Teaching development grants final and financial report: Stories of effective classroom management in inclusive education by outstanding teachers in Hong Kong

Effective Classroom management provides learners with a positive learning environment and promotes students’ whole person development and enhances the quality of education. Classroom management has been one of the core areas for both pre-service and in-service teaching training programmes. However, classroom management is ranked by schools as one of the weakest areas of HKIEd student teachers’ performances in their block teaching practice in schools (HKIEd, 2009). The implementation of a whole school approach to inclusion in 2003 has made classrooms in Hong Kong more diverse. Managing greater learner diversity in classroom teaching has become a bigger challenge to teachers (Yuen, Westwood & Wong, 2004). The proposed study will draw on the experience of 6 outstanding teachers (4 primary school teachers and 4 secondary school teachers) in Hong Kong and investigate the challenges in classroom management these teachers met with in inclusive classrooms and the strategies they adopted to cope with these challenges. Stories of effective classroom management by these teachers will be written up into a repertoire of good practices and an e-platform will be developed for dissemination. Recommendations on applying the experience of these outstanding teachers will be made to improve those HKIEd courses that are related to inclusive classroom management.