. Teachers are facing many challenges arising from the paradigm shift in teaching approaches. Although consultation on instruction may be an invaluable support for teachers during the reform, it is not readily accepted by teachers. The present qualitative study documented the opinions of 45 instructional consultants in Hong Kong on the difficulties they encountered in providing consultation to teachers. They worked in the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong government and one of their tasks was to develop, experiment, and disseminate effective curriculum practices among school teachers. To minimize self-defensiveness and fundamental attribution errors in these instructional consultants, an EPS (Environment, People, Self) discussion framework was adopted to collect their opinions. They were invited to identify the difficulties arising from the environment, people, and themselves. They also brainstormed the strategies that would address these difficulties. Their suggestions were in line with the systems-based service delivery model. Their opinions can be a useful reference to the consultants in the other parts of the world where demand for innovative changes in instruction is also enormous.