Teaching Development Grants
    Completed TDG Projects

    Addressing SLEQ survey results

    Developing Collaborative Culture for Professional Learning

    Abstract

    The project created the space for a group of teacher educators from the Faculty of Education to build a community of trust for individual and collective conceptualization of core values, pedagogical principles, strategies in teaching and curriculum development of the four-year programme of Bachelor of Education in Liberal Studies (BEd-LS). Through collaboration, we completed a schedule of 13 monthly gathering with sustainable critical discussion over a progressive track for higher learning which were documented (with a package of the synopsis, PPT and the post-seminar review). For peer support, a 4Rs framework (Respect, Responsibility, Relevance and Relationship) has been developed through the sustainable inquiry over monthly reflections. Accordingly, a Value-Oriented Peer Support Exercise (VOPSE) is put into practice. A culture of collegiality was generated among our project members, and pedagogical innovative thinking was gradually integrated into practice with sensitivity to our core values, as we are sharing contextual understanding of our 4Rs framework. One journal article entitled ‘Liberated to learn: Teacher Education as Transformation of Relationships’ has been published.

    Principal Investigator

    Dr. D.C.L. Fung, Division of Science, Mathematics and Computing, Faculty of EducationContact

    Project level

    Programme-level project

    Project Completion

    February 2014

    Deliverables

    With its potential to offer valuable insights to both teacher preparation and higher education in general, the project deliverables are identified and achieved as follows:

    • We have completed a schedule of 13 monthly gatherings from September 2012 to December 2013 with sustainable critical discussion over a progressive track for higher learning.  Each monthly gathering was conducted as a seminar led by two members in the project.  We use the term ‘gathering’ to express our collegial relationship in this continual inquiry on learning and teaching issues related to curriculum reform in Liberal Studies.  In addition, the gatherings can also stimulate leadership for quality of teaching and learning from among relatively experienced colleagues who are interested in pedagogical innovation.
    • For peer support, a 4Rs framework (Respect, Responsibility, Relevance and Relationship) has been developed through the sustainable inquiry over monthly reflections.  Accordingly, a Value-Oriented Peer Support Exercise (VOPSE) is put into practice.
    • Two rounds of individual semi-structured interviews with student-teachers and university teachers were conducted, and one round of focus group interviews with student-teachers were carried out.
    • One journal article has been published, entitled ‘Liberated to learn: Teacher Education as Transformation of Relationships’.  The article appears in Education as Change 18 (1), pp 47-61, 2014.
    • We have been invited to contribute to a special issue of Policy Futures in Education.
    • Course outlines to reflect the pedagogical connection and further curriculum development of courses Download