School development, curriculum development, and teacher development

In this new century of the knowledge-based economy, many countries in the Asia-Pacifi c region have undergone waves of educational and curriculum reforms. The new curricula in many of these countries, such as China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, emphasized an integration of knowledge and skills, process and method, as well as an emphasis on values and attitudes (Kennedy & Lee, 2008; Lee et al., 2010). Alongside the change of curriculum emphases, there is a paradigm shift in pedagogy, assessment, and change of notion of school as an autonomous, learning organization. To ensure the successful implementation, teachers are expected to take up different roles, refl ect on their educational beliefs, embrace their own vision in line with the curriculum change, and actualize them in and beyond classroom and school settings. In many countries, there has been an advocacy of school-university partnership for school and curriculum development in which academics and researchers work with teachers and principals in launching school-based initiatives (Lee et al., 2004). Teacher professional development and school development become crucial issues of attention. Copyright © 2011 Taylor & Francis.