Affective education: The value development of Hong Kong student-teachers

Affective education is a significant dimension of teaching, which is concerned with the values, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and emotional well-being of students. Much research is about how affective education should be put into real practice in elementary and high schools. However, affective education is no less important at tertiary education level. It is especially crucial to examine what values student-teachers taking teacher education programmes hold and how these values change throughout their course of study, since these student-teachers will nurture our next generation and these student-teachers’ moral and spiritual development will directly affect how they teach their pupils. Based on our study on the development of the professional convictions of Hong Kong student-teachers, this paper attempts to find out what values the student-teachers hold, how these values evolve over time, and what factors contribute to their formation and evolution. Qualitative research methods were employed in the study, which include the use of autobiographies and in-depth interviews. The focus of this paper is on examining the dimensions of the student-teachers’ values and how far affective education is effective in achieving its aims in teacher education programmes. Apart from analyzing the common factors associated with teacher professional development such as field experience and reflection, this paper will analyze the issue from the perspective of formal, informal and hidden curriculum. Implications from this study may shed light on ways to improve the design of teacher education programmes to meet the needs of affective education.