Catalysts leading experienced primary teachers to modify the ways they teach students to read Chinese. Catalysts modify teachers’ pedagogy

Abstract

A report is presented of experiences that persuaded a group of experienced Taiwanese Chinese Lan-guage primary school teachers who had visited Hong Kong to observe how the subject they were re-sponsible for teaching was being taught in Hong Kong to change their practice on returning to Tai-wan. Overseen by Taiwanese and Hong Kong university academics, the Taiwan and Hong teachers ex-changed professional experiences and ideas, and school visits were arranged to allow the Taiwanese teachers to see for themselves how reading comprehension was being taught in Hong Kong primary schools. On returning to Taiwan, retrospective impressions of the visit by the Taiwanese teachers were reported to colleagues, and seminars, follow-up focus group meetings and online forum discussions were organized. A group of Hong Kong teachers later visited Taiwan to see how their Taiwanese col-leagues were teaching reading. The visits, exchanges of ideas and the follow-up activities were very productive, all serving as catalysts causing the teachers to change their pedagogy on returning to Tai-wan, one of the most important being the experience of seeing at first-hand the strategies used by Hong Kong teachers to improve the reading comprehension of their students and another being the way the students had responded.