The use of technology on problem-based learning for teacher education in Hong Kong

This study probes into how pre-service and in-services teachers of various disciplines responded to media-based educational triggers, and their attitudes to the potential technological development in fostering student-centred learning in general and Problem-based Learning (PBL) in particular, with the ultimate goal of enhancing and improving the quality of teacher training. This paper will, therefore, analyze user attitudes to the five newly developed video triggers on PBL, which were developed by the education professionals at the Hong Kong Institute of Education to serve as exemplars for the staff and students who are not familiar with the problem-based approach. The particular standing of this sole teacher-education institute in Hong Kong and the mixed Western and Chinese cultures in the region make this case study unique. The results show that cultural values can exert a significant influence on the adoption of PBL by the Chinese teachers and students. The implications and recommendations arising from the findings obtained in this research project will provide teacher educators, locally as well as elsewhere, with some initial insights when using similar media–based products in teacher education in Hong Kong.