MSS strives to develop a vibrant, empowering and professional learning community which fosters high quality teaching among our teachers . We are engaging in a wide array of professional development programmes at local and international levels to keep abreast of the latest development in education.

In terms of the professional development programmes at international level, MSS has been one of the six partner schools of the Catalyst Education Lab (CEL) which is a Hong Kong-based non-profit organization seeking to transform the education sector by facilitating professional development and change management. We are engaging in the following new initiatives to expose teachers to research-based pedagogy, cutting-edge innovations in local and international contexts.

J-WEL Week

Convening at MIT, educators from Hong Kong including the Principal and the teachers join a global learning community and are exposed to presentations, research briefs on the latest in learning science, curriculum, and pedagogy of MIT, hands-on exercises, interactive workshops on key education topics, facility tours and demonstrations. Our teachers have actively participated in the following J-WEL Weeks held in Boston and HK.

Compassionate Systems Framework

Facing the immense challenges by young people, the essential question for the future education is how do teachers help students to reflect on, deeply understand and respond mindfully and compassionately, creating a cognitive and affective community for global citizenship.  MSS has participated in the Compassionate Systems Framework co-developed by Peter Senge (renown MIT professor on organisational learning) and Mette Boell (specialist in evolution of social systems) since 2018. School leaders and teachers are exposed to Compassionate Systems Framework by participating in the 3-day Compassionate Systems Leadership experience in Jakarta in 2019 and a series of hands-on workshops. By joining the workshops, teachers learn and experience the Compassionate Systems tools, hear case examples about how compassionate Systems is brought to schools around the world, engage in panel discussions on the adoption in HK schools etc. 

Project Zero

Project Zero (PZ) is a renowned educational research centre at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with the mission to understand and enhance learning, thinking as well as creativity. MSS which is one of the eleven secondary schools in Hong Kong was recruited to join the three-year study entitled ‘Envisioning Innovation in Education". The research initiative is based on Three-part process for change including:

• Envision - Envision what innovative education for the future might look like

• Inquire-  Inquire about existing teaching and learning environments that successfully emphasize innovative approaches, build tools and case studies for supporting our teachers’ innovative capacities

• Innovate- Experiment with new approaches by pursuing innovative projects

Adopting a collaborative inquiry protocol, our teachers meet with the local and international educators regularly as a study group and also as a full learning community to systematically examine our practice and interventions, look collaboratively at documentation, provide mutual support, and strategize for next steps. In addition,  teachers join a wide variety of onsite, offsite and online interaction (e.g. workshops, interviews and classroom observation) organized by the PZ research team.

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Teachers’ Values Formation 

Responding to the great emphasis of values education at MSS, teachers are given different opportunities to learn the implementation of Values Education through the overseas tour and school visits. One of the highlights was the 5-day Teacher Formation Tour to Taiwan in 2019  to understand about the Ignatian school ethos and whole school approach to Life Education. Through the school visits, experimental sessions, sharing and  interflow with the educators, our teachers have learnt about how to cater for students’ diverse needs and different approaches to student formation. 

In terms of the professional development programme at local level, MSS is participating in the following programmes:

Jockey Club “Peace and Awareness” Mindfulness Culture in Schools Initiative

Practising mindfulness is a life skill helping students to face adversity in a positive manner.  MSS have been incorporating the Mindfulness course into S1 since the school year 2020-2021 to enhance the level of attentiveness and resilience of our students.  More than 1/6 of our teachers have completed the 8-week mindfulness foundation course led by the University of Hong Kong under the leadership of the Jockey Club “ Peace and Awareness” Mindfulness Culture in Schools Initiative.

In order to facilitate the mindfulness teaching sessions,  a few of the teaching staff have also taken the .b course, which is organized by the faculty of Social Science from the University of Hong Kong. This course is designed for adolescents (11 – 18 years old) by the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP), a charitable organization in the United Kingdom.

SEED Project

The SEED project is facilitated by the NET section of the EDB. MSS currently has 5 teachers who form the SEED project team and who work closely with coordinators from the EDB.

The SEED project has provided an opportunity for teachers to embrace innovation and explore new pedagogical approaches. Through regular co-planning meetings, teachers collaborate in designing meaningful activities to achieve the project aims. These meetings also offer a valuable opportunity for constructive feedback. Furthermore, regular project meetings are scheduled with the EDB facilitators, who frequently observe lessons and offer professional support and training for effectively teaching new thinking skills and using innovative pedagogical practices.  

The SEED project teachers coordinate different forms in the junior level and thus each has an area of expertise. Through these leadership opportunities, teachers offer support to one another and also serve to help train other teachers in the panel in using innovative practices. 

This collaborative energy has been the cornerstone of the success of the SEED project. Teachers are offered the support and resources to learn more about Maker Education and higher order thinking strategies, thus the project has continued to grow. Another key to our success is the habitual reflective practice which teachers engage in, allowing us to effectively analyse the progress of the project and its impact on our students. Through reflective practice, teachers are empowered with the ability to track the impact of their work and identify opportunities for growth and for collaboration. These skills truly encourage lifelong learning and a passion for education that burns fiercely year after year. 

CUHK Jockey Club AI for the Future Project 

In the digital age of the 21st century, technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing our world rapidly. To  empower our students’ innovation and enrich their knowledge about  AI and related technologies,  MSS has participated in the AI for the Future Project led by the experts of CUHK Faculties of Engineering and Education. The project not only engaged our teachers in pilot teaching and curriculum refinement, but various workshops, open classes and sharing sessions about the software toolkits for AI teaching, the programming of Python and the working principles of facial recognition.