Continuing-learning programmes
The second set of programmes is developed in light of ongoing school reforms and curriculum changes as well as in response to increasing demands and expectations of parents and students on teachers. Given this set of policy, organizational and social contexts, the conception of teaching as a solitary undertaking is less tenable than it once was. Teachers need to reorient themselves based on reflections on one of these areas; that is: how students learn; how students' school, family and social lives may be linked together; and how teaching and learning should or could be carried out. Upon such reflection, teachers would embrace the concept of professional development over and above simple career advancement in an effort to strive for the highest quality of education the teaching profession as a whole may be able to achieve.
The second set of programmes is developed in light of ongoing school reforms and curriculum changes as well as in response to increasing demands and expectations of parents and students on teachers. Given this set of policy, organizational and social contexts, the conception of teaching as a solitary undertaking is less tenable than it once was. Teachers need to reorient themselves based on reflections on one of these areas; that is: how students learn; how students' school, family and social lives may be linked together; and how teaching and learning should or could be carried out. Upon such reflection, teachers would embrace the concept of professional development over and above simple career advancement in an effort to strive for the highest quality of education the teaching profession as a whole may be able to achieve.
- 'Advanced Institutes' (an extension of the Summer Institute) - The Advanced Institutes may take different formats, for instance, residential institutes, e-learning and sharing. These Advanced Institutes may improve teachers' subject knowledge and teaching strategies (use of metalanguage in error correction and grammar teaching, for example) through a series of targeted seminars which help to reformulate specific teaching strategies, such as the use of peer response groups in the teaching of writing. Through demonstration and mutual sharing of views and experiences by groups of teachers who have put such reformulated strategies into practice, a new framework may emerge. The resulting framework may then be conceptualized with a view of developing new teaching strategies and/or modifying existing teaching methods based on new findings or to how students learn in English, with findings related to other disciplines, such as neuroscience.
- Creation of teacher professional portfolios - A concrete outcome from the Collaboration Programmes will be teacher professional portfolios. The portfolios will incorporate effective teaching strategies demonstrated, teachers’ relative strengths and limitations in relation to student levels and classroom characteristics. They might cover school culture and the teachers' development or re-deployment of different and creative methods to meet the requirements of the curriculum. Organization and group dynamics which are key or critical entries to teacher professional portfolios in building teacher communities may be identified from teachers’ written narration. With the teachers’ consent, such portfolios may be updated and exchanged through electronic means.
- Knowledge transfer and exchange - In order for teacher knowledge and expertise to be recognized and shared, a systematic scientific documentation of what teachers do and how teaching and learning is carried out inside and outside the classroom is needed. Action research can help in this regard and such a method requires the collaboration and commitment of teachers making their knowledge and expertise comprehensible and transferable. Results of action research studies can then be shared in seminars and conferences for local teachers and international audiences.