educational management administration & leadership-2015-lai-enacting teacher leadership

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Article

Enacting teacher leadership:The role of teachers in bringing

about change

Edith Lai and Derek Cheung

Abstract

This paper attempts to identify leadership practices and qualities of school teachers as they

engaged in effecting change initiated by a curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Based on interview dataof teachers from nine schools, this paper shows how teacher leadership manifested itself inschools. Three approaches to teacher leadership were identified, each delineating how teacherleaders approached the implementation task – as a compliance exercise, an adaptive exercise, or asa capacity building exercise. This paper confirms that different levels of teacher–leader engagementin professional enquiries constitute different teacher leadership practices, which have differentialimpacts on teaching and learning practices and the effectiveness of school improvement efforts.Implications for developing teacher leadership in schools are discussed.

Keywords

Teacher leadership, curriculum reform, secondary school, Hong Kong

Introduction

Conventional understanding of school leadership has perceived the role of the principal to be the

primary source of educational expertise and the leadership function in the school to be residing

primarily with the principal. In recent years, there has been a change in leadership thinking from

an emphasis on one-person leadership to recognition of the potential of shared leadership

(Fletcher and Käufer, 2003; Jackson, 2000; Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2009; Lambert,

2002; Marks and Printy, 2003). In school organizations, one of the manifestations of shared lead-ership is the development of teacher leadership (Muijs and Harris, 2003). There has been an

increasing recognition that the well of teacher talents provides a powerful knowledge base for

driving change and bringing about improvement in schools (Fullan, 2007; Murphy, 2005).

Since the 1980s, teachers have been consistently expected to take on the role of leaders in

educational improvement (Lieberman and Friedrich, 2010; York-Barr and Duke, 2004).

Corresponding author:

Edith Lai, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.Email: [email protected]

Educational Management

Administration & Leadership

2015, Vol. 43(5) 673–692ª The Author(s) 2014

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DOI: 10.1177/1741143214535742

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In Hong Kong, the most recent reform of the senior secondary curriculum has been an important

priority in the educational development of the territory (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2005).

Implemented in 2009, the new senior secondary curriculum aims to provide a broad, balanced and

diversified curriculum to promote students’ whole-person development and to develop their lifelong

learning capabilities. The changes are unprecedented and wide-scale, spanning across all key learn-ing areas, and they are likely to affect learning and teaching and the organizational conditions of

schools in a profound manner. The reform initiatives call for teachers’ active participation and col-

laboration in making curricular and pedagogical decisions to provide quality learning for students.

Review of the teacher leadership literature shows that little is known about how teacher leadership

manifests itself in action (Muijs and Harris, 2006). In particular, such investigation is scarce in Asian

societies. Only a few studies on teacher leadership have been undertaken locally (e.g. Law et al.,

2007, 2010). This gap in the research leads to the focus of this paper, which sets out to examine how

teacher leaders interact with other teachers around curricular and pedagogical problems in profes-

sional enquiries to bring about change in schools, and to characterize different levels of teacher–

leader engagement in professional enquiries. These objectives are researched in terms of twoquestions: ‘how do teacher leaders interact with other teachers around curricular and pedagogical

problems in professional enquiries to implement the new senior secondary curriculum?’ and ‘what

are the different levels of teacher–leader engagement in such professional enquiries?’ In addres-

sing the above questions, this paper argues that different levels of teacher–leader engagement in

professional enquiries constitute different teacher leadership practices, which will have differential

impacts on teaching and learning practices and the effectiveness of school improvement efforts.

This paper contributes to the literature by advancing a typology of teacher leadership approaches,

which will stimulate local and international discussions on thinking about teacher leadership.

Theoretical contexts

Teacher leadership is not a new concept. Teachers have long been considered leaders in class-

rooms, where they enjoy high levels of autonomy in making instructional decisions and initiating

activities. In recent years, new understandings of teacher leadership captured in the idea of ‘teacher

leadership beyond the classroom’ have gained prominence. It is generally believed that education

reform initiatives of the 1980s, which called for teachers’ active participation in school develop-

ment and governance, have been nurturing grounds for an expanded view of teacher leadership

(Murphy, 2005; York-Barr and Duke, 2004). The shift of emphasis from teacher leadership within

the classroom to teacher leadership beyond the classroom suggests that teacher leadership roles are

no longer confined within classroom walls, and that teacher expertise has been increasingly recog-nized as an important part of schools’ collective power that should be more fully capitalized on to

bring about educational improvement.

A review of the teacher leadership literature shows that there is a lack of a clear, agreed-upon

definition of teacher leadership. Based on a review of studies that examine teacher leadership (see

the collection of studies in York-Barr and Duke (2004)), York-Barr and Duke (2004: 287–288) put

forward an integrated definition of teacher leadership as ‘the process by which teachers, individu-

ally or collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of school commu-

nities to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and

achievement’. This definition highlights important facets of the concept.

First, teacher leadership can be individually or collectively based. This property is in line withthe distinction made between formal and informal teacher leadership in the literature (e.g. Danielson,

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2007; Muijs and Harris, 2007; Murphy, 2005; York-Barr and Duke, 2004). The general thrust of

various authors’ distinctions has been to conceptualize formal teacher leadership as role-based

and informal teacher leadership as community-based (Murphy, 2005). More specifically, formal

teacher leaders gain their legitimacy through assigned roles or positions (e.g. department chairs,

team leaders, mentor teachers), whereas informal teacher leaders gain their influence through earningrespect from students and colleagues through their expertise and practice (e.g. teachers taking the

initiative to solve instructional problems, model new instructional strategies or articulate visions for

improvement). Murphy (2005) highlighted formal teacher leadership as a planned, competitive

and individualistic enterprise focusing predominantly on administrative activities and managerial

functions; and informal teacher leadership as an emergent, collaborative and collective enterprise

focusing predominantly on issues related to learning and teaching.

Second, teacher leadership is transformational in nature. Burns (1978) distinguished between a

‘transactional’ approach and a ‘transformational’ approach to leadership. Transactional leadership

focuses on maintaining the school’s systems and structures to attain effectiveness, whereas transforma-

tional leadership focuses on changing the culture of the school and developing its capacity to innovateto bring about school improvement (Day et al., 2000). In practice, teacher leaders aim at improving

theinstructional andcultural environments of schools throughinspiring othersin the school community

to work in professional collaborative relationships to improve teaching and learning practices.

Third, teacher leadership functions in communities of practice. As Wenger (1998: 7) pointed

out, when people ‘congregate in virtual spaces and develop shared ways of pursuing their common

interests’, communities of practice come into being. When teachers lead, they engage colleagues

and other members of a school community in examining individual and collective teaching prac-

tices and the school’s programs and policies, and in making decisions with the aim of improved

educational practices and student learning (O’Hair and Reitzug, 1997). Such joint enquiries have

been found to be central to teacher leadership work (Lambert, 2002; Murphy, 2005).Fourth, teacher leadership supports school development at different levels. At the student level,

the ultimate goal of teacher leadership is to promote student learning, which is to be achieved

through improved teaching and learning practices. At the teacher level, teacher leadership has been

found to be closely linked to teacher development. Poekert (2012) found that teacher leadership is

both a cause and outcome of teacher development. More specifically, development of teacher lead-

ership requires effective teacher development, and teacher leadership creates opportunities for

teacher learning and development for both teacher leaders and their colleagues. At the school level,

the collective fund of improved teacher knowledge, skills and dispositions constitutes the school’s

overall capacity. York-Barr and Duke (2004) described similar development foci of teacher lead-

ership work, namely individual development, collaboration or team development, and organiza-tional development. Muijs and Harris (2003) reviewed research studies investigating the

relationship between teacher leadership and student, teacher and other school outcomes, and con-

cluded that evidence from the literature points towards beneficial effects of teacher leadership on

students, teachers and schools (see the collection of studies in Muijs and Harris (2003)).

Conceptualizations of teacher leadership

The area of teacher leadership has attracted a growing amount of research interest since the 1980s.

An important part of the research effort has been to establish concepts or models to delineate the

salient features of teacher leadership (e.g. Crowther et al., 2009; Hunzicker, 2012; Law et al., 2010;Moller and Katzenmeyer, 1996; Muijs and Harris, 2007).

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One of the early conceptualizations of teacher leadership was put forward by Moller and Katzen-

meyer (1996: 5), who pointed out that teachers assume leadership responsibilities, ‘when they interact

with other adults in the school community around school reform efforts, encourage others to improve

their professional practice, or learn together with their school colleagues.’ In the ‘Teachers as Leaders

Framework’ proposed by Crowther et al. (2009), teacher leadership work comprises six elements: (1)conveying conviction about a better world; (2) facilitating communities of learning; (3) striving for

pedagogical excellence; (4) confronting barriers in the school’s culture and structures; (5) translating

ideas into sustainable systems of action; and (6) nurturing a culture of success. These six elements,

together with 16 associated descriptors, are intended to capture how teacher leaders exercise influence

in their school communities. In a study aimed at illuminating the different ways in which teacher lead-

ership manifests itself in schools, Muijs and Harris (2007: 113) operationalized teacher leadership as

‘increased teacher participation in decision-making, and opportunities for teachers to take initiative

and lead school improvement’. Further, in a study on how teachers learn to exercise informal leader-

shipin the schools anddistricts where they work, Hunzicker (2012)developeda conceptualframework

for studying informal teacher leadership based on Danielson’s (2007) framework for teaching. In thisframework, informal teacher leadership is described by three components, namely participating in a

professional community, growing and developing professionally, and showing professionalism, and

their respective associated elements. Locally, Law et al. (2010) identified the key characteristics of

effective teacher leadership development activities, which highlight the important qualities of teacher

leadership work as: (1) being problem-based, focusing on student learning enhancement; (2) taking

place in learning-centred communities where members learn through interaction as equals, collabora-

tion and participation in decision-making processes; (3) involving social interaction that is open and

reflective in nature; (4) enquiry-based; and (5) aimed at bringing about sustained cultural change and

lifelong learning.

Taken together, the above conceptualizations suggest that teacher leadership consists of threemajor acts, namely teacher participation in educational improvement endeavours, teacher learning

in communities of practice and teacher influence beyond the classroom. Based on the five concep-

tualizations of teacher leadership described above, the act of participating in educational improve-

ment endeavours can be understood as comprising practices such as: interacting with other school

members around school reform efforts, striving for pedagogical excellence, confronting barriers in

the school’s culture and structures, translating ideas into actions, participating in decision-making,

taking the initiative and leading school improvement. The act of learning together in communities

of practice comprises practices such as learning together with colleagues, collaborating with col-

leagues, facilitating communities of learning, growing and developing professionally and being

enquiry-based. The act of extending influence beyond the classroom comprises practices suchas encouraging others to improve their professional practice, nurturing a culture of success and

demonstrating professionalism.

What is it about the activities identified above that constitutes leadership rather than collabora-

tive development activities in which teachers have long participated, such as curriculum develop-

ment activities in which teachers work collaboratively to develop school-based subject curricula?

In a recent review of the teacher leadership literature, Muijs and Harris (2003: 439) found ‘empow-

erment’ and ‘agency’ to be at the core of the concept of teacher leadership.

The conceptualization of teacher leadership as teacherempowermenthasbeenfrequently highlighted

in the literature (e.g. Boles and Troen, 1996; Childs-Bowen et al., 2000; Danielson, 2006; Kahrs, 1996;

Lieberman and Friedrich, 2010). Pearce and Conger (2003) contended that empowerment, whichemphasizes thedecentralization of power, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for thedevelopment





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of shared leadership and that, for shared leadership to happen, it also requires that the empowered indi-

viduals or collectives be actively engaged in the leadership process. Teacher empowerment entails the

sharing of power by principals with their schools’ teachers, which gives teachers legitimacy to take on

leadership roles and to participate in the leadershipprocess, such as initiating new practices and mobiliz-

ing other teachers to join them with the goal of improved teaching and learning practices.The concept of human agency has been widely discussed in the literature (Campbell, 2012;

Priestley et al., 2012). According to Campbell (2012: 183), ‘the state of agency enables individuals

to make free or independent choices, to engage in autonomous actions, and to exercise judgment in

theinterests of others andoneself’. In terms of capacity for agency, teacherleaders can be distinguished

from other teachers by their display of high capacity for agency in particular situations. Two notable

examples of teacher leaders’ agentic activities are taking decisions and initiating activities, which are

central to the operational definition of teacher leadership put forward by Muijs and Harris (2007).

Taken further, teacher leaders’ capacity for agency is in part constituted by their expertise or knowl-

edge. Many writers of teacher leadership have characterized teacher leaders as ‘expert teachers’ or

‘accomplished teachers’ (e.g. Crowther et al., 2009; Muijs and Harris, 2003). Tsui (2009) found thatexpert teachers engage in exploration and experimentation in teaching and learning, in problematizing

the unproblematic, and in tasks that challenge teachers to extend their competence.

Empowerment and agency are two distinctive qualities of teacher leadership, which distinguish

teacher leadership activities from teacher collaborative development activities.

A major review of teacher leadership research shows that studies have largely focused on charac-

teristics of teacher leaders, the type of work they do and conditions that support their work; and that

leadership from formal teacher leadership positions has received most research attention (see the col-

lection of studies in York-Barr and Duke, 2004). A more recent review of teacher leadership research

undertaken by Poekert (2012) echoes most of the findings reported in the York-Barr and Duke (2004)

review. An important focus in existing teacher leadership research has been to fill the knowledge gap inhow teacher leaders exercise leadership to make an impact on teaching and learning practices.

Against this background, this paper is contextualized within the informal type of teacher leader-

ship, focusing on how classroom teachers enact leadership through interacting with other teachers

around curricular and pedagogical problems in professional enquiries in the process of implementing

a new curriculum in schools. This paper contributes to the literature by providing evidence of teacher

leadership in action and suggesting a typology of teacher leadership practices in schools. The find-

ings provide further suggestions for capitalizing on teacher resources in a context of change.

Enquiring into teachers’ leadership practicesResearch setting

This study was part of a larger-scale study that investigated the implementation of the new senior

secondary curriculum in schools and its impact on students, teachers and schools. The larger study

began in the 2009–2010 school year in the context of the first-year implementation of the new

senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong, and drew on data collected over 18 months from a

questionnaire survey, interviews and analysis of curriculum and school documents. For the purpose

of this paper, the authors focus on data collected from nine focus group interviews with teachers

from nine secondary schools who had accepted an invitation from the research team to participate

in the interviews. These teachers were nominated by their schools because they had demonstrated ahigh level of participation in the implementation process.





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Data collection

A focus group interview is ‘an interview with a small group of people on a specific topic’ (Patton,

2002: 385). Punch (2005) described a focus group interview as a particular type of group interview.

Focus group interviews are distinguished from group interviews by their nature of being focused.

Patton (2002: 388) pointed out that ‘the power of focus groups resides in their being focused’.

More specifically, in focus group interviews the topics being discussed are specific and narrowly

targeted, the participants have similar backgrounds, the researchers’ facilitation is directed to keep-

ing responses on-target, the interactions among participants take place around specific topics and

the use of time is carefully monitored (Patton, 2002).

Focus group interviews were adopted to collect the practices of teacher leaders as they interacted

with other teachers around curricular and pedagogical problems in professional enquiries to bring

about change. Focus group interviews are an effective means of understanding peoples’ thoughts, per-

ceptions and meanings. Conducted in group situations, focus group interviews ‘afford the opportunity

for multiple interactions among all participants in the group’ (Krueger, 1994: 100), which ‘can stimu-

late people in making explicit their views, perceptions, motives and reasons’ (Punch, 2005: 171) and

enhance data quality through checks and balances provided by the participants on each other (Patton,

2002). The object is to gain a rich description of teachers’ leadership practices and an in-depth under-

standing of teachers’ thoughts, perceptions and meanings underpinning their leadership work.

In each school, participating teachers attended a focus group interview to have a focused and in-

depth discussion of their leadership work. These interviews took place in the second semester of

the first-year implementation of the new senior secondary curriculum when schools had gone

through the first eight months of the implementation process. The structure of the interview was

given by the following themes: curriculum planning, learning and teaching strategies, catering for

learner diversity, internal assessment strategies, managing change, student learning in the new

senior secondary curriculum and critical issues, schools’ needs and concerns.

Before beginning each interview, the interviewer explained clearly to the participants that the

interview was not evaluative and that the aim was to find out what teachers did to help other teach-

ers improve teaching and learning practices to bring about change in schools. During the inter-

views, the participants were very often asked to clarify their answers, to give the interviewer a

deeper understanding of teachers’ leadership practices. All interviews lasted more than one hour.

They were audio-taped and later transcribed.

Data analysis

Data were analysed using the Miles and Huberman framework for qualitative data analysis (Miles

and Huberman, 1994). The authors engaged in three concurrent activities that constantly interacted

with each other to shape the data analysis: data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing.

This study investigates the leadership practices of informal teacher leaders. These teacher lead-

ers are classroom teachers who do not hold formal positional roles, yet on their own initiative they

work with colleagues to respond to school needs or opportunities for improving teaching and learn-

ing (Danielson, 2006). A synthesized view of teacher leadership, based on the work of Moller and

Katzenmeyer (1996), Crowther et al. (2009), Muijs and Harris (2007), Danielson (2007) and Law

et al. (2010), which encompasses the three major acts of teacher leadership (namely participating

in educational improvement endeavours, learning together in communities of practice and extend-ing influence beyond the classroom), was brought in as a sensitizer to inform the data analysis. In





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addition, Muijs and Harris’ (2007: 115) operational definition of teacher leadership as ‘involve-

ment in decision making and ability to initiate activities’, which encompasses two major agentic

activities of teacher leaders, was brought in as a sensitizer in the data analysis.

Features of teacher leadership in action

Stones (1992) conceptualized teaching as a complex enterprise filled with problematic situations

and teachers as problem solvers trying to solve these teaching problems. In other words, teachers

need to act as enquirers, engaging themselves in first-hand investigation of their teaching prob-

lems. In the process, they draw on existing teacher knowledge, identify professional learning

needs, seek out and adapt new information, assess workability of their suggested solutions and

come up with a response to the teaching problem. In a context of curriculum reform, the complex-

ity of teaching problems is likely to be intensified. This section tries to address the question of how

teacher leaders interacted with other teachers around curricular and pedagogical problems in pro-

fessional enquiries to implement the new senior secondary curriculum, focusing on two areasfound to have caused most concerns in teachers.

Thefirst area of concernis school-based curriculumplanning. In Hong Kong the school curriculumis

basically centrally developed and handed down to schools for school-based adaptation and implemen-

tation within given curriculum frameworks that are jointly published by the Curriculum Develop-

ment Council and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. In curriculum change

and implementation, a major curricular problem facing teachers is to plan school-based subject

curricula with due consideration given to the centrally developed subject curriculum frameworks.

The second area of concern is catering for learner diversity. Learner diversity has long existed in

Hong Kong schools. The senior secondary curriculum reform has contributed to increased learner

diversity in senior secondary classrooms. First, the initiative of providing all students with threeyears of senior secondary education without an exit year in-between means that all students will

stay on for three years, no matter whether they are academically strong or weak, strongly motivated

or unmotivated. Second, the initiative of providing students with increased autonomy in deciding

their study programme by allowing them to choose elective subjects based on interests and prefer-

ences means that there will be a greater ability mix in elective subject classes. Thus, a major ped-

agogical problem facing teachers is to cater for students’ diverse learning needs.

Under a centralized curriculum development system, teachers are generally expected to operate as

passive implementing agents. Contrary to what is expected, the analysis of data shows that teachers

in different schools exercised leadership to accomplish the implementation tasks. Three teacher lead-

ership approaches are identified, namely complying, adapting and capacitating, each delineating how

teacher leaders participate in taking decisions and initiating activities, how they go about learning

and developing professionally, and how they work to help others improve professional practices. The

data presented below show how each teacher leadership approach manifested itself in terms of the

three major acts of teacher leadership (i.e. teacher participation, teacher learning and teacher influ-

ence), with a specific focus on the tasks of curriculum planning and catering for learner diversity.

Complying with external demands

Teacher participation: Curriculum planning

In school-based curriculum planning, teacher leaders strived to follow closely the new curriculumrequirements and procedures, as exemplified by the following two examples.





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In School 9, two teachers of the English Language subject team saw the need to develop school-

based schemes of work for the three elective modules (‘Learning English through Short Stories’,

‘Learning English through Social Issues’ and ‘Learning English through Workplace Communica-

tion’) to be offered. They took the initiative to attend professional development courses conducted

by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong SAR government on topics related to curriculum planning, pedagogy and assessment for the elective module ‘Learning English through Short Stories’. Based

on the materials they had collected from different sources, including textbooks from different pub-

lishers, they developed a preliminary scheme of work for the ‘Short Stories’ module. They pre-

sented the scheme of work to colleagues in the English Language subject team, received their

feedback, revised the scheme and made the revised version available to their colleagues. Through-

out the process, they emphasized that it was important to ‘follow closely the curriculum framework

laid down by the Education Bureau’.

In another example, in School 7, three teachers from the Chinese Language subject team recog-

nized the need to learn about the rationale, design principles and content of the three elective mod-

ules to be offered. They took the initiative to attend professional development courses conducted by the Education Bureau. On returning to their school, they held a meeting to share the information

with their colleagues who would be teaching elective modules and to make suggestions to them on

how to approach the elective modules in lesson planning and delivery. The three teachers empha-

sized the importance of following the official guidelines closely when designing and implementing

elective modules in the Chinese language.

In the face of change, teacher leaders tended to adhere to curriculum options found to be suit-

able or feasible, and chose to drop those found to be opposing this.

For example, in planning the elective module curriculum, a Biology teacher in School 1 saw the

constraints in offering students a free choice of elective modules, considering the availability of

teacher expertise and students’ ability levels. She took the initiative to study the curriculumrequirements of the four available elective modules (‘Human Physiology’, ‘Applied Ecology’,

‘Microorganism and Humans’ and ‘Biotechnology’). She proposed to the subject team that elective

module offering be bundled and that only ‘Human Physiology’ and ‘Applied Ecology’ be offered,

and the other two be dropped, as she found the contents of these modules more life-related and

students would find them easier to handle.

In another example, a Biology teacher in School 4 volunteered to look into the possibility of

offering the elective modules ‘Microorganism and Humans’ and ‘Biotechnology’. Based on a

rough calculation of the costs of setting up laboratories for these two modules, he suggested to the

subject team that it was not financially viable to do so.

It costs at least $100,000 to set up a microbiology laboratory. It is even more expensive to set up a bio-

technology lab where equipment will cost a few thousands to ten thousands. We cannot afford to buy a

full set of equipment for each student. (School 4, Biology Teacher)

Teacher participation: Catering for learner diversity

In classroom teaching, teacher leaders aimed to deliver the curriculum as planned and help students

meet the requirements of the new curriculum. It was found that when teacher leaders encountered

unsurpassable constraints in curriculum delivery, they would choose to give up on existing practices.

In School 1, a Liberal Studies teacher saw the need to trim down the curriculum content as hefound that the lesson time available would not be sufficient to cover all the topics and that students





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had difficulty following the packed curriculum. He initiated a discussion on the issue at a subject

team meeting and put forward his views. Diverse views were received at the meeting. While some

teachers shared his views, others were concerned that the content that was not covered would be

asked in the public examination. The issue was resolved by giving individual teachers the auton-

omy to decide whether to cover selected topics or all the topics.In School 9, a Liberal Studies teacher recognized that academically weak students had difficulty

applying what they had learned in research methods classes in developing research plans for their

Independent Enquiry Studies (IES) (a research component of the Liberal Studies curriculum) proj-

ects. This teacher raised the problem she had encountered in teaching IES with other IES teachers

and involved them in a discussion on how to address the problem. Collectively, these teachers

came to a decision that they would limit the teaching of research methods to a few common ones

to help students acquire basic research skills necessary for pursuing IES in the subject.

Teacher learning

Among these teacher leaders, attending professional development courses provided by the Educa-

tion Bureau was the dominant mode of teacher development. Generally, they expressed a view that

attending these government-run courses was ‘a must’ to understand the requirements and imple-

mentation procedures of their respective new senior secondary subject curricula.

Teacher influence

These teacher leaders were found to rely heavily on curricular and pedagogical guidance provided by external sources of expertise. This observation is supported by the following findings.

First, as mentioned earlier, these teacher leaders emphasized the importance of attending

government-run professional development courses, with the aim of understanding the official

version of the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the curriculum reform.

Second, these teacher leaders relied heavily on textbooks for curricular and pedagogical

guidance, as exemplified by the view expressed by a teacher leader from School 7.

The curriculum guide provides only a brief outline of contents. And then the textbooks from different

publishers are problematic. They show differential treatments of the contents. Some textbooks treat

some topics in much greater depth than others. In that case, we are not sure how far we should goin those topics or when we should stop. (School 7, Chinese History Teacher)

Third, these teacher leaders always made strong demands for straight answers from government

officials on what should be done and how things should be done in the implementation process, as

exemplified by the view expressed by a teacher leader from School 3.

People from the Education Bureau came to our school to demonstrate classroom teaching. We asked

them questions but they did not give us straight answers. Instead they told us to choose our own teach-

ing materials. I really find it ridiculous. Also, we asked them how to grade students’ work. They gave

us very vague answers. It seems they have not finalized the details before asking us to implement thechange. (School 3, Chemistry Teacher)





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Adopting a complying approach

The teacher leaders described above seemed to take the external demands as givens and focused

their efforts on satisfying the reform requirements in their practices. To implement the new curri-

culum, these teacher leaders were engaged in learning to get an understanding of the new curricu-

lum requirements and implementation procedures, and strived to follow closely the procedures laid

down by the education authority. In the face of unclearness or difficulties, these teacher leaders

resorted to external expertise for curricular and pedagogical guidance. There is evidence that these

teacher leaders were upset when they could not get straight answers from government officials or

when the education authority failed to provide clear instructions to schools. These teacher leader-

ship practices are characteristic of a complying approach, in which implementation work was

treated as a compliance exercise aimed at achieving an ‘objective alignment of external require-

ments’ (Honig and Hatch, 2004: 16).

Adapting current practices to accommodate reform requirements


In school-based curriculum planning, teacher leaders took the initiative to adjust the school con-

ditions by changing how the subject matter, time and people were organized to make an impact on

teaching and learning practices, and facilitate the delivery of the new curriculum.

First, teacher leaders changed the organization of the subject matter. For example, in School 1, a

student activity called ‘news forum’, involving an integration of the subject matter from two curricula

sharing common objectives, was initiated in Liberal Studies. The idea came initially from one Liberal

Studies teacher, who taught the weakest class in the school and found that he had tremendous difficulty

motivating his students to learn the subject. This teacher presented his idea to other Liberal Studiesteachers, and the ‘news forum’ activity gradually took shape as other teachers had the chance to give

their views and refine the idea. The activity served two purposes: first, to promote student learning in

Liberal Studies by heightening students’ awareness of current affairs and encouraging them to express

their views on social issues; and second, to help students fulfil the requirements of the Other Learning

Experiences programme (aimed at enabling students to acquire non-academic learning experiences).

The following excerpt shows how the ‘news forum’ activity was designed.

The news forum takes place during lunch time in the covered playground to encourage students to par-

ticipate in discussion around social issues. Sometimes, teachers will speak at the forum, while in other

times, we will invite students to speak on the stage. Other students will join the discussion on the floor.The activity is also part of students’ Other Learning Experiences (OLE) programme. We will count

their participation in the news forum activity towards their OLE time requirements. So far, the response

is good. Even students of weaker academic performance participate actively in the discussion, expres-

sing their views and even fighting for a chance to talk on the stage. (School 1, Liberal Studies Teacher).

Second, teacher leaders changed the organization of the timetable. For example, in School 5, a

Religious Education teacher saw the need to introduce experiential learning to students earlier in

their junior secondary studies to prepare them for further work in the subject at the senior second-

ary level. In doing so, she put forward students’ experiential learning experience.

Third, teacher leaders changed the organization of people. For example, in School 5, a Mathematicsteacher who taught two classes of very different ability levels felt strongly that students had to be





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screened before they could be admitted to advanced studies in the two elective modules. He proposed

to the subject team that only students who had attained good results in the general Mathematics curri-

culum could be allowed to enrol in the two elective modules. The proposed enrolment arrangement

was endorsed by teachers in the subject team and subsequently put in place in the school.


Likewise, in classroom teaching, teacher leaders initiated changes in the organization of subject

matter, time and people to facilitate student learning.

In terms of the organization of the subject matter, the most common practices to cater for learner

diversity were to differentiate between basic and extended learning content and to put in extra lear-

ner support to cater for the learning needs of less capable students. For example, in School 6, a

Liberal Studies teacher recognized that his Secondary 4 (first year of senior secondary education)

students generally had great difficulty producing substantial and coherent answers to essay ques-

tions that required demonstration of the use of multiple perspectives in analysing social issues and use of evidence in substantiating arguments. He raised this problem with other Liberal Studies

teachers and found that his problem was shared by others. In doing so, an individual teacher’s con-

cern was turned into a collective concern of the subject team. He shared with other teachers how he

had tackled the problem in his own class and suggested that a framework be established to help

students develop skills in answering essay questions. He suggested that in this framework,

prompts, such as ‘introduction’, ‘point of argument’, ‘evidence’, ‘rebuttal’ and ‘conclusion’, be

provided to help students structure their responses. These teachers also decided that more capable

students would be provided with more training in writing rebuttals in their responses. With some

refinement, the suggestion was adopted and practiced in all Secondary 4 Liberal Studies classes.

In terms of the organization of time, teacher leaders adjusted the time distribution between teacher-led and student-led activities to increase opportunities for student learning through participation. For

example, in School 2, a Liberal Studies teacher saw the need to raise students’ awareness of current

affairs and to train their analytical and presentation skills. She recognized the benefits of building

on what students had been doing in junior secondary Liberal Studies and proposed to the subject team

that a student activitycalled ‘news editorial’ be put in place as a regular part of senior secondary Liberal

Studies lessons. The ‘news editorial’ activity engaged students in reporting on a news item chosen by

themselves and presenting their views on the news item. Thesuggestion was supportedas a worthwhile

student activity and generally practiced in senior secondary Liberal Studies classes.

In terms of the organization of people, teacher leaders strived to provide increased opportunities for

students to learn through interaction with their peers. For example, in School 1, a Biology teacher wasconfronted with the pedagogical problem of having to conduct laboratory sessions for large classes of

mixed abilities and to attain fair assessment of students’ individual laboratory reports. He held a dis-

cussion of the problem with other Biologyteachers teaching at the senior secondary level. The problem

was shared by other teachers. Collectively, these teachers worked out a new arrangement in which stu-

dents worked in groups in laboratory sessions and there were different grouping methods to facilitate

learningof students of different ability levels.In Secondary4 (first year of senior secondary education),

teachers would help students form heterogeneous groups, each comprising students of high, middle

and low ability levels. This arrangement was intended to create learning environments in which each

student had a functional role and the more capable students could help the weaker ones learn better. In

Secondary 5 and Secondary 6 (second and third years of senior secondary education, respectively),students would form different groups in each laboratory session to make sure they had opportunities





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to work with different classmates. To make sure that students produced original work in their individ-

ual laboratory reports, teachers would pay close attention to the collaborative components in their

laboratory work, to guard against the possibility of plagiarism.

Teacher learning

Apart from enrolling in government-run professional development courses and postgraduate-level

courses offered by local universities, these teacher leaders learned through participating in commu-

nities of practice within their schools.

For example, in School 9, a teacher leader from the Liberal Studies subject team reported that

she and other teachers on the team attained mutual understanding through frequent exchanges

amongst themselves on views of Liberal Studies teaching, choice of social issues to be used in

teaching and ways of achieving standardized assessment practices. Another teacher leader from

the Chinese Language subject team found that the opportunity to engage in frequent exchanges

with other teachers on the team about problems encountered in teaching and areas in need of improvement, formally when they met in collaborative lesson planning sessions or informally dur-

ing school days, had helped her advance her professional knowledge and practices.

In another example, in School 4, a teacher leader from the Chinese Language subject team

shared what she had learned in external professional development courses with her team members

and offered her views on curriculum planning. Another teacher leader from the Liberal Studies

subject team reported that he had developed strong working relationships with other teachers on

the team and that he had learned through collaborating with others in planning lessons, developing

teaching materials and sharing teaching resources.

In a further example, in School 5, a teacher leader from the Chinese Language subject team

reported that she and other teachers had developed a strong team and they often worked together to find ways to help students deal with difficult content and to deal with problems caused by

increased workload and insufficient lesson time. Another teacher leader from the English Lan-

guage subject team reported that she had learned through collaborating with other teachers on the

team in planning lessons and developing teaching materials.

Teacher influence

These teacher leaders extended their influence beyond the classroom through teacher collaboration

that took place within schools. Teacher collaboration was most prominent at the subject level, in

which teachers of the same subjects worked collaboratively to plan their new senior secondary subject curricula, to standardize assessment practices, and to address the issue of increased learner

diversity. Through these joint activities, these teacher leaders interacted with fellow teachers to

identify and clarify their teaching problems, seek out information needed to deal with the prob-

lems, propose and implement solutions, evaluate implemented solutions, and come up with

improved responses to their teaching problems.

Adopting an adapting approach

The new senior secondary curriculum reform brought new challenges to teachers’ work, for example,

the need to accommodate a broad and diversified curriculum in a finite school timetable, new demandson teachers’ knowledge and skills, and increased learner diversity. Faced with these challenges, these





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teacher leaders tended to adjust curricular structures and pedagogical practices to facilitate student

learning and delivery of the new curriculum. These teacher leaders also recognized the value of learn-

ing through interaction in communities of practice, and they reached out to their colleagues in their

professional development efforts. There is evidence that these teacher leaders and other teachers

advanced their professional knowledge and practices when they interacted with each other in commu-nities of practice. In addition, it was found that teacher collaboration was a prominent feature. In such

joint activities, these teacher leaders and other teachers worked with, learned from, supported and

influenced each other to improve curricular and pedagogical practices. These teacher leadership prac-

tices are characteristic of an adapting approach, in which implementation work was treated as an adap-

tive exercise aimed at achieving the planned goals within existing structures and systems.

Capacitating the school for change


In response to new demands arising from curriculum reform, teacher leaders worked to explore and exploit possibilities in and around their school contexts to support curricular and pedagogical

improvement.

In school-based curriculum planning, teacher leaders looked out for possibilities within and beyond

their schools and tried to turn those possibilities into opportunities for curricular improvement.

For example, in School 6, a Physical Education teacher found that her school had not provided

sufficient support to students to enable them to develop a lifelong interest in sporting activities. She

perceived the possibility of achieving this objective through a new curricular initiative intended to

help students develop their own personalized sport programmes. She presented her idea to other

teachers in the Physical Education subject team, collected their views, refined the idea and invited

their support. The initiative aimed at developing each student’s lifelong interest in one sportingactivity and involved recruiting registered coaches to provide training to students in their sporting

activities of interest (e.g. table tennis, badminton). She put forward the suggestion to the school

management and negotiated for the provision of extra resources for recruitment, striving to turn

the possibility into an opportunity for integrating sport with the students’ personal development.

In another example, in School 5, a Religious Education teacher looked beyond the school walls to

explore external possibilities for enriching the school curriculum. She networked with a teacher from

another school to offer the subject, which would not have been offered due to low enrolment. They set

aside a block of three periods in one afternoon weekly for thirteen students from School 5 and students

fromthe networked school to study the subject in joint-school lessons. Apparently, these teachers from

two networked schools had perceived the possibilities of how students, teacher resources, teachingand learning activities, timetabling practice and physical space could be deployed in a different way, and

worked to turn these possibilities into opportunities for enriching the school curriculum.


Similarly, in pedagogical practices, teacher leaders explored and exploited internal and external

possibilities to support teaching and learning.

For example, in School 1, a Liberal Studies teacher had difficulty engaging his class of academically

weak students in issue-based enquiries, the subject’s main teaching and learning approach. He found

that his students needed more support during the learning process. He raised the problem in a subjectteam meeting and initiated a discussion of the possibility of having a second teacher assist in the





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teaching of weak classes. The subject team decided to put forward a proposal to the school management

on the arrangement of co-teaching to provide more learner support to classes of weaker students.

In another example, in five schools (Schools 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5), teachers saw the following prob-

lem: a lack of internal expertise tended to limit the offering of elective subjects. They took the ini-

tiative to explore with their schools the possibility of soliciting the assistance of external service providers in running classes, including drama classes for an elective module in English Language

and classes on examination-taking skills, thus increasing the opportunities for students to learn.

In a further example, teachers in four schools (Schools 1, 5, 6 and 9) perceived the problem of insuf-

ficient lesson time. They took the initiative to explore with other teachers the possibility of running

supplementary lessons after school, at weekends and during long holidays. In doing so, they worked

to extend the school day and school year to increase time resources for delivering the curriculum.

In the above examples, teacher leaders perceived possibilities in how human and time resources

could be re-deployed and turned those possibilities into valuable resources to support teaching and

learning.

Teacher learning

Apart from recognizing the powerful potential for advancing teacher learning brought by

teachers’ participation in communities of practice in their own school contexts, these teacher

leaders were notable for their efforts in seeking and exploiting external resources to support

teacher learning.

For example, in School 1, some Liberal Studies teachers found that they needed to equip

themselves with the knowledge and skills for implementing IES (which is intended to be a

self-directed experience for students). They took the initiative to participate in district work-shops, where they shared their school’s experience in implementing IES and listened to sharing

by Liberal Studies teachers from other schools in the district. They also participated in a simula-

tion activity in which they took on the role of students in formulating research questions and

developing research plans for their IES projects. These teachers found that the activity had given

them a first-hand experience in going through the major steps in doing IES projects, which

enabled them to see students’ difficulties in a different light. On returning to their school, these

teachers worked together to develop lesson plans for teaching IES based on their experience in

the district workshops. They tried out their plans in their own classrooms, made their plans avail-

able to other Liberal Studies teachers who had not attended the district workshops and encour-

aged them to try out the plans in their IES teaching, and invited teachers’ feedback for refiningthe plans. Through these exchanges that took place both inside and outside the school, these Lib-

eral Studies teacher leaders and other Liberal Studies teachers of the school developed a better

understanding of the implementation of IES.

In another example, in School 2, some Liberal Studies teachers found participation in school devel-

opment projects to be a venue for advancing professional knowledge and practices. They took the ini-

tiative to join a government-funded school-support project in which blocks of time were set aside for

these teachers to come together to plan the subject curriculum and to develop instructional plans and

materials collaboratively, with the support of external curriculum or subject specialists. During the

course of the project, these teachers presented to other Liberal Studies teachers for comment their

interim project outputs, which included curriculum plans and instructional plans and materials. Thefinal project outputs were also made available to teachers in the Liberal Studies subject team.





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Teacher influence

These teacher leaders extended their influence beyond their schools through networking with teach-

ers from other schools. In these extended professional networks, these teacher leaders and others

engaged in enquiries around common curricular and pedagogical problems to find improved

responses to these problems. For instance, the data show that Liberal Studies teachers had been gen-

erally concerned about the planning and delivery of IES. In Schools 1 and 2, these concerns provided

the driving force for Liberal Studies teacher leaders to join district professional networks, in which

they clarified the problems related to the implementation of IES, shared their own implementation

experiences and listened to others’ success experiences. In these extended professional networks,

teachers engaged in extensive exchanges of experiences, ideas and resources, and appropriated rel-

evant resources to formulate action plans to address problems in their own school contexts.

Adopting a capacitating approach

The teacher leaders described above were notable for their efforts in developing school capacity for the change. While such teacher leadership efforts were most prominent at the individual subject

level, these efforts in aggregate contributed to the development of the collective power of schools.

In response to challenges arising from the implementation process, these teacher leaders looked out

for possibilities in and around the school contexts that would open up opportunities for curricular

and pedagogical improvement, and worked to turn those possibilities into opportunities for

improvement. In addition, these teacher leaders recognized the powerful potential of collective

teacher learning and acting in wider communities of practice beyond schools. In these extended

communities of practice, these teacher leaders and other teachers contributed their intellectual and

personal resources and, at the same time, appropriated relevant resources from each other, in a pro-

cess to help each other advance professional knowledge and improve curricular and pedagogical practices. These teacher leadership practices are characteristic of a capacitating approach, in which

implementation work was treated as a capacity-building exercise aimed at strengthening different

kinds of school resources to enable the school to respond to new demands arising from the change.

Discussion

The analysis of data shows that teachers’ leadership practices can be captured in three approaches

that represent increasing sophistication in teachers’ participation in curricular and pedagogical

decision-making, their professional development efforts and their efforts in extending teacher influence for school improvement. Table 1 presents a summary of the characteristics of the three

teacher leadership approaches, which shows that the level of teacher–leader engagement in the

three major acts of teacher leadership (that is, teacher participation, teacher learning and teacher

influence) differs among the three approaches.

The typology of different teacher leadership approaches adds to the literature in two major ways.

First, the typology is based on a synthesized view of teacher leadership that tries to encompass

the components and elements of major conceptualizations of teacher leadership advanced in the

literature (including Crowther et al., 2009; Hunzicker, 2012; Moller and Katzenmeyer, 1996; Law

et al., 2010; Muijs and Harris, 2007). Using this synthesized view of teacher leadership as a the-

oretical lens, the present study generated findings that tend to extend our understanding of teacher leadership practices. For instance, a seldom discussed aspect of teacher participation was revealed





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in the analysis of data. By looking into the different ways in which teacher leaders participated in

educational improvement endeavours, the present study shows that capacitating teacher leaders

confronted contextual constraints by exploring and exploiting new possibilities in and around the

school contexts to support school improvement.

Second, the typology offers a different perspective on teacher leadership practices. In a recent

study on teacher leadership in action, Muijs and Harris (2007) examined the extent of teacher

involvement in decision-making and in initiating activities, and proposed three types of teacher

leadership. Developed teacher leadership is characterized by the involvement of all teachers indecision-making in the school and strong support for teacher initiative. In the school exhibiting

emergent teacher leadership, there is clear management support for teacher leadership and teacher

initiative, but the degree of teacher involvement in decision-making was limited, with decision-

making being made mainly at the senior management and middle-manager levels. In the school

exhibiting restricted teacher leadership, teacher leadership was supported as a concept but it was

not actually practised, with the leadership function residing primarily in the senior management

team. The present study differs by examining teacher leadership practices in a context of curricu-

lum change, focusing on what teacher leaders actually did to respond to demands arising from a

curriculum reform. The typology that represents increasing sophistication in teacher participation,

teacher learning and teacher influence offers a different perspective on teacher leadership in actionin a context of educational change, and forms the basis for developing an encompassing conceptual

framework for understanding teacher leadership practices.

Apart from the above, the typology carries a deeper theoretical meaning, which tends to echo

with Honig and Hatch’s (2004) notion of ‘coherence’. Honig and Hatch (2004) distinguished

between ‘objective’ and ‘interactive’ coherence, delineating a static and dynamic view of align-

ment between external requirements and school policies and practices in a context of education

policy change, respectively. These authors contended that the view of coherence as an objective

outcome is inadequate to address the problem of policy incoherence. The view of coherence as

an interactive process that requires multiple actors both internal and external to schools to work

in interaction ‘to continually ‘‘craft’’ or negotiate the fit between external demands and schools’own goals and strategies’ (Honig and Hatch, 2004: 17) offers a powerful conceptual framework

Table 1. A typology of teacher leadership approaches.

Complying approach Adapting approach Capacitating approach

Teacher

participation

Taking external demands as

givens and focusing onsatisfying reformrequirements in teachingand learning practices

Adjusting curricular structure

and pedagogical practices tofacilitate student learningand curriculum delivery

Exploring and exploiting

new possibilities tosupport curricular andpedagogicalimprovement

Teacherlearning

Engaging in understanding thenew curriculumrequirements andimplementation procedures

Advancing teacher learning incommunities of practicewithin schools

Extending teacher learningin communities of practice beyond schools

Teacherinfluence

Relying heavily on curricularand pedagogical guidanceprovided by externalsources of expertise

Collaborating with teacherswithin schools to improvecurricular and pedagogicalpractices

Forming extendedprofessional networks





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for understanding coherence. It takes into account the ‘political and subjective realities’ (Honig

and Hatch, 2004: 17) of policy implementation that involve the interaction of multiple actors both

internal and external to schools around the pursuit of some school improvement goals.

In the present study, complying teacher leadership practices that focus on meeting the reform

requirements and rely heavily on external guidance for curricular and pedagogical improvementexhibit characteristics of an objective view of alignment. In contrast, adapting and capacitating

teacher leadership practices exhibit characteristics of an interactive view of alignment. Teacher

leaders adopting the adapting approach make organizational changes to provide favourable school

conditions for student learning and the delivery of the new curriculum, and advance professional

knowledge and practices in communities of practice within the school. The capacitating approach

is distinguished by teacher leaders’ strong initiative to explore and exploit contextual possibilities

within and beyond the school to support curricular and pedagogical improvement and their engage-

ment in learning in wider communities of practices beyond the school. In both the adapting and

capacitating approaches, there is evidence that teacher leaders interacted with the school’s organi-

zational structures, shared values and expectations, and principles of organizing knowledge toshape the alignment between external demands and the school’s internal circumstances. Appar-

ently, interactive teacher leadership practices are more likely to provide a facilitative organiza-

tional context for implementing educational change and achieving school improvement goals.

Conclusions and implications for developing efficacious teacher

leadership in schools

The shift from objective to interactive teacher leadership practices entails maximizing opportuni-

ties for teachers to participate, to learn and to influence.At the core of teacher participation are opportunities for teachers to make decisions on curricular

and pedagogical practices. In the present study, both adapting and capacitating teacher leaders

showed a strong initiative to negotiate with the school contexts to provide facilitative school condi-

tions for improving teaching and learning practices. To develop teachers as decision makers and pro-

mote teachers’ participation in decision-making, principals need to share decision-making authority

with teachers, encourage and support the development of a collaborative culture in schools, reshape

organizational structures supporting the practice of teachers as decision makers, and provide

resources (including time and funds) for teachers to carry out their decision-making responsibilities.

At the core of teacher learning are opportunities for teachers to address their learning needs aris-

ing from particular contexts of teaching in which these teachers are situated, in communities of practice. In the present study, both adapting and capacitating teacher leaders advanced their pro-

fessional knowledge and practices in communities of practice in which these teachers were situ-

ated. The growth model of teacher development (e.g. Clark and Hollingsworth, 2002; Darling-

Hammond, 1998; Fullan, 2007) provides further insights into teacher development efforts in

schools, which have great potential for releasing teacher talents and teacher leadership capacity.

The growth model emphasizes learning in context and teachers’ professional growth as a product

of the interaction between the teachers and the context of their working environment. Over the past

decade, research in educational change has paid increasing attention to the importance of teacher

learning through purposeful interaction in professional learning communities as one way to bring

about continuous school improvement (e.g. Dufour et al., 2006; McLaughlin and Talbert, 2001;Stoll et al., 2006).





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At the core of teacher influence is the recognition that teachers’ intellectual and personal

resources have a unique position in the development of school capacity. Opportunities for teachers

to release their talents and leadership capacity develop the school’s capacity to innovate. Murphy

(2005) identified four major elements of communities of practice (namely opportunities for teachers

to co-plan activities, share knowledge and discuss openly, solve problems cooperatively and shareinformation), which will contribute to teacher development and the development of shared owner-

ship of school reform efforts and collective responsibility towards the achievement of reform goals.

These two outcomes are foundational to the development of teacher influence beyond the classroom.

In view of the great potential of teacher collaboration in communities of practice for teacher learning

and growth, there is a critical need for the creation of systematic, context-sensitive programmes

aimed at supporting teacher learning and acting in communities of practice in schools.

To conclude, the present study reveals the leadership practices and qualities of school

teachers as they engaged in effecting change initiated by a curriculum reform in Hong Kong.

The findings show that teacher leadership practices that are collectively based, aimed at

improving the school’s instructional and cultural environments, functioning in communitiesof practice, and aimed at supporting school development at different levels (the student,

teacher and school levels) should provide a facilitative organizational context for the imple-

mentation of educational change.

The findings of the present study raise further questions, such as: What are the factors explain-

ing the differential manifestations of teacher leadership? What are the contextual conditions that

support the occurrence of complying, adapting and capacitating approaches to teacher leadership?

How does teacher leadership function in communities of practice to bring about improved educa-

tional practices and student learning? How do teachers find their preparedness to take on the role of

teacher leaders? The authors look forward to seeing these questions addressed.

Acknowledgments

The research reported in this study was supported by a grant from the Education Bureau of Hong Kong SAR

government. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the

authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Education Bureau.

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Author biographies

Edith Lai is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of

Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interest focuses on teacher

leadership, teacher learning, mentoring, and curriculum change and implementation.

Derek Cheung is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Educa-

tion, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interest focuses on curriculum develop-

ment, science education and measurement of affective learning outcomes.


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