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Article published In:
10th Anniversary Celebration
Edited by Pádraig Ó Duibhir and Laurent Cammarata
[Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 10:2] 2022
► pp. 207–229

A continuum of teacher collaboration to enhance the effectiveness of bilingual education programmes

| The University of Hong Kong
| The University of Hong Kong
| The University of Hong Kong

Bilingual education programmes are characterised by the use of students’ second/foreign/additional language (L2) as the medium of instruction for content subjects. In many educational contexts, such programmes are implemented by content subject specialists who have not received sufficient training in helping students master content and L2 simultaneously. Professional development is therefore necessary for this group of teachers. One potential professional development model is promoting collaboration between content and L2 teachers in the same school. Previous studies have explored different forms of cross-curricular collaboration, teachers’ attitudes and factors affecting its effectiveness. This paper seeks to extend the current discussion by investigating different models of teacher collaboration, based on a multi-case study of secondary schools adopting English (L2) as the medium of instruction for some or all subjects in Hong Kong. With various sources of data and cross-case comparison, this paper conceptualises a continuum of teacher collaboration in bilingual education programmes.

Keywords: bilingual education, teacher collaboration, professional development
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Teacher collaboration in bilingual education
    • 1.2Factors influencing teacher collaboration
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Overall research design
    • 2.2Research setting, selection of cases and informants
    • 2.3Data collection
    • 2.4Data analysis
  • 3.Findings and discussion
    • 3.1Formal collaboration
      • 3.1.1Co-planning curriculum and teaching materials
      • 3.1.2Conducting lesson observations
      • 3.1.3Professional development (PD) opportunities
      • 3.1.4Informal collaboration among teachers
      • 3.1.5An English-rich environment with LAC/ English-related activities
      • 3.1.6The developmental stages of teacher collaboration
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.21022.lo
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