The purpose of this pilot study was to test the reliability of a game-based assessment tool to assess the four dimensions of career adaptability (i.e., Curiosity, Control, Confidence, Concern, hereafter called “4C”) among students with special educational needs (SEN). The 4C tool is a board game developed in relation to the short form of the career adaptability scale (CAAS) for SEN adolescents. Unlike self-reported CAAS without specifying career-related scenarios, the board game provides researchers and practitioners with an assessment platform to evaluate SEN students’ 4Cs in multiple employment-related scenarios. Participants in this pilot study were 44 secondary school leavers with SEN. They were studying in a training course organized by Youth Academy for SEN. They were assessed through the board game assessment tool before and after the training in the year. Statistical analyses included spearman’s rho coefficient and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). It was noted that the 4Cs assessed by the board-game are 1) positively correlated with each other (correlation coefficients ranged from .42 to .63, p<.05), 2) with good inter-rater reliability, rs= .688(92), p<.01, 95% CI [.565, .797], and 3) with moderate test-retest reliability, ICC = 0.66, p<.001, 95% CI [.433, .805]. These findings supported the reliability of this game-based assessment tool for assessing the 4Cs of SEN youths. Aside from self-reported data, this game-based assessment tool can provide supplementary information on the 4Cs of school leavers with SEN from other assessors (e.g., teachers and practitioners) across career-related scenarios. The presentation will further discuss limitations and further direction of research. Copyright © 2023 The Education University of Hong Kong.

Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, we explored the impact of 498 primary school teachers in Hong Kong on the competences of students with special educational needs (SEN). We found that their attitudes, control beliefs, and subjective norms about inclusive education (IE) significantly influenced their IE intentions, and subsequently their behaviors. Intentions and behaviors mediated the effect on the social and academic competencies of SEN students. Our findings, consistent across nine different SEN types, have highlighted the role of fostering positive teacher dispositions and reinforcing IE intentions and behaviors through training and peer support networks, facilitating effective IE implementation. Copyright © 2024 The Authors.

Pre-screening children for specific learning disabilities (SLDs), e.g., dyslexia, is essential for effective intervention. With a quick and reliable pre- screening result, special education coordinators (SEN- COs) can provide students with early intervention and relieve their learning pressure. Unfortunately, due to the limited resources, many students in Hong Kong receive dyslexia assessments beyond the golden period, i.e., under the age of six. To this end, information technology could establish automatic pre-screening tools to address this issue. However, dyslexia pre-screening for children learning Chinese is challenging due to the lack of sound-script correlation in Chinese. In this paper, an Automatic Dyslexia Pre-screening System (ADPS) is developed to provide a quick test to identify at-risk children. Through a two-stage approach, we first develop a gamified tool based on linguistic characteristics and then evaluate the result by a comparison study. Results from a pilot test on 30 students with dyslexia and 32 students without dyslexia indicate that ADPS can effectively distinguish two groups of students. Furthermore, the interactive design elements can motivate students to conduct the pre-screening independently. Copyright © 2024 IEEE.

Globally prevalent, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have negative consequences on students’ social, intellectual, emotional, and post-school transition results. While assessment tools exist, the majority of them were developed from the perspective of clinical psychology and/or healthcare. Some are lengthy and commercialized, and some have weak factorial validity. A feasible and practical assessment method, from the perspective of educational psychology and assessment, is required to better accurately and effectively assess the social and academic performance of ASD students in inclusive settings. With an emphasis on teachers’ practice and output in helping students with ASD in inclusive education, this study evaluated the Practice and Product Inventory of Supporting Students with ASD (PPI-SSA) psychometric qualities. PPI-SSA was designed to be practical, concise, and especially suited for quantitative research on ASD. The inventory was administered to 411 teachers in Hong Kong, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the PPI-SSA’s reliability and validity. A follow-up path analysis examined the concurrent validity of the PPI-SSA, revealing significant pathways between teachers’ intentions to implement inclusive education and each of the respective dimensions within the PPI-SSA. Measurement invariance results showed that the PPI-SSA demonstrated configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across primary and secondary teachers. The PPI-SSA, as a non-commercial instrument, has meaningful implications. It can facilitate the efficient collection of more empirical data on the social and academic achievements of students with ASD, informing evidence-based improvement of inclusive practices. It can assist in teachers’ practice to identify the diverse social and academic needs of students with ASD to align with their corresponding adjustments of teaching strategies. Copyright © 2023 by the authors.

Research reveals that generic skills are essential for supporting students to not only finish school education but also achieve transition to the workplace and adult life. However, a comprehensive literature review found limited studies have been done to develop an assessment tool for examining the generic skills of students with special educational needs (SEN). Based on two sub-studies, the current study aimed to develop a short form of the Generic Skills Teacher-Rating Scale (GSTS) to assess six generic skills (i.e., Collaboration, Communication, Problem-solving, Self-management, Information Technology, Critical thinking) of SEN students. A total of 231 Hong Kong students from six special schools (including primary and secondary levels) participated in the two studies. Both CFA and Rasch analyses support a six-factor solution of the GSTS with reasonably good model fit indices. Researchers and educators may view the GSTS as an assessment tool, adding more information on SEN students’ generic skills beyond classroom settings to understand the daily-life functioning of students in special education and inclusive education settings. Implications of the results and future directions are also discussed. Copyright © 2022 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to families around the world. The prolonged school closures in Hong Kong have forced young students to stay at home and adapt to remote learning for over a year, putting their mental health conditions at risk. Focusing on primary school students and their parents, the main objective of our research is to investigate the socioemotional factors and their associations with mental health conditions. Methods: A total of 700 Hong Kong primary schoolers (mean age = 8.2) reported their emotional experiences, loneliness, and academic self-concept via a user-friendly online survey; 537 parents reported depression and anxiety, perceived child depression and anxiety, and social support. Responses from students and parents were paired to account for the family context. Structural Equation Modeling was used for correlations and regressions. Results: The results of students’ responses showed that positive emotional experiences were negatively associated with loneliness and positively related to academic self-concept among students. Furthermore, the paired sample results showed that, during the one-year societal lockdown and remote learning period, the socioemotional factors were associated with mental health conditions among primary school students and their parents. Among our family sample in Hong Kong, evidence supports the unique negative association between students-reported positive emotional experiences and parents-reported child depression and anxiety, as well as between social support and parents’ depression and anxiety. Conclusions: These findings highlighted the associations between socioemotional factors and mental health among young primary schoolers during the societal lockdown. We thus call for more attention to the societal lockdown and remote learning context, especially since the social distancing practice could be “the new normal” for our society to handle the future pandemic crisis. Copyright © 2023 The Author

Background: Students with special educational needs (SEN) often face dehumanization, which negatively impacts their mental health, daily functioning, and educational outcomes. This study seeks to address the research gap in dehumanization literature by examining the prevalence, dynamics, and consequences of self-dehumanization and other-dehumanization among SEN students. Moreover, by utilizing psychological experiments, the study aims to identify potential intervention strategies and make recommendations to minimize the negative psychological consequences derived from the dual model of dehumanization. Methods: This two-phase, mixed-methods study incorporates cross-sectional surveys and quasi-experimental designs. Phase 1 investigates the self-dehumanization of SEN students and other-dehumanization from non-SEN peers, teachers, parents, and the public. Phase 2 involves four experimental studies to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions emphasizing human nature and uniqueness in reducing self-dehumanization and other-dehumanization of SEN students, as well as their associated negative consequences. Discussion: The study fills a research gap by examining dehumanization in SEN students, applying dyadic modeling, and identifying potential solutions to ameliorate dehumanization and its negative consequences. The findings will contribute to the advancement of the dual model of dehumanization, increase public awareness and support for SEN students in inclusive education, and promote changes in school practice and family support. The 24-month study in Hong Kong schools is expected to provide significant insights into inclusive education in school and community settings. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

Although there are an increasing number of studies on assessing teacher emotions in mainstream education, there is a lack of appropriate measurement tools to evaluate the emotions of teaching assistants (TAs) who need to take care of students with a range of special educational needs (SEN). This study tested the generalizability of the 24-item teacher emotion inventory (TEI), among 204 TAs from 122 secondary schools with inclusive education in Hong Kong. We conducted both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch analysis to test the within-network validity of the TEI. For the between-network validity, we examined the relationships between TAs’ emotions and their attitude toward inclusive education. The Rasch analysis supported the scale’s dimensionality and item fit statistics. The CFA supported the five-factor solution of the TEI. The results also showed statistically significant correlations between positive emotions (joy and love) and TAs’ attitudes toward inclusive education. TAs’ negative emotions (anxiety, anger, and stress) appeared to be negatively correlated with their attitude toward inclusive education. The results supported that TEI is a useful tool to assess the emotions of TAs that play a pivotal role in assisting both school teachers and SEN students, who are more likely to face increased emotional challenges than those not needing to educate SEN students. Implications of this study to enrich the current scope of research on understanding teacher emotions across educational levels and settings are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Yang, Hsu, Ye and Sin.

The COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest have posed a unique set of challenges to Hong Kong. During these two social events, parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) who were already experiencing caregiving pressure, likely coped with additional stressors; they were at a higher risk of mental health problems. A pre-registered, cross-sectional survey study was carried out among 234 Hong Kong parents of children with SEN, investigating the associations of stigmatized identity, perceived discrimination, and subjective well-being under the impact of these social events. Utilizing the Bayesian modelling, we found that highly self-stigmatized parents not only perceived more daily-life discriminating behaviors against them, but also reported having higher distress, more negative emotions, and lower life satisfaction. A higher perceived impact of social events and more discrimination were also associated with lower well-being. Additionally, stigmatized identity, perceived discrimination, and perceived impact of social events demonstrated unique associations with well-being variables, indicating they were substantial stressors. The study called out for public attention to the mental health conditions among parents of children with SEN and other disadvantaged groups in society. Copyright © 2021 by the authors.