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Emerging Practices in Scholarship of Learning and Teaching in a Digital Era pp 75–90Cite as

Development of an Effective Staff Professional Development for the Enhancement of Student Learning

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Abstract

Higher education institutions around the world have increasingly been concerned with staff professional development (SPD) programmes for academic and teaching (A/T) staff. Since its establishment in 1994, an education university in Hong Kong (which we will refer to as the University) has offered primarily teacher education to foster the development of quality teachers. To meet the demand for students’ holistic and whole-person development for the twenty-first century, the University has sought to broaden the range of programmes offered, introducing the concept of ‘Education-Plus’. Under the ‘Education-Plus’ vision, the University has been expanding non-education programmes rapidly since 2010. Many new A/T staff with limited teaching experience have been recruited, needing professional development (PD) to enhance their skills and knowledge. Since 2013, the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology (LTTC) has designed and developed an SPD programme to allow A/T staff to enrich their PD and ultimately enhance student learning. The evaluation of the current SPD programme activities revealed that the PD activities were beneficial to A/T’s teaching and their PD, but the question has arisen as to whether the current SPD programme is effective, e.g. whether A/T staff have obtained and applied new knowledge and skills to teaching. This paper will discuss the design of the current SPD programme and analyze its activities. The design outlined in ‘Three Stages of Professional Development: The Cycle of Change’ (Bellanca, 2009) will be referred to in order to develop an effective SPD programme. The paper will also design and propose a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of the SPD programme and its implementation cycle.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong

    May Sok-Ching Chan & Siu Cheung Kong

  2. Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong

    Siu Cheung Kong

Authors
  1. May Sok-Ching Chan
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  2. Siu Cheung Kong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to May Sok-Ching Chan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Siu Cheung Kong

  2. Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Tak Lam Wong

  3. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Min Yang

  4. Department of Science and Environmental Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Cheuk Fai Chow

  5. Department of Chinese Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Ka Ho Tse

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Chan, M.SC., Kong, S.C. (2017). Development of an Effective Staff Professional Development for the Enhancement of Student Learning. In: Kong, S., Wong, T., Yang, M., Chow, C., Tse, K. (eds) Emerging Practices in Scholarship of Learning and Teaching in a Digital Era. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3344-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3344-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3342-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3344-5

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