Ronald Ho

My study investigates teacher epistemology and teacher change towards understanding and implementing classroom innovation for knowledge building in Hong Kong Classrooms.
The conceptual frameworks of knowledge building and teacher collaboration will be employed for examining how changes in teacher epistemology from procedures toward principle-based understanding, and emerging pedagogical practices, together with appropriate socio-cultural contexts, would enhance teacher change. The research questions are: (1) What are the changes, if any, in teachers’ and students’ beliefs, practices and understanding towards knowledge building and inquiry during and after teacher professional program premised on knowledge building model theory? (2) What are the patterns of beliefs and classroom practices in knowledge building among teachers with different experience with the teacher community, and how do changes in teachers’ beliefs and practices take place? Quantitative studies on teachers’ and students’ epistemological beliefs and collaboration from a group of teachers attending the EDB funded Knowledge Building Teacher Network workshops will be conducted. Besides, comparative studies on teachers who are in different stages of their development in acquiring knowledge building concepts and skills will be followed to examine the differences in their growth trajectory and to explore how teachers change their beliefs and transform their classroom practice for innovations with impacts on student understanding supported in the knowledge-building teacher community.