Home-school collaboration can bring numerous benefits to children, teachers and families. One of the major responsibilities of early childhood teachers nowadays, therefore, is to collaborate with families and involve them in their children’s education. However, not all pre-service teachers demonstrate high levels of willingness and readiness to do so. The present study aims to identify the character strengths and parent-related perceptions associated with pre-service early childhood teachers’ positive attitudes towards collaboration with families and confidence in implementing home-school collaboration activities. A total of 250 pre-service early childhood teachers were recruited from a university in Hong Kong and surveyed. Results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that after controlling for the year of study in the teacher education programme (as a proxy of professional knowledge), pre-service teachers’ character strength of judgment, perception of parents’ responsibilities in children’s education and perception of parents’ trust towards kindergarten teachers were significant correlates of their attitudes towards collaboration with families. Meanwhile, pre-service teachers’ character strength of judgment, character strength of social intelligence, perception of parents’ parenting competence, perception of parents’ trust towards kindergarten teachers were significant correlates of their confidence in implementing home-school collaboration activities. These findings suggest that in order to better prepare pre-service teachers to collaborate with families, it is important for teacher educators to help them develop positive perceptions about parents, an attitude of openness to diverse perspectives, and the skills of responding to others’ feelings in caring ways in different social situations. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

Young children are naturally curious about sexuality. It is thus imperative to implement sexuality education as early as in kindergarten. Currently, little is known about pre-service kindergarten teachers’ attitudes towards sexuality education. This study fills in the research gap by investigating Hong Kong pre-service kindergarten teachers’ approach to handling children’s sexuality-related behaviours and its correlates. Two hundred and forty-five students were recruited from a local pre-service kindergarten teacher training programme to complete a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics suggested that some pre-service teachers were unlikely to use an accepting and open discussion approach to handle children’s sexuality-related behaviours. Repeated measures analysis further revealed that pre-service teachers tended to use an accepting and open discussion approach when children displayed gender-typed play behaviours and showed curiosity towards pregnancy and birth. The prohibitive and punitive approach was more likely to be adopted when children showed curiosity towards sexual behaviours. Bivariate correlation analysis showed that the inclination to use an accepting and open discussion approach was positively correlated with the perceived levels of benefits of early childhood sexuality education and parents’ trust towards teachers and negatively associated with shame of talking about sexuality. Results of structural equation modelling, however, showed that the perceived level of benefits of early childhood sexuality education was the only significant correlate. These findings point to the importance of promoting pre-service teachers’ awareness of the values of early childhood sexuality education and strengthening pre-service teachers’ skills in handling young children’s sexuality-related behaviours (especially their curiosity about sexual behaviours) in teacher education programmes. Copyright © 2018 HKERA International Conference.

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationships of preservice teachers’ year of study in the teacher education program, creativity, zest, and self-efficacy in managing children’s behaviors to self-efficacy in creating child-centered learning environments. Data were collected from 275 Hong Kong preservice teachers via self-reported questionnaires. Results showed that creativity had a direct positive linkage with self-efficacy in creating child-centered learning environments. Zest was associated with self-efficacy in creating child-centered learning environments, however, indirectly through self-efficacy in managing children’s behaviors. Year of study was unrelated to both self-efficacies. Practice or Policy: Preservice teachers’ creativity and zest can be conceptualized as personal resources for creating child-centered environments. Teacher education programs should therefore incorporate components of fostering pre-service teachers’ own creativity and zest. Copyright © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The physical, social and temporal dimensions of the classroom environment have an important role in children's learning. This study examines the level of support for child-centred learning, and its associated beliefs, that is provided by Hong Kong's pre-service early childhood teachers. Two hundred and seventy-five students from a pre-service early childhood teacher training programme completed a questionnaire; in general, these students believed that teachers should create physical, social and temporal environments which are child-centred in early childhood education settings. Linear regression analyses showed that the students' perceived importance of fostering children's social and communication competence in early childhood programmes, and their belief in children's competence in self-learning, were significant positive correlates of their level of support for all dimensions of child-centred learning environment. Their self-perceived competence in managing children's behaviours was, however, a significant negative correlate of their level of support for child-centred social and temporal environment. This study then discusses the implications of these findings for pre-service early childhood teacher education.

Research Findings: In this study, 88 kindergartners received special training in lexical compounding, homophone awareness, or phonological awareness or were assigned to a control condition over a period of approximately 2 months, with 20-min lessons administered twice per week. Chinese word reading improved significantly more in the lexical compounding group as compared to the other groups. Vocabulary knowledge also showed a trend toward improvement in this group (p<.08) and improved significantly in the homophone group. Although phonological awareness improved most in the phonological awareness training group, this group showed no reading or vocabulary improvements relative to the other groups. Practice or Policy: The results underscore the importance of morphological awareness training for both word reading and vocabulary knowledge in young Chinese children.
[Copyright of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2010.530478]

This study examined how gender, instrumentality, expressivity and dating status were associated with adolescents' perceived cross-sex friendship quality. Two hundred sixty-two Hong Kong Chinese heterosexual teenagers (117 males, 145 females) aged 14 to 18 rated the levels of companionship, closeness, help, security and conflict in their best cross-sex friendships. Results showed that girls perceived more help but also more conflicts. Instrumentality and expressivity were consistent correlates of closeness and security, but they predicted other features differently in the two genders. Daters reported higher levels of companionship, closeness and help. Dating girls, in particular, perceived these friendships as involving the highest levels of security. These results provide some support for social role theory and interdependency across adolescents' social relationships.
[Copyright of Sex Roles is the property of Springer New York LLC. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9880-5 ]