教师专业发展

Tung Wah College

Academic Staff Professional Development Programme

Overview

Tung Wah College (TWC or the College) is committed to providing high quality tertiary education to the community. As unequivocally asserted in the College’s Staff Handbook that staff members are its most important resource, the College considers that competent and motivated staff members are essential in achieving the objective of providing quality education. As a tertiary education institution striving to become a private university in the long run, TWC strongly encourages and attaches particular emphasis on staff development by which staff members are encouraged to develop their potentials in full via continuous learning.
Against the foregoing backdrop, TWC actualises its strong dedication to a fruitful working environment where professional learning is considered as a continuous process enabling its academic staff to develop their skills and enhance effectiveness in support of the College’s goals and priorities through implementation of the Academic Staff Professional Development Programme (ASPDP or the Programme). ASPDP is primarily defined as a process to expand the educators’ awareness of the various tasks they must undertake to contribute to the effective education of their students and the accomplishment of the College’s objectives, and those tasks encompassing the associated learning and teaching, research and scholarship, professional updating, administration and management.
The Programme should be read in conjunction with the College’s Regulations on Staff Development Support (the Regulations).

Principles

All full-time (including academic staff on fractional appointment) and part-time academic staff are expected to participate in professional development activities aimed at improving the College’s academic quality as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of its operation.
Participation in appropriate professional development activities should be regarded as an evidence of staff performance.
In the case that initiatives or events face limitations in resources, priority for appropriate professional development support should be accorded to full-time academic staff.
While professional development should primarily draw on the skills and knowledge of existing academic staff as much as possible, external experts are expected to be invited to share experiences and good practices in learning and teaching, where appropriate.
School Deans or their delegates are directly responsible, in consultation with each academic staff concerned, for the identification of development needs of their staff, and for ensuring that identified needs are addressed, to the extent practicable.

Aims and Objectives

To allow academic staff to take responsibility for their on-going professional learning;
To connect academic staff professional development with the College’s vision, mission and strategic goals;
To foster quality learning and teaching at the College;
To develop the knowledge, skills and attitude of academic staff so as to enable them to carry out their current and prospective roles more efficiently and effectively and gain greater job satisfaction;
To provide activities which further the professional and career development needs of academic staff identified;
To maintain and improve organisational effectiveness and efficiency;
To improve and develop the ability of staff to respond constructively to change; and
To develop a culture, which recognises that academic staff’s professional development is a continuous process and an evidence of staff performance, among academic staff at all levels, including individual staff members, supervisors and the College’s senior management, to have high level of commitment to improving performance on an on-going basis.

Responsibilities

Academic staff

In general, individual academic staff hold ultimate responsibility for the development and improvement of work-related competencies. Their active and purposeful participation assures the effectiveness of any professional development activity. All academic staff should be in support of professional development activities so as to maximise the benefits to both the College and individual staff members.
Although existing academic staff do not have a compulsory requirement of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours per year, academic staff of the medical and health disciplines are expected to undertake at least 2 weeks of clinical update per academic year. Therefore, timely updating of the professional development activities through the College’s Continuous Learning and Development Scheme (CLD) Record System should be ensured for effective monitoring,
Academic staff should keep their professional development records in the College’s CLD Record System, the Performance Appraisal Work Planning Sheet and Self-reporting Sheet, even though the participation records on the College’s supported activities and in-house learning and teaching seminars are kept by the Human Resources Office (HRO) and the Centre for Innovative Teaching & Learning (CITL) respectively.
Academic Staff Induction Programme (ASIP), comprises a total of 5 activities at the College and School levels. They are:

College-level Activities

1. Academic Staff Induction Course (ASIC);
2. Learning and Teaching Seminars (LTS);

School-level Activities

1. School Induction;
2. Mentoring Programme; and
3. Peer Review.
At the College level, there are two components, namely the Academic Staff Induction Course (ASIC) and Learning and Teaching Seminars (LTS).

Details are as follows:
1. ASIC consists of two components: (1) a face-to-face induction session, and (2) a 10-hour online self-learning course developed by the eTeaching Literacy project team, supported by the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS). The face-to-face induction session provides an overview of the College's educational philosophy and its distinctive approach to applied research education. Additionally, it covers the College's organizational structure, technology and teaching support systems, as well as the College's research initiatives and mechanisms for securing both internal and external funding. Moreover, the online course aims to provide basic pedagogical theories related to higher education and practical training on online teaching. A total of 5 units, namely Pedagogy Essentials, Blended Learning, Outcome-based Assessment, Collaborative Learning, and Instructional Design, are delivered to the newly joined full-time academic staff via Blackboard. Individual academic staff is required to obtain a pass (i.e. 70 marks or above) in an online self-assessment with 10 multiple choice questions, each of which carries 10 marks. Multiple attempts in the online self-assessment are allowed. After completion of the online self-assessment, individual staff member should capture a screenshot of the self-assessment result page and include it in the annual appraisal as evidence for the appraiser’s review. Newly appointed full-time academic staff are required to take part in the ASIC during their first year of service. This should be included in their first-year work plan for their performance appraisal, ensuring that the ASIC is completed within their initial year. However, those with extensive teaching experience in higher education may apply to their respective School Dean for an exemption from the online course component of the ASIC.
1. LTS for staff in higher education are essential for fostering continuous professional development and improving instructional effectiveness. These seminars typically feature expert-led presentations and workshops. They cover a wide array of themes, such as innovative teaching methodologies, integration of technology in the classroom, student engagement strategies, assessment and feedback techniques, and inclusive teaching practices. The primary aim of these seminars is to equip academic staff with the latest pedagogical tools and strategies, promote best practices in teaching, and ultimately enhance the overall quality of education provided to students. Academic staff are expected to participate in the Learning and Teaching Seminars (LTS) in accordance with their respective developmental stages, professional needs, and areas of interest. Academic staff need to update their attendance records of LTS in the College’s CLD Record System and include them in the annual appraisal exercise for the appraiser’s review, given that attending the LTS is one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the staff’s performance.
At the School level, School Deans and Programme Leaders are responsible for facilitating the continuous development of academic staff in their professional areas. Due to the different natures of learning programmes, there is no unified format or content for the induction activities of ASIP at the School level. Schools should organise their own induction activities for those newly joined full-time and part-time academic staff. Suitable activities are developed and implemented based on the features of the programmes offered by each School. However, there are three School-level induction activities under ASIP, namely School Induction, Mentorship Programme, and Peer Review, which are common across all Schools. Details of such activities are provided below:
1. School Induction should include but not be limited to the contents of (i) an overview of the College's educational philosophy and its distinctive approach to applied research education; (ii) an introduction of the respective Schools and the programmes offered, and (iii) a demonstration of the usage of systems, such as Blackboard, PowerCampus, Employee Self-Service (ESS) System, which individual staff member will use. School Dean or his/her delegate is responsible for conducting the School Induction, preferably on the first day of duty of the newly joined full-time and part-time staff depending on the practical situation.
1. Under the Mentorship Programme, a mentor is assigned to each newly joined full-time and part-time staff member by the School Dean or Programme Leader for facilitating him/her to assume the teaching role. Normally, the mentor will provide support to the mentee during the first year of the mentee’s service at the College.
1. Peer Review by means of class observation is an important quality assurance process being used to enhance and promote high quality teaching and to facilitate teachers’ professional development. All newly joined full-time and part-time academic staff with learning and teaching duties at Band 7 (i.e. Associate Professor) or below shall complete peer review. Serving academic staff might also need to undergo annual peer review, subject to the respective School Dean’s discretion.
1. All newly joined full-time and part-time academic staff at Band 7 (i.e. Associate Professor) or below should complete the School-level activities mentioned in paragraphs 22(a), 22(b) and 22(c) above within the first year of their service. Staff performance in such activities may be recorded in the staff’s probationary appraisal forms, given that satisfactory completion of such activities is one of the KPIs during the staff’s first year of service.

Professional Development Programme

Activities under the Professional Development Programme can be categorised into
1. Induction/orientation programme; and
2. CPD activities.
The CPD activities include but not limited to in-service/in-house training, unit/college sponsored programme, relevant learning and development programmes offered by other institutions, and self-arranged training & development. The following could also be deemed relevant:
1. Clinical consultation
2. Clinical update
3. Learning and teaching seminars organised by the CITL
4. Teaching Development Programme organised by the CITL
5. Research seminars organised by the Research Office (RO)
6. Networking (internally and externally)
7. Consulting experts
8. Personal research
9. Discussion with colleagues in the same and other academic units
10. Being mentor and mentee
11. Supported colleagues to develop their teaching
12. Read books/articles or web-based information on learning and teaching
13. Being an active member of external professional bodies
14. Peer observation and reflection.

(Approved at the 56th meeting of the AB held on 27 February 2019)
(Inclusion of ASIP into the ASPDP discussed at the 74th meeting of the AB held on 29 September 2021)
(Revised version was approved at the 100^th meeting of the AB held on 30 April 2025)