Success or Failure: The Important Role of Emotionality for CSL Teachers’ Professional Development

Over the past decade, many Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong have experienced many new challenges. They are expected to design and implement their own school-based curricula and adopt innovative pedagogies and customised materials for students learning CSL. The current literature suggests that some teachers are not ready for or even resist changes (e.g. Richardson V. How teachers change: what will lead to change that most benefits student learning? Focus on Basics, 2(C). National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=395.html , 1998), amid new challenges and paradigm shifts. Based on Guskey’s (Educ Res 15(5):5–12, 1986) Model of Teacher Change, Hall et al.’s (A developmental conceptualization of the adoption process within education institutions. Research and Development Center for Teacher Education, University of Texas at Austin, 1973) Concerns-Based Adoption Model, and Bennett’s (Toward ethnorelativism: a developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In Paige RM (ed) Education for the intercultural experience. Intercultural Press, pp 21–71, 1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, this case study highlights the role of emotionality as a key factor for successful teachers’ change and revisits the sequences of the progressive stages when teachers facing change or innovations. Research findings suggested that an integrated model with inclusive support of collective lesson preparation and teaching demonstrations/practical sessions in professional development programs is a key element that helps the facilitation of CSL teachers’ change, provides them with experiential learning opportunities for the enhancement of their confidence and reduction of anxiety, leading to their voluntary adoption of the new pedagogical approach, and gradual change in their beliefs and attitudes after witnessing the feasibility and effectiveness of the newly introduced concepts. Taking reference from such findings, the adaptation and modification of these three classical models is then proposed. Implications and suggestions for the design of CSL teachers’ professional development programs are discussed.