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Teachers attending a 5-week in-service retraining course completed a survey asking them to rate their current competencies and training needs in 24 variables (N = 210). Intuitively, teacher competencies and their perceived needs of retraining should be negatively correlated. However, the correlations between teacher competencies and perceived needs were found to be small and mostly not statistically significant. Teachers at various stages of their professional development were found to have varying competencies but they tended to have very similar needs. The results suggested that neither an analysis of the current teacher competencies nor that of their perceived needs alone would be adequate to guide the consideration of the contents of curriculum for in-service teachers. Instead, the teachers' current stage of professional development should be seriously considered in order to provide them with the most appropriate in-service training program. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study investigated Hong Kong elementary school teachers' and students' attitudes toward cooperative learning. Teachers from one school completed a two-part questionnaire. Part 1 asked for personal information. Part 2 had eight sections that discussed: organizational strategies used in the classroom; frequency of using classroom organizational strategies in four core subjects; the basis of grouping for small group work; group size; how group tasks were organized; social skills of working in groups; factors that might influence respondents' decisions to use various classroom organizational strategies; and examples of successful and unsuccessful use of group work in teaching. Four respondents also completed interviews after completing the questionnaire. Students from the same school responded in writing to a pair of cartoon pictures, discussing what they thought groups of children in pictures with and without teachers were saying. Results indicated that teachers' attitudes toward group work were generally positive. Relatively more teachers spent half of their teaching time in group work. Teachers had reservations about using group work because there were so many school restraints (e.g., class size and limited time). Not all teachers used heterogeneous grouping or taught group social skills. The childrens' drawings suggested that teachers being present did not affect the kinds of conversations children had. Children appeared to prefer group work. (Contains 58 references.) (SM)