Physical education teachers’ perceptions on their professional development in Hong Kong

This paper analyzes the perceptions of 400 primary and secondary physical education teachers participating in an annual professional development project titled the Summer School for PE teachers 2006. The project was funded by the Education and Manpower Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and organized by the Department of Creative Arts and Physical Education of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. It provided over 1400 professional training opportunities for local PE teachers through conference, school experience sharing seminar and workshops. Data were collected from 3 post-function questionnaires aiming at soliciting participants’ views on the details of their participation, effectiveness of different programmes and recommendations for future organization of similar project. The findings suggest that attending workshops was participants’ preferred professional learning mode when compared with participating in conference and seminar. Those learning experiences that were schoolbased in nature and related closely to the daily work of teaching were complimented. Teachers valued their learning that was delivered by appropriate professional experts. Professional learning activities with opportunities of putting theories into practices in teaching were highly praised. They identified understanding of curricular and pedagogical innovations in schools as their future learning need. The findings provide information for a better understanding of the professional development of physical education teachers in Hong Kong. On the other hand, these teachers had provided some implications about future professional development provision and implementation. Programmes that are more capable of providing practical, relevant and applicable learning experiences to their real world of teaching, appear to be important for them.