Developing a Model for Facilitating Sustainable Teacher Professional Development through Practitioner Research

There has been a call in the education literature for making Practitioner Research (PR) a key characteristic of high quality Teacher Professional Development (TPD) over the last two decades. Although extensive reports can be found on the positive and profound impacts of PR on TPD, there is a lack of research on the development of teachers’ research ability in PR. This study addresses the research gap through investigating 16 Hong Kong Liberal Studies teachers’ development related to both teaching and research through conducting PR on teaching critical thinking in secondary classrooms. Moreover, it looks into the relationship between teacher development and the roles played by the facilitators. Data will be collected through (i) interviews with teachers and facilitators, (ii) observations of lesson workshops, lessons involving teachers’ research, post-lesson discussion, group meetings, individual meetings, and sharing sessions., and (iii) documentary analysis of teachers and facilitators’ logbooks, materials associated with the observed lessons (including lesson plans, worksheets, quiz, and reading materials), notes of meetings, emails between teachers and facilitators, as well as teachers’ research plans and reports. A model of facilitating sustainable teacher professional development through PR will be generated by synthesizing the findings and reflections of teachers, facilitators and researchers.

Funding Source: RGC - General Research Fund (GRF)