Promoting Collaborative Learning Cultures to Help Teachers Support Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Fuk-chuen Ho, PhD, has been the programme coordinator of courses for teachers of students with special educational needs for more than 20 years. He was assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Counselling at the Education University of Hong Kong and associate professor (fractional) in the School of Arts and Humanities at Tung Wah College. He has been teaching in the areas of special/inclusive education in the university for over 30 years and has extensive experiences in managing teacher education programmes. His scholarly work has largely contributed to students with dyslexia and autism spectrum disorder and to their teachers. His research has been published in quality academic journals, including Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Teacher and Teaching Education, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Educational Psychology, British Journal of Special Education and Journal of Learning Disabilities.Cici Sze-Ching Lam, EdD, is a registered educational psychologist (Hong Kong Association of Education Psychologists). She is an honorary research associate at the Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education at the University of Hong Kong and former Senior Lecturer of the Department of Special Education and Counselling at the Education University of Hong Kong. She has had extensive experience in teaching and staff development in special/inclusive education in tertiary education. Her research interests are in the area of education for teaching professions in special and inclusive education, with a special interest in supporting inquiry approach to enhance experiential learning. She has been part of numerous large-scale research projects and has delivered training to parents and teachers for enhancing children's emotional and social skills. She served on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Curriculum Development Council Committee on Special Educational Needs and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority as an expert panel member.Michael Arthur-Kelly, as an Honorary (a Conjoint) Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia, is focusing his energies on international collaborations with colleagues in his field around the world, centred on inclusive evidence-based practices. He has conducted applied research in a range of areas in disability and special education including communication intervention for people with severe disability and staff training in managing challenging behaviour. He is internationally known for his research on behaviour state assessment protocols for people with multiple and severe disability. In 2009, with Professor Phil Foreman, he conducted an evaluation of educational programs for the Alice Betteridge School, part of the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, and in that year he also contributed to the Review of Special Education in the ACT, led by Professor Tony Shaddock. Throughout 2013-2019 he served as a Subject Area Expert with Price Waterhouse Coopers and Monash University in the federally funded analyses of Nationally Consistent Collection of Data about Students with Disabilities, a leading-edge project designed to assist in understanding the support needs of students with disabilities across and within school sectors in Australia.