Autonomy has been considered both as a precondition and a crucial learning outcome of higher education. Recent research has been focusing on measuring university students’ autonomy or its development. However, whether and how students’ autonomy can be measured quantitatively is still debatable. Although autonomy is known as a changing process and varies among individuals, it is agreed that students’ learning behaviours are largely affected by their perceptions; very few studies, however, have examined students’ own perception of autonomy. This study, therefore, adopts a longitudinal qualitative approach to investigate the changes in students’ own perceptions of autonomy over five different times during their first-year study in a Hong Kong University, and examine the relationship between the perceptions and behaviours of their autonomy. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight first-year students, the study found that although the participants held some common understanding of autonomy, they also demonstrated various interpretations of this concept. They also had a slightly different focus on different dimensions of autonomy, which were affected by their own individual experiences. An individualistic approach is therefore proposed to understand students’ development of autonomy. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.

Informed by symbolic interactionism, this study examines how positive emotional experiences in teaching, teacher identity, and student behaviors are associated. According to the symbolic interactionism perspective, positive student behaviors signify that teachers have successfully embodied the teacher identity, which results in positive emotional experiences from their teaching. This study’s analysis of interviews with 21 secondary schoolteachers in Hong Kong suggests an alternative explanation: positive emotional experiences in teaching are a result of attaining the goal of teaching, that is, making a difference in students’ lives, rather than verifying a teacher identity. This explanation does not necessarily contradict that of symbolic interactionism, but may help elaborate upon the process of emotional experiences in teaching. The findings provide recommendations for improving teachers’ emotional experiences in teaching. Copyright © 2018 by Francis W. Parker School, Chicago. All rights reserved.

Why do students plagiarise and how can we tackle the problem? An accurate understanding of reasons for student plagiarism is a crucial step to successful formulation of effective solutions to the problem. To this end, a focus group study was conducted to collect information from an “insider” view on why Hong Kong university students might engage themselves in acts of academic dishonesty. A survey questionnaire was eventually developed and then self-administered by a sample of Hong Kong university students. Based on the students’ self-report, among other forms of academic dishonesty, plagiarism is the most common type of academic misconduct. In addition, plagiarism seems to be a “gateway behaviour” that might signify a “syndrome” of other academically dishonest behaviours. Regarding reasons for student plagiarism, a majority of students participating in the focus group study attributed this to its “convenience” and to inadequate learning support from teachers. Survey data reveal that plagiaristic behaviours are better explained by interactions between personal and contextual factors. Further, students in the focus group study generally opined that the plagiarism detection software currently adopted did not yield accurate detection and could be deceived. Taken together, our data tell us that the problem of student plagiarism should be treated as a challenge to teaching and learning rather than merely an issue of discipline violation. For its solution, emphasis should be placed on education instead of punishment. Copyright © 2021 European Conference on Education.

Plagiarism has been a growing concern among institutions and academics in recent years. To address the problem, and to alleviate the growing trend of this academic misconduct, students' perceptions of plagiarism should be considered. This study explores students' self-perception and actual understanding of plagiarism, and the relations between them. Survey responses were collected from 433 students in a Hong Kong junior secondary school. Results reveal that students show different understanding towards 'obvious' and 'obscure' plagiarism, with misunderstanding or misconception more likely arising over obscure plagiarism. This study also reports that students' self-perception on their understanding of plagiarism differed across grade levels, and their academic performance of inquiry-based learning has a relation to their self-perceived and actual understanding of plagiarism. Implications for improving the teaching and learning of plagiarism are discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Librarianship and Information Science is the property of SAGE Publications.]

In the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment, students from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taipei, where the classroom disciplinary climate of schools was relatively strict, were top performers in mathematics. In this study, two-level linear analyses showed that the classroom disciplinary climate of schools significantly affected student mathematics achievement in the four Chinese economies, indicating that school and economy-level inequality were related to the classroom disciplinary climate of schools. Additionally, residual analyses showed that students in different percentiles within economies, as well as students in the same percentiles of different economies, benefited or hindered differently from classroom disciplinary climate of schools, hinting at shrinking individual-level differences in student mathematics achievement. Most students in Shanghai and Hong Kong benefited from an orderly disciplinary climate in their schools, particularly medium and high performers in Shanghai, while most students in Taipei and Macao suffered from a disruptive disciplinary climate in their schools. Statistically, Taipei would replace Shanghai and top the four Chinese economies in student mathematics performance if all schools in the four had a disciplinary climate similar to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Education Review is the property of Springer Netherlands.]

This small-scale exploratory study investigated Hong Kong primary teachers’ perceptions of bullying in school, and the difficulties they meet when implementing interventions to prevent or reduce bullying. Five primary school teachers from government-aided schools, private schools,and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools in Hong Kong were interviewed. The findings suggest that they are aware of various approaches to controlling bullying, and some use a mixed approach. A few of them use proactive approaches on the basis that ‘prevention is always better than an attempted cure’. Others tend to use reactive approaches that only respond to incidents of bullying when they occur. Most teachers mentioned that whole-school interventions had been implemented in their place of work,yet these interventions were different among different schools. The difficulties teachers had in tackling bullying effectively included time constraints, lack of expertise in behavioural management, the need of providing family education, difficulty in arranging a schedule for whole-school intervention, and problems in developing a specific intervention for individual cases. The findings reinforce a view that different parties need to put more effort in helping teachers develop effective bullying interventions. 這小型探索性研究目的是探討香港小學教師對校園欺凌的看法與其介入事件時所面對的困難。研究訪問了五位來自政府津貼學校、私立學校和直接資助學校的小學教師。結果指出,他們意識到處理欺凌事件的不同方法,部分教師會同時採取多種方法去處理。就大方向而言,有部分教師相信「預防勝於治療」,他們會採取積極的行動去管制校園欺凌;其他教師會「以不變應萬變」,以較為保守的態度應對。多數教師表示其任教的小學有實行全校性的干預措施,但由於學校的校情不盡相同,所以實行方法也有差別。此外,時間限制、缺乏行為管理專業知識、家長配合、學校支援,及欺凌事件的獨特性,都是教師在有效處理校園欺凌問題所面對的重重難關。總括而言,研究結果肯定了教師在介入欺凌事件方面,需要其他持分者更多的協助。
[Copyright of Hong Kong Journal of Special Education is the property of Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
https://sites.google.com/a/seshk.org.hk/seshk-org-hk/c_publication]

目的：如其他地方的教師一樣，香港的教師同樣面對管理課堂秩序的問題。這篇論文將深入探討這方 面並提供一個於二零零四至零五年進行、關於教學效能感與課堂管理的研究結果。此研究目的為探討：一、教師在運用課室管理技巧時的效能感與他們對學生在課堂上不守秩序行為的看法之關係，二、教師效能感之強弱與他們對外在因素之看法會否左右他們管理學生行為之能力，同時，教師面對各種變數之回應亦會從他們填寫的問卷中探討。 研究方法：此調查於二零零五年四月至七月期間於十一間香港中學進行。教師問卷的設計脱胎自一九八九年於英國和威爾斯進行的國家教師調查問卷，及作者於二零零四年在兩間中學進行的研究一 教師對課室管理的社會建構。該研究探討：一、課室管理技巧的四個範疇，包括認知性，社會性，感情性，外在性。二、教師對四種不守課堂秩序行為，包括吸引注意力，顯示力量，報復，退出以逃避的看法。三、教師對導致學生不守紀律的四個外在因素，包括家庭，社會觀念，同輩壓力和生理因素的看法。為提供客觀的統計數字，問卷結果以統計軟件SPSS進行分析並提供一個教師的反應與變數的關聯之概觀。分析如期於二零零五年十月完成。 期待的結果：此研究能駑助我們理解教師效能感如何影響他們對課室管理和教學的取捨，與及教師是否運用較有效的課室管理技巧便會在管理學生問題行為時便會遇到較少困難，研究結果能提供資料以宣揚正面行為，讓決策者，學校管理人，和教師明白到實際上教師與學生的行為存在著互動關係。讓我們從宏觀的角度去了解導致某些學生慣於在課堂上表現不守紀律和某些班別比其他班更難管理的原因，此研究並提供教師培訓課程的發展，課程設計，教學策略和宣揚正面課堂行為。

Hong Kong secondary schools are concerned about the prevalence of student misbehavior. This paper reports the finding of a study investigating the characteristics of a resilient school and how resiliency was developed. Case studies of four secondary schools were conducted using interviews and textual analysis. Teacher and student discourses on discipline and resiliency were explored from the perspective of social constructivism. The narrative approach will also be employed (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995). The similarities and differences between school features were identified. Qualitative data from interviews and school texts, i.e., data concerning the school ethos, school rules, policy on behavior management, and the handbook for the school guidance team and school discipline team, were collected. Themes generated from the data were analysed, with the use of Grounded Theory Approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The findings have shown that the narratives of school participants revealed the features of school resiliency, which could be built up with the dynamics of school, home, police force and social workers. Implications for the development of guidance and discipline policies and that of resiliency programme will be given. There will also be policy implications for the enrichment of teacher training programs.

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about their growing numbers of ethnic minority students. When these students are enrolled in Hong Kong secondary schools, how their cultural diversity is catered for becomes critical. This article examines how teachers narrate the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students, who come from Pakistan, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand. Qualitative data were collected from interviews, through which the narratives of twenty-four teachers from four secondary schools were explored. The study showed that to address cultural diversity, a 'connected' classroom should be established by promoting interpersonal relationships, developing adaptive teaching strategies, keeping the balance between guidance and discipline and strengthening home-school collaboration. Implications for the development of teacher education will be presented.
[Copyright of Pastoral Care in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2013.811697]