Research Question Four: What factors determine effective NET deployment, utilisation, and integration in schools?

A majority (over 88%) of all stakeholders in schools (LET, NET, and School Heads) surveyed perceived that the NET was used, supported, and integrated effectively. The qualitative data revealed the specific qualities stakeholders felt are needed for successful NETs and attributes

schools. An overview of the qualities of effective and less effective NETs is provided first, followed by the most prominent findings related to NET deployment, utilisation, and integration.

CF18. Stakeholders mentioned qualities needed for an effective NET that included attributes that were personal (i.e., making relationships), attitudinal (i.e., being flexible), and professional (i.e., Western teaching experience).

Personal attributes of an effective NET

Enthusiastic about ideas... Okay... Yeah. Energetic.

(EPC interview) They need to love kids, like to talk to kids.

(EPC interview) Attitudinal attributes of an effective NET

Mentality. For example, if the NET is very open-minded, he can accept changes.

(LET focus group) Resourceful, friendly, adaptable, approachable, flexible

(LET focus group)

Professional attributes of an effective NET

Of course. She needs to be... understand the learning needs of the students. For example, for the primary students, because primary is different from the secondary students.... you have to understand the learning needs. Because they are very young, and you need to...

you need a lot of scaffolding. You need detailed scaffolding. I think this is very important for primary NET.

(EPC interview)

I think that he comes up with the activities that Hong Kong students seldom have experienced. He draws on western cultures. I think this is helpful to my students.

(LET focus group) I think, first of all, how deep the NET coming from a foreign country understands the mechanism of TESOL. His personality… I believe most NETs enjoy staying with children at school. But whether they could teach and the children could learn is another question.

Some NETs just go into the classroom singing a song and playing happily with the children. That’s all. This is my personal feeling. But on curriculum development, only experienced NETs have the expertise in helping to fine-tune the school-based curriculum. Of course a good heart is needed as well to help the school and foster development of the English subject. … So when it comes to questions like this, how to

deal with the English curriculum at the primary school is what we need to think about on the whole.

(SH Interview) Experienced Advisory Teachers who have worked closely with different NETs over a number of years had valuable insights as to the qualities that make for an effective NET. They mentioned a number of factors including the ability to engage in quality relationships, being an astute observer (including a willingness to listen to others), having a good attitude, being flexible, not being overbearing or wanting to change things too quickly, being able to ‘go into the situation and take everything in and go with the flow’ and having good knowledge and experience. There was a perception that NETs should have Western, rather than local, teaching experience and qualifications because this would help them introduce methods and approaches which might constitute innovations in the local context.

CF19. Stakeholders mentioned attributes found in less effective NETs that included aspects that were personal (i.e. lack of energy,), attitudinal (i.e., disrespect), and professional (i.e., lack of experience and training).

Personal attributes found in less effective NETs

She's like the teacher in the university. Just lack of... lack of energy. Um... a bit boring.

(EPC interview) They are not willing to do... Because we ask him/her to do some things. They are

counting... Why should I do that? Why should I? [awkward laugh] Okay, I should... I shouldn't do the... too many this of this or too many of that. That sort of thing.

(EPC interview)

Attitudinal attributes found in less effective NETs

Respondents in the case study interviews discussed instances in which the attitude of a NET towards their local colleagues had hampered effectiveness. These include relatively rare instances in which NETs failed to show appropriate respect for local colleagues, demonstrating a form of contempt for them and their teaching methods, and showing an unfortunate lack of respect for Chinese culture.

In the past we had a NET and he was quite self-centered. He didn’t accept any opinion from the other teachers and he got angry easily as well but, so it is really hard.

Basically, we would say, no communication. So he did his work, and we did our work, so the students didn’t learn much.

(EPC Interview) Professional attributes found in less effective NETs

The essential professional attributes of a NET, including relevant qualifications and experience, were raised by stakeholders in a number of interviews. Some respondents felt that the minimum

level of qualification and experience for a NET needed to be raised; however, the number of NETs with the minimum level of qualifications responding to the survey was rather small.

It does concern me that there are a lot of NETs being appointed who are not trained teachers. That comes down to the school choice because I mean I guess partly maybe they're not getting, maybe they're not always getting the applicants that are trained. [ . . . ] We're still talking about children whose education is on the line. I have real grave concerns about putting an untrained NET in the school.

(NET interview) Some NETs just go into the classroom singing a song and playing happily with the children. That’s all. This is my personal feeling. But on curriculum development, only experienced NETs have the expertise in helping to fine-tune the school-based curriculum.

(SH interview) CF20. Having teachers (both NETs and LETs) who are open and willing to learn from each other is vital to collaboration.

I think if a local teacher sees me using a certain strategy or activity of course, we all borrow from each other. If I see an activity, oh, that’s really working well, [I’ll borrow it] but I never saw myself as [the expert] you say one of the initial intents of the Scheme, because of the perceived or real lack of training [of LETs]. I’ve never seen that. So in my experience, my role has been to support the English panel and to provide very motivating, authentic learning activities and reading instruction for the kids and they really do enjoy it, they are really motivated and the same here and particularly with the English e-learning activities. So in my opinion, it’s going quite well.

(NET interview)

It really depends on whether the NET or LET is calculating, resistant to comments or feedback. If yes, then there will be conflicts. But so far the three NETs are quite nice and competent at interpersonal relationships. We haven’t encountered any problems of collaboration.

(SH interview) We are lucky that all NETs assigned so far are experienced. And the working attitude of a NET is also important. It is better to have a NET who does not consider him or herself an expert, but a collaborator to understand our situation. Hearsay is that many NETs consider themselves experts.

(EPC interview) I will tell the newcomer that the NET and I are good work partners. The NET is similar to a good mentor for me, and a friend as well. He will share with us, for example, his [children] and his family experiences, and then I will share my things with him. We share about life outside of work. Back to work, as I said, he is like a mentor in that he demonstrates his teaching skills in the classroom, which is educational to me as well.

Also, we are good work partners because we often collaborate to develop or adjust the curriculum.

(LET focus group)

I think some of the, maybe the more experienced [local] teachers maybe aren’t quite as open to the new ideas that we bring, but I think generally in this school, the teachers have been quite, quite good, quite open to taking on those new ideas.

(NET interview) I think number one is adaptability, must be one of the top three, because you have to integrate into the school, you have to integrate into the society.

(NET interview) CF21. Stakeholders did not all agree that experience was the highest priority for a NET. In one school, the English Panel Chair who had worked with three more experienced NETs in the past found experienced NETs tended to place LETs in an assistant role. Some ATs felt that enthusiasm could compensate for lack of experience in some NETs. Based on all the responses, it is fair to say that experience is important, but this needs to be coupled with a willingness to learn from others.

... last year the NET teacher was very experienced, so he got all the things he wanted to teach and he just informed us. And then we, when we came to the classroom, we attended classes, we just acted like an assistant rather than co-teaching.

[...]

It depends on how that person used. So based on my observations and understanding, when [comparing] … this NET with the previous three, I would say, I would choose this NET, the new NET. He’s comparatively young, he’s not got experience to be a NET, this is the first year who, he works as a formal NET, so that’s why I can see he tried his best to fit himself into the school, he personally initiates something, and then, or I should say he personally … suggests something he wants to try and I think that is good for students and I give him room to try that out, so if that teacher is very very experienced, I’m not saying that experienced teachers [are] no good, but the experienced teachers have their own way of thinking.

(EPC Interview) The alternative perspective of this EPC was reinforced in the views of some ATs. Although experience, openness and flexibility were viewed as clearly desirable qualities in a NET, as already noted, sometimes enthusiasm could compensate for lack of experience and even for relevant training. Young NETs who have the ‘desire and drive to learn’ can be a valuable resource for any school and, under the guidance of an AT and within the structure provided by the PLP-R/W, can develop quickly.

Perceived limitations regarding NET recruitment and deployment

CF22. Some stakeholders felt that schools that took the initiative to hire NETs independently of the EDB should be guided to make the right choice of teacher, in particular as far as pedagogical expertise and competence were concerned.

NET recruitment can be handled independently by the schools, or done through centralised EDB recruitment. NET Section personnel noted the need to help schools to make sensible hiring decisions, and to prioritise qualities such as professionalism, love of children and of education and of the classroom and to look for NETs who can serve as role models in terms of learning.

Concerns about NET recruitment were voiced by a small number of school-level personnel as reflected, for example, in the NET and EPC interview quotations which follow. These include perceptions that recruitment criteria allowed the hiring of NETs who were not subject trained.

Although as mentioned earlier, lack of experience and training can be seen as acceptable, especially if compensated by enthusiasm, it would impact the role of the NET in the school.

Recruiting a NET with relatively low levels of experience and qualifications might mean, for example, that local teachers were better qualified and had more relevant experience than the NET. As will be seen in discussion of RQ5, this can also impact collaboration. In addition, the level of support the AT would be required to provide for an inexperienced NET could be significantly increased. As one EPC noted, having a NET without relevant teacher training would also mean that the NET would have to be given time off to attend professional development and upgrading – normally conducted in evening courses in university campuses which might be a long distance from the primary school.

It does concern me that there are a lot of NETs being appointed who are not trained teachers. That comes down to the school choice because I mean I guess partly maybe they're not getting, maybe they're not always getting the applicants that are trained. I don't know. I know that in cases where they've had an applicant who's very experienced, like … they appointed a non-trained teacher. … Sometimes when they've got the choice for a trained teacher, they're not taking it. It's not like the school is paying the salary. It's coming from the EDB. … It's not like they're saving money by choosing someone who's on a low salary as opposed to a higher salary. I really don't know. It's happening a lot.

There are lots of non-trained teachers working as NETs.

(NET Interview) While the recruitment process has been improving in recent years, and the quality of NETs has been getting better, EDB should not hire unqualified NETs whose educational background is not relevant or those who have already retired. Unqualified NETs have to study for qualifications part-time which means they have to be released early from school so that they can attend their evening classes, which causes trouble for the school.

(EPC Interview) It should be noted, however, that the perception that ‘a lot of NETs’ are being appointed who are not trained teachers, is not borne out by the qualifications profile of NETs in our sample.

Some descriptive statistics of the qualifications of NETs and a comparison of qualifications of NETs and LETs are presented here. Figure 27 shows the highest qualification of NET and LET by certificate/degree and Table 23 shows the descriptive statistics of the highest qualifications

of NETs by Category 1-5 – the five categories for NET recruitment under the PNET Scheme.

For the analysis of subjective perception (e.g. agree-disagree) the results were adjusted by sampling weights, meaning that some participants spoke for more people in the under-sampled population segments whereas some participants represented fewer people in the over-sampled segments. However, for objective, factual data only the unweighted numbers were reported, meaning that the participants’ degrees or certificates are their own and did not represent anyone else’s qualification.

Figure 27. Highest qualification of NET and LET by cert/degree Legend

Category 1: Bachelor’s in English, Primary Education qualification, TEFL Certificate Category 2: Bachelor’s in any subject, Primary Education qualification, TEFL Certificate

Category 3: Bachelor’s in any subject, Teacher Education qualification, TEFL Certificate

Category 4: Bachelor’s in any subject, TEFL Certificate

Category 5: Teacher’s Certificate, and TEFL Certificate

Figure 28. NET qualification by Category 1-5

Table 23

Unweighted count and percentage of NET and LET highest qualification

Certificate* Bachelor Master Doctorate

Teacher Count Row % Count Row % Count Row % Count Row %

LET 22 5.26% 232 55.50% 152 36.36% 12 2.87%

NET 2 2.86% 38 54.29% 29 41.43% 1 1.43%

* See the caution below in comparing certificates.

Table 24

Unweighted count and percentage of NET’s highest qualification by category

NET qualification by category Count Percent

Category 1 (Bachelor’s in English, Primary Education qualification, TEFL

Certificate) 17 24.29%

Category 2 (Bachelor’s in any subject, Primary Education qualification, TEFL

Certificate) 27 38.57%

Category 3 (Bachelor’s in any subject, Teacher Education qualification, TEFL

Certificate) 9 12.86%

Category 4 (Bachelor’s in any subject, TEFL Certificate) 15 21.43%

Category 5 (Teacher’s Certificate, and TEFL Certificate) 2 2.86%

This analysis suggests that the qualifications of NETs and LETs are broadly comparable.

However, caution is needed in discussing ‘certificates’. The qualification ‘certificate’ is likely to refer to very different types of training – for LETs, it is most likely to refer to a two- or three-year ‘Teacher’s Certificate’ obtained from a College of Education, whereas for a NET it is most likely to refer to a 100-hour TEFL/TESL qualification.

The analysis shows that the proportion of NETs recruited in the lowest category – non-graduates with only a TEFL Certificate – is less than 3%. Assuming that the sample of teachers surveyed is truly representative of the population of all primary NETs, this would suggest that there are only around 12 or 13 Category 5 NETs in the whole of Hong Kong. On the other hand, the proportion of fully qualified NETs– i.e. holding a relevant degree and relevant teacher training – among those surveyed is less than 25%.

Additional insights on NET deployment, PD, and integration

The running of the induction programme for new NETs by the ATs (in previous years, the programme was contracted out) is appreciated by NETs who have taken part and who discussed induction in the interviews. Like centralised PD programmes, the induction provides an opportunity for NETs to develop social networks, enhance their professional skills and their preparedness for serving in the schools, and alerts them to the need for cultural sensitivity.

The programme is designed for NETs who have never had an EDB NET post before, and introduces them to the PNET Scheme and to classroom practices with a focus on how to manage classroom behaviour and how to foster collaboration in their school. Centralised PD sessions are also well-received, as reflected in both the internal NET Section evaluations and the views gathered in interviews and focus groups. These sessions involve a mix of NETs and local teachers which fosters both professional and social networking, helping NETs avoid feeling isolated and lonely in their schools.

4.4.3.5 Research Question Five: What factors foster and inhibit NET-LET