Teacher educators' pedagogical principles and practices: Hong Kong perspectives

While the teaching quality agenda of the 1990s, including auditing procedures, funding initiatives, and the development of academic and staff development units, has had its earliest and strongest expression in the United Kingdom and Australia, it has also had a significant impact on higher education in Hong Kong. The focus on quality has been accompanied by extensive research and theorising about the nature of good teaching and the qualities of good teachers. Most of this work has emerged from western studies across a range of disciplines. A study of teaching practices employed by Hong Kong academics with specific expertise in education supports the applicability of western conceptualisations generated through multi-disciplinary studies; these academics' practices are aligned with 'good teaching', but highlight factors not often noted in previous studies, namely the conscious application of educational theory and the role of professional commitment and passion in good teaching.