- 18 views
The key jobs of academics in university are to create knowledge (research) and transfer knowledge (teaching); on-going professional development (PD) is essential to academics as it engages them into continuous cycles of learning. Academic preferences and disciplinary characteristics are identified as the two key factors that determine the nature of PD activities of academics. This study intends to explore the current trend of PD in the policies of higher education in Hong Kong and identify academics’ time engagement into PD activities with reference to their academic duties, interests and preferences, and their opinions on PD. Associate and assistant professors in the disciplines of Education and Social Science (soft and applied disciplines) will serve as sample. A survey and an interview will be conducted for the participants to report the time they spend on PD activities during a teaching semester and a non-teaching semester; their preferences for and interests in the type of PD activities, and their views regarding the support and constraints they perceive in different types of PD activities. Implications will be made to higher education institutions in proposing actual measures for fostering academics’ development, such as providing conditions through the allocation of assignment, timetabling, and other forms of support. It may also suggest ideas to policy makers of considering the diverse discipline nature in setting up university policies.
Principle Investigator:
Dr. LAM Bick Har