On 31 October 2026, Dr Gary Cheng, Director of the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology (LTTC) of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), spoke at the 8th Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Academic Symposium on Teachers’ Professional Ethics, held at Zhuhai No. 1 Middle School in Zhuhai. The symposium brought together scholars, school leaders and teachers from the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao under the theme “Nurturing the Spirit of Educators and Building Long-term Mechanisms for Teachers’ Professional Ethics”.

Speaking at the parallel session on “Teacher Ethics and Digital Literacy in the Age of AI”, Dr Cheng presented a talk titled “Transparency as Virtue, Wise Use as Competence: EdUHK’s Exploration and Practice in AI Education”. He noted that AI raises two questions for teachers: a practical one about how to teach with AI, and an ethical one about what it means to be a teacher when AI can do much of the work. EdUHK’s response rests on two principles: AI use should be transparent, and AI literacy should be teachable, measurable and assessable.

Dr Cheng shared how EdUHK puts these principles into practice through university-wide guidelines, curriculum design and professional development for both student teachers and in-service teachers.

Looking ahead, Dr Cheng described how the teacher’s role is changing from tool user to co-pilot, and then to designer of learning and guardian of ethics. He proposed closer collaboration across the Greater Bay Area, including mapping AI literacy frameworks across the three places, sharing teaching cases and AI-use declaration templates, and running joint professional development and research.

The symposium provided a valuable platform for educators across the Greater Bay Area to exchange ideas on teachers’ professional ethics in the age of AI. Several EdUHK colleagues also shared their work in other parallel sessions and the closing roundtable.

Dr Gary Cheng with fellow speakers and participants at the symposium.

Dr Gary Cheng shares EdUHK’s approach to transparent and responsible use of AI in teacher education. 

Participants at the parallel session on “Teacher Ethics and Digital Literacy in the Age of AI”.