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partnership’ for a ‘development partnership’ in which teachers and
external advisors reflect collaboratively, explore problems, and work out
solutions together. In this study, the forms of coaching and partnership
have yielded constructive progress towards a collaborative team culture
with teacher change in both beliefs and practices. It would thus be
easier for the teachers concerned to translate their learning and
experiences into pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987).

3. Knowledge construction requires Liberal Studies teachers to
engage in collaborative reflection on the basis of common
concerns and learn together within “communities of teachers as
learners” (Shulman & Shulman, 2004).

The effectiveness of teachers learning together within “communities of
teachers as learners” (Shulman & Shulman, 2004) has been well
documented in some recent educational literature (see, for example,
Tillema & Westhuizen, 2006; Zellermayer & Tabak, 2006). In their
assertion, collaborative reflection is an important means of bringing
about improvements in teaching. Shulman (1987) defines reflection as:

What a teacher does when he or she looks back at the teaching
and learning that has occurred, and reconstructs, then reenacts,
and/or recaptures the events, the emotions, and the
accomplishments. … Reflection is not merely a disposition … or a
set of strategies, but also the use of particular kinds of analytic
knowledge brought to bear on one’s work. (p.19)

A recent literature of Dimmock and Walker (2005) on learning and
teaching in diverse cultures reveals that teachers in Hong Kong lack
school‐based professional development practices engaged in by their
counterparts in other Asian countries. They, therefore, have less
opportunity to improve practices through collaborative reflection.
Findings from this study have therefore drawn attention to learning of

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