Time constraints and pressure limit opportunity to study during term so summer break the best chance
Record numbers of secondary school teachers and principals have rushed to sign up for free professional development courses run by City University in the run up to the summer break.
More than 2,500 teachers have registered for 43 'teacher update' courses on 'embracing change', designed to help teachers adapt to sweeping reforms and the new '3+3+4' academic structure to be introduced in 2009.
Kenneth Lo Wing-leung, co-ordinator of the university's teacher update course, said it was the largest number of teachers to apply for the courses since they began in 1998, up roughly 10 per cent from the 2,300 for last year's classes.
Dr Lo said the most popular courses were oversubscribed, while most were at least 85 per cent full. 'The most popular classes are those related to critical and creative thinking. We posted one course on our website in the morning and it was fully subscribed by noon.'
Other big draws were classes in handling change in teaching and learning, supporting curriculum change, understanding media culture and media education, and globalisation.
Angel Lin Meiyi, associate professor at Chinese University's Faculty of Education, said demand had been high for courses on language arts and liberal science. 'I think there is a lot of need for these types of courses,' Dr Lin said. 'Our summer camp and many of the workshops are fully booked.'
