Meta‐learning ability – a crucial component for the professional development of teachers in a changing context

Abstract

Reviews of teachers professional development show that it is a highly complicated area, in which it is difficult to offer a unified and comprehensive view of the growing development of teachers. This study looks into the development of teachers by tracking their practices in a problematic teaching area: ‘learning through play’. Four Hong Kong kindergarten teachers participated in a qualitative study that investigated their implicit knowledge of teaching. The findings show that there is a close relationship between the informants' teaching approaches and their self‐learning patterns. The result raises doubt about the staged developmental perspectives of teacher development. The significance of meta‐learning ability, which is found to be an essential component for the professional development of teachers in a changing context, is revealed.

Keywords:

• professional development of teachers
• implicit knowledge of teaching
• teaching and learning through play