The study aims at presenting the scenario of job satisfaction/dissatisfaction of kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. New evidence from neuroscience suggests that early experience and positive, stimulating interactions with other people are crucial for optimum brain development of the young child. The quality of their teachers is of vital importance. With high job satisfaction, the teachers are motivated to work effectively in order to achieve good quality. It is envisaged that the knowledge about the elements of the teacher's job nature or the work environment may contribute to enhancing/reducing their job satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
Review of literature informed that the definition of job satisfaction tends to emphasize on affect. Yet there is no work-based study investigating the simultaneous contributions of belief and affective experiences. The key concern of this study is thus to bridge the gap by revealing the daily experiences of the target group.
The study investigated how and why the kindergarten teachers were satisfied with their work in the Hong Kong context. The feelings and thoughts of the kindergarten teachers were explored through their words. The result of the study provided an affective account as well as the cognitive evaluation of job satisfaction / dissatisfaction of the kindergarten teachers.
This study adopted the qualitative approach. Data collection was done through open-ended survey, in-depth individual interviews and focus group interviews. One hundred and seventy-five kindergarten teachers, including both former and currently working ones, served as informants. Three cases were found to provide more holistic views on their personal accounts. Triangulation, through the multiple sources of data, was employed to verify the study.
The findings obtained after the reduction and analysis of data were interpreted through the framework of Yin Yang. Within the framework, the elements, such as 'love' between teachers and children

This research explored student teacher's thinking in science and how they oriented to professional development from pre-service teacher education to beginning teaching. A more holistic view of teacher thinking with four focuses was embedded in this research: (1) conceptions of teaching and learning science; (2) planning; (3) teaching; and (4) reflections. The characteristics of these four aspects and their changes across time, the interrelationships of the four aspects and the change of their coherence in the longitudinal study were the main focus of the study.
An original group of 25 student teachers in Hong Kong were followed for three years, which included their two-year Certificate in Primary Education (Chinese) (Full-Time) Courses (1996-98) at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and their first year of beginning teaching in local primary schools in 1998-99. The student teachers were interviewed about their conception of teaching and learning science and what they had extracted from the experience. Also, they were asked to draw concepts maps to describe their thoughts during planning and were observed in their micro-teaching, school teaching experience and beginning teaching in local classrooms. After each of on these observations, they wrote journals to reflect on their teaching. The research approach involved in-depth qualitative analyses supplemented by quantification when necessary to allow clearer assessment of change in thinking.
In this longitudinal study, student teachers were found to espouse predominant or secondary constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning science to different degrees in different stages of study. Their planning became less intense in terms of lower complexity and fewer thoughts. Besides, teachers' development of constructivist teaching was evident and there was continuing evidence of confronting reflection among teachers throughout the three stages of the study.
An increase in the coherence between the different

Hong Kong educational system has faced drastic changes. In the past few years, there are various reform policies being implemented in view of the changes and needs in the new global economy. Grounded in the perspective of symbolic interactionism, the present life histories research studies the transformation of secondary school teachers' lives in the local context of education reforms, from 1997 to 2005. The results reveal how teachers narrate the teaching profession as pilgrimage, which explains the formation of the moral identity and the frame of reference of the practitioners.
Teachers treasure humanistic values, believe in development of young people through "life-to-life" long-term interaction, and trust in emancipation through education that delivers knowledge, fosters civic development and personal growth. However, in the context of education reforms dominated by the neoliberal, managerial and performativity discourse, the pilgrimage and its heritage have been threatened. The meso context, including the leadership style of principals and the organizational relationship among teachers, has impact on teachers comparable to that of the macro context of education reforms. It is through the meso context that education reforms are mediated, or distorted, in school level. Ontological narratives of teachers have become fragmented, as their character is being corroded in a context of education reforms and school culture that revitalize and redefine professional identity under the hegemonic discourse. Teachers engage in a reflexive project, which is a dynamic interaction of the self and the social context, with a role to be played by self-conscious emotions. Discussions would be made on the need for rebuilding the narrative identity of the teaching profession, together with the implications on implementation of education reforms in the local context.

This study aimed to investigate how the special educators perceive their stress and professional development amidst Education Reform 2000 in Hong Kong. A conceptual framework was constructed to probe the external and internal influences of education reforms upon teachers in special schools. A combined inquiry was used to complete the task. For knowing external environment influences, two methods were employed. Historical study was selected to scrutinize 21 official documents that were closely related to the education reforms. Document analysis was chosen to examine 21 local theses, surveys, or reports on teacher stress, and to categorize 409 relevant news clippings related to the education reform, teacher stress, and professional development. As to internal influences, three methods were utilized. First, a four-section modified questionnaire was sent to 159 teachers in special schools, among them 92 teachers responded (57.9%) for data analysis. Second, 11 individualized semi-structured interviews were conducted, which were categorized into four administrative teachers, three experienced teachers and four novice teachers to triangulate the findings of quantitative analysis. Third, a focus group discussion with six experienced teachers was held to collect further relevant data.
Results were found in data or evidences on four foci. As for the education reforms, most teachers realized that the influence of education reform was complex. The frequent changes in educational policies, which were relating to class structures, curricula, teachers' qualification and composition, existence and stability, quality assurance and accountability, operation style, and provision of special schools, had affected the schools' operations and teachers' lives. Regarding teacher stress, all levels of teachers in special schools were working at a high level of stress. The stressors of professional investment, school organizational variables, personal variables, and work-related stressors

In November 1998, the Hong Kong Government published the policy document entitled "Information Technology for Learning in a New Era Five-Year Strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03" and defined the goals and the scope of the development of Information Technology in education in Hong Kong. One of the goals is to encourage using Information Technology (I.T.) in education and to promote students' ability in handling information. As the role of I.T. is becoming more and more important in education, schools themselves have also implemented I.T. to various extents. The main purpose of this study is to explore the impacts of the external environment on the development of I.T. in Hong Kong primary schools and examine also the relationship between the use of I.T. in education and teaching effectiveness in Hong Kong primary schools.
This study uses a quantitative approach to achieve the above purposes. Questionnaires were sent to 823 teachers from 25 Hong Kong primary schools to solicit their views on the impact of I.T. in school education, the use of I.T. education and their perceptions of teaching effectiveness.
The School Environment Constraint Instrument developed by Lam (1989) was adopted to meet the context of Hong Kong primary schools and modified for this study. Two new factors "New Arrivals" and "Language Policy" are used to replace the original factors of 'Ethnicity' and 'Second Language'. The other two research instruments which measured "Information Technology Development" and "Teaching Effectiveness" were developed by the Researcher.
The results of the research indicate that: (1) the "Policy" factor and "Funding" factor had a high, significant correlation with the different aspects of I.T. development of Hong Kong primary schools; (2) a school with well-developed I.T. had a positive significant correlation with "Teaching Effectiveness".
Recommendations have been made for school administrators' consideration in the development of I.T. systems in primary

The purpose of this study are to examine whether demographic variables are related to teacher stress, if individual factors including self-efficacy and resiliency and systemic factor, school environment are related to teacher stress and how the individual factors together with the systemic factor jointly affect stress. The study is comprised of a convenient sample with 390 secondary school teachers.
Reliability test and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the Teacher Stress Inventory, Generalized Self-efficacy Scale, Ego Resiliency Scale and the School-Level Environment Questionnaire and the instruments were found to be reliable and valid.
Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to test for main effect of demographic variables on teacher stress. Findings revealed that years of teaching and school banding had significant main effect on stress. Teachers with more teaching experience were found to exhibit more stress than teachers with less experience in emotional manifestation and cardiovascular manifestation. Teachers worked in band three schools were found to be more stressful than teachers of band one and two schools in behavioural, emotional, fatigue and gastronomical manifestation of stress.
Moreover, structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test and compare the goodness of fit of an overall direct effect model, a mediating model and a modified direct effect mediating model. Results indicated that the modified direct effect mediating model provided the best model fit with the data. School environment, self-efficacy and resiliency were found to be all negatively correlated to teacher stress. School environment exerted significant impact on teacher stress. Among the factors of school environment evaluated, affiliation, student support and work pressure had high correlation with secondary school teacher stress in Hong Kong.
All in all, the research findings had confirmed the hypotheses of this study. Demographic

For data collection, the researcher was attached to three Hong Kong secondary schools with average academic and extra-curricular activity performances for three months each during the past two years. Having got familiarized with the teachers and students through joining various formal and informal school activities, in the last month of his attachment, the researcher invited each teacher to be interviewed on the topic of extra-curricular activities and to be tape-recorded. In the end, 122 teachers agreed to be the participants in the interviews. The interview was conducted in a semi-structured way, in which the teacher first recounted and commented on his/her experience and impression of extra-curricular activities. The researcher then asked for clarifications and further exploration of his/her own conception, with the help of some "situation cards". In the whole interview process, the researcher adopted a "non judgmental" attitude towards the definition of "extra-curricular activities", only asking the interviewee questions on the clarity and consistency of his/her conception. Each interview lasted for about an hour. After the interviews, the recordings were converted into written scripts. Based on the interview process and scripts, the researcher sorted out various main themes and key words and proceeded with data analysis. After three stages of back-and-forth collation and with the number of cases reduced to forty, finally seven conceptions of extra-curricular activities have been constructed: Accountability, Attachment, Mould, Experience, Personal growth, Liberation, and Balance. The researcher has depicted the specific horizon, concepts and the relationship among concepts, and also compared and contrasted the distinctive features of each conception.
There are multifarious extra-curricular activities in Hong Kong secondary schools. Nearly every teacher participates in the activities. Different teachers infuse extra-curricular activities with diverse meanings