This study examined the associations between teachers’ beliefs and behaviors related to inclusive education (IE) and their evaluations of social and academic competences in students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) – important indicators of IE. Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the research investigated how teachers’ intentions to implement IE and their supportive practices affected the social and academic competences of students with ASD. The study involved 267 teachers from 78 mainstream secondary schools in Hong Kong. Teachers completed a questionnaire assessing attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention to implement IE. Information on teachers’ practices supporting students with ASD and their evaluations of social and academic competences of these students was also collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships between these variables. Correlation analysis revealed positive and significant associations between teachers’ beliefs, inclusive practices, and their evaluations of social and academic competences of students with ASD. SEM indicated that perceived behavioral control significantly and positively influenced the social and academic competences of students with ASD through teachers’ inclusive practices. This study highlights the vital role of teachers’ control beliefs and inclusive practices in fostering the social and academic competences of students with ASD. By applying the TPB and SEM, the research contributes to understanding how teachers’ intentions and behaviors in implementing IE impact students’ outcomes. The findings offer practical implications for enhancing inclusive education practices for supporting students with ASD in mainstream schools. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools have been argued to have transformative potential in education; yet existing literature suggests that language teachers generally lack the abilities to leverage these tools effectively and critically. Conducted in an initial language teacher education programme at a Hong Kong university, this mixed-method intervention study aims to explore the effects of explicit training for using GenAI tools for language teaching in rising pre-service language teachers’ professional GenAI competence (P-GenAI-C). 54 M.Ed students took part in an 11-week course intervention aiming to enhance the five aspects in the P-GenAI-C framework. Analysis of pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, which encompassed a mix of open and closed items to gather participants’ knowledge and perceptions of utilising GenAI tools, as well as the follow-up interviews, revealed that the intervention was effective in stretching all aspects of pre-service teachers’ P-GenAI-C. While there was greater evidence of improvement in participants’ pedagogical competence and critical awareness of GenAI tools deployment, there was less evidence of development in other aspects, such as teachers’ capacity to guide their students to use GenAI tools effectively and responsibly. This discrepancy might be attributed to the lack of such content in the course intervention. Implications for incorporating elements of P-GenAI-C into teacher preparation courses and programmes are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Negotiation of meaning (NoM) has played a facilitative role in second language acquisition. However, the existing studies have primarily focused on adult English language learners. This study investigated the impact of task type and task complexity on NoM strategies among young learners of Chinese as a second language, an underexplored group. The participants were 110 students in Hong Kong aged 10-12, mainly from Pakistan, India, Philippines, and Nepal. They were asked to perform four tasks with different task types and levels of task complexity in Cantonese (the primary Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong). In terms of task type, the study found that required information exchange tasks (i.e., information gap tasks) produced significantly more clarification requests, confirmation checks, self-repetitions, and other repetitions in terms of total numbers and numbers per 100 Chinese characters than the optional exchange tasks (i.e., decision-making tasks). Complex tasks, on the other hand, elicited significantly more confirmation checks than simple tasks. These findings provide useful insights for designing tasks that can promote greater use of NoM strategies in classroom practice. Copyright © 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews to understand the experiences and perceptions of six pre-service teachers as they engaged in microteaching at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong. Using a framework grounded in dialogism and positioning theory, the study describes the ways in which different discourses offer, as well as deny, positions to the pre-service teachers as they planned and implemented microlessons. The results suggest that competition between these discourses to position pre-service teachers can result in microteaching being associated with negative emotional experiences, such as disappointment, isolation, and frustration. This emotional dissonance is shown to lead some preservice teachers to question the efficacy of microteaching. The paper therefore argues that it is imperative for teacher educators to support pre-service teachers’ engagement in microteaching by revealing the presence of these discourses and by exploring how the latter can exercise agency by accepting, resisting, or rejecting the positions made available to them during their microteaching experience. Suggestions for future research are also considered. Copyright © 2023 Edith Cowan University. All rights reserved.

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are underutilized in universities despite them being standard components of higher education. Given this, there is a need to gather the perspectives of students and teachers to examine how these key end-users engage with LMS and utilize its various features and functions. Such an endeavor could aid in addressing the barriers and in promoting the use of LMSs in online teaching and learning. As studies about LMS use with both teacher and student samples are limited, we simultaneously gathered both students’ and teachers’ perceptions of Moodle from all academic faculties at a public university in Hong Kong. Structured qualitative interviews were conducted with eighty-two participants (41 teachers, 41 students) via Zoom. Results suggest that Moodle, while previously viewed as merely a repository of course materials, transitioned from being a supplementary tool to a key information dissemination tool during the pandemic. Despite the availability of collaboration tools, majority of interactions still occur in alternative communication channels. Findings point to students’ and teachers’ need for familiarity, training, and a visually and functionally improved interface to enhance their experience in the LMS. We also found how content and pedagogy influenced how LMS was integrated into teaching, with frequency and manner of LMS use varying between faculties and departments. Given this, tailor-made information and support for each department are needed to maximize LMS use in classes. We suggest the conduct of dialogues involving multiple stakeholders (i.e., teachers, students, administrators, and technical support staff) so that higher education institutions can share best practices on how to improve LMS utilization to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in universities. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

Objective: This study examined the views of secondary school students on sexuality and sexual health education in Hong Kong, China. Methods: A total of 818 secondary school students (mean age = 15.3 years, SD = 1.6) participated in this study by completing a questionnaire consisted of items on sociodemographic characteristics, sexual attitudes, and other measuring scales. Results: Students were slightly permissive in sexual attitudes and supported sexual health education. However, students who were male, highly liberal in sexual attitudes, and low in religiosity and spirituality were less supportive. Conclusions: Educators may need to address these deterring factors of sexual health education before teaching specific sexual health topics. Copyright © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Education research for practice is in need of textbook studies, especially those having well-defined theoretical framework. This paper is an attempt to apply phenomenography in textbook research. It begins with a review of four existing types of textbook studies found in the literature. Next, the main features of phenomenography (qualitative difference, inductive approach, non-dualistic nature, and enacted object of learning) are discussed conceptually in comparison with the research approaches adopted in the existing textbook studies. Then, for more concrete illustration, we deliberate on our own phenomenographic study that investigated the qualitatively different ways of seeing Chinese word learning as reflected in Hong Kong textbooks. In this study, six learning packages at Kindergarten 3 level and six Chinese Language textbook sets at Primary 1 level were examined. Chinese word learning was found to be seen as: (A) getting by without understanding the words, (B) understanding the words, (C) categorizing the words, and (D) using one’s own words. Finally, the paper is concluded with a discussion of its contribution to improving textbook research with the theoretical framework of phenomenography as well as enhancing phenomenography with the use of textbook data. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

This study aims to investigate whether the flexible-learning approach may or may not foster student engagement in learning music history at the tertiary level. This approach provides students with a certain degree of autonomy in terms of deciding what to learn and how that learning should be assessed. Hence, it is highly learner-centred and deemed effective in cultivating students’ learning interests. The flexible-learning approach has received global attention in recent years, particularly in Europe, where both policymakers and teachers in higher education have borrowed it for the purposes of curriculum planning and course design. To determine the impact of the flexible-learning approach on music history education, this study employed a retrospective post-pre survey in order to measure students’ learning engagement. The results demonstrate that a flexible-learning approach can effectively enhance students’ motivation in learning, implying that a single music history course does not need to stick to the traditional linear design, but should provide multiple trajectories for students to learn according to their interests and abilities. Copyright © 2023 The Education University of Hong Kong.

Arts and Creativity is one learning area of Hong Kong’s official kindergarten curriculum framework. Kindergarten teachers are expected to foster children’s creativity via four art forms: music, visual arts, dance, and drama. However, prior studies have investigated the provision of activities for each of the art forms in isolation and have not explored the demographic variables that predict teachers’ provision of arts education activities. Investigating the provision of the four art forms and its relationship with teachers’ demographics could provide an overview of the status of arts education in Hong Kong kindergartens. We had two research goals: (1) investigate the frequency with which kindergarten teachers conduct arts education activities focusing on music, visual arts, dance, and drama; (2) identify subgroups of teachers who differ regarding the provision of arts education activities and analyze how key demographic variables predict their memberships to these subgroups. We surveyed 477 teachers. Descriptive statistics, latent profile analysis, and multinomial logistic regression analysis were performed. We found that the presence of the four art forms was unbalanced. Participants reported conducting music and visual arts activities frequently, while dance and drama activities were occasionally or rarely conducted. Moreover, we identified three subgroups of teachers who provided arts education activities with different frequencies. Participants with a master’s degree and those who worked in government-funded kindergartens were more likely to be in the highest arts provision group. Findings suggest that the curriculum is not being implemented accurately, as teachers do not equally expose children to the four art forms. We interpret these findings as a reflection of teachers’ uneven preparation in the various art forms. Implications for educational policy regarding professional development are discussed. Copyright © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose: This study aims to offer authors’ humble yet unique experiences about developing an undergraduate sociology programme in an increasingly divided city.Design/methodology/approach: In this study, the authors reflect upon the development of a new sociology programme in Hong Kong in which a wide spectrum of expectations from different stakeholders, together with their own sense of mission towards sociology education, have set a very challenging stage.Findings: Developing an undergraduate sociology programme has never been easy, and there is no self-complacence as far as developing a programme that is of both academic and social values.Originality/value: This paper offers a first-hand account of how sociology educators have developed a new sociology programme in a unique social context. Copyright © 2023 Emerald Publishing Limited.