Making a Smooth Transition from College to Work: A Professional Development Project for Final-year Student-Teachers

Upon graduation, 90% of students from the Department of Education Studies (EDUC) enter the teaching field and become school teachers every year. Being adults as well as would-be teaching professionals, most full-time final year student-teachers face challenges in tracking, progressing and evidencing their professional development. Therefore, supporting their need for preparation for pre-service teacher portfolios in the final year of study is important for their career development. As would-be new school teachers upon graduation, they will also experience the complexities of the classroom and need to build confidence and competence in teaching practices. Creating a platform for sharing and networking will not only provide opportunities for fresh graduates (who work as school teachers) to seek and construct knowledge from their peers and more experienced teachers in their initial training and first year of teaching, but will also reinforce their personal and professional development as competent teachers.

Aiming at providing additional support to our final year student-teachers a better transition from college to work, a tailor-made project entitled “Enhancement of professional development of EDUC student-teachers,” was proposed by a group of teacher trainers in the Department of Education Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, and was granted by the Teaching Development Grant. The core components of this project include School Service Scheme, Induction Support Scheme and the development of students’ Professional Teaching Portfolio. Different components were evaluated by questionnaire survey and results indicated that the project had played an important role in enhancing professional development of student-teachers. Based on the results, some recommendations were made to further enhance student-teachers’ transition from college to school work.