In addition to enabling students to gain knowledge, education aims to make them competent, confident, and enthusiastic learners. Using TIMSS 2019 data from eighth graders in mathematics classrooms in Hong Kong (N = 1146) and England (N = 1981), this study explored the relevance of classroom management and instructional clarity to students' mathematics self-concept and value, academic emotions (i.e., enjoyment and boredom) and mathematics achievement by using a latent multi-group SEM analysis. The findings corroborated the controlvalue theory and indicated that classroom management was not always beneficial to the increase of students' enjoyment and achievement in Hong Kong, but the favorable effects of classroom management on academic emotions and achievement were observed in England. Additionally, instructional clarity has been demonstrated to improve students' enjoyment and achievement in mathematics while reducing boredom in both groups, with the advantage being greater in Hong Kong classrooms. The limitations and implications are then discussed. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier.

Recently, many universities have shifted to online teaching and learning employing synchronous teaching apps. Such practice is a logical consequence to respond to the needs of students in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, not much has been known about its effects on students’ experience. Particularly, given the lack of physical presence, it is worthy to explore how online teaching and learning may influence classroom interaction, students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in second language (L2) English, and classroom enjoyment in English Medium Instruction (EMI) higher education context. This study explores students’ views and experience in relation to these three aspects by comparing online and face-to-face classes. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted with four students in an EMI taught postgraduate programme at a university in Hong Kong. These students experienced half of their courses conducted in a face-to-face mode and half in an online synchronous mode throughout an academic year. Results indicated more teacher-student interactions and heightened WTC mostly due to a lower level of anxiety. However, students reported less opportunities for peer interactions and had mixed views on classroom enjoyment. Implications are discussed in relation to how teachers can improve students’ learning experience in EMI classes conducted using online technology. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The applications of technology-enhanced learning spaces have become a topical subject of research, with many studies conducted on the impact of technology-enhanced learning spaces on students' learning; however, only a small number of these focus on how the spaces affect students' learning. This article will elaborate on how technology-enhanced learning spaces facilitate the learning of students and explain in detail the impact of such spaces on them. Interviews were conducted with 48 postgraduate students who had experienced learning in technology-enhanced learning spaces. The interview data were analysed using the grounded theory approach and a theoretical model was proposed for the process of student learning in technology-enhanced learning spaces. The results demonstrate that three factors: academic motivation, extension of time and space, and externalization and expression, can facilitate student engagement in learning in technology-enhanced learning spaces. In addition, student characteristics is an influential factor in student engagement, while pedagogies also determine the effectiveness of these spaces.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge.]

Although the relationship between the classroom learning environment and academic achievement has been explored in subject-free and disciplinary subject contexts, research into this relationship is still lacking in the context of interdisciplinary subjects. This study investigated the relationship between the classroom learning environment and student achievement in an interdisciplinary subject (i.e. liberal studies) in Hong Kong secondary schools. The mediating role of critical thinking was also explored. The participants were 410 Hong Kong secondary school graduates. The structural equation modelling analyses indicated that (1) the Content aspect of the classroom learning environment had an effect on the achievement in liberal studies, and this effect was not mediated by critical thinking; (2) the Pedagogy aspect predicted critical thinking skills, which in turn predicted the achievement in liberal studies; (3) the Relation aspect had no significant effects on critical thinking skills and student achievement in liberal studies. Suggestions on enhancing students' high-order thinking skills and achievement in interdisciplinary subjects were provided.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge.]

In traditional politeness theories, disagreements are face threatening acts, regarded as dispreferred options from a conversation analysis approach. However, in the classroom context, specifically in Language Education, it is often necessary for teachers to disagree with students. Previous studies of classroom disagreement have shown that teachers use linguistic markers to mitigate the face threat inherent in disagreements. In Hong Kong, we would also expect a significant use of mitigating lexical strategies as Asian cultures are typically regarded as being conflict-avoiding. However, as hand gestures and head movements have been observed to accompany negative linguistic markers to stress the lexical or pragmatic meaning of the utterance, they could be an alternative modality to communicate disagreement in the Hong Kong classroom. This study analyzed teacher disagreements in 10 h of Language Education classroom teaching in a Hong Kong higher education institution. The results suggest that disagreements are indeed dispreferred options in this particular context and that the salience of the act itself is minimized by avoiding negative gestures or head movements. As this behavior was observed among all teachers who disagreed, it is proposed that this behavior has been conventionalized within this community of practice.
[Copyright of Journal of Pragmatics is the property of Elsevier BV.]

This paper discussed class discipline and management of children with severely mentally handicap. The authors argued that effective teachers could manage children's learning and create a responsive environment for maximizing the potentials of children. A case study in Hong Kong special school setting was presented to illustrate the possible instructional strategies involved: including individual educational plan, behavioral modification, social acceptance, and structured learning environment.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Special Education Forum 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]

In this study, the relationship between student affective performance and classroom physical environment, social climate, and management style were investigated in a sample of classes in Hong Kong primary schools. The results of Pearson and canonical correlation analyses indicated that among the measures of classroom environment, perceived quality of physical environment and class master’s expert power, personal power, and coercive power were the strongest predictors of affective performance. This finding supports the importance of class master’s management style in the classroom environment. Students’ attitudes toward school and teachers appeared to be most sensitive to variation in the classroom environment, and self-concept was the least sensitive among the seven student affective measures. Students’ self-efficacy of learning and intention to drop out were moderately sensitive to classroom environment. Profiles of effective and ineffective classroom environments were also mapped. In effective classrooms, class masters care for students, pay attention to teaching, do not use force or punishment but do create a good classroom climate with their professional knowledge, personal morality, and personality. Physical environment and psychological environment are both important; a good classroom environment is highly correlated with student affective performance.

Classroom discipline is a topic of international interest and teachers are bombarded with advice regarding how to and why they should manage children' s behaviour in their classrooms. This paper draws on data related to classroom discipline gathered from a detailed classroom observation schedule, teacher interviews, and field notes with four purposively selected kindergarten teachers working in Hong Kong with children aged 5–6 years. The findings of this qualitative case study show that the teachers were concerned about disciplining children to ensure good behaviour. They expected all children to follow the rules and used characteristic discipline strategies such as stating expectations and ‘praising the opposite' to maintain good behaviour. The paper discusses these findings in light of the Westernisation of kindergarten teaching practices in Hong Kong.
[Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.]

近年來，兩岸三地的課程改革均將自主學習作為一項重要目標，試圖培養和鞏固學生的自主學習動機與策略。西方學者的許多研究表明，宣導學生中心的課堂環境有助於促進學生自主學習能力的發展，而偏重教師中心的課堂環境則不利於學生的自主學習。本研究基於香港中小學生對課堂環境觀感和自主學習動機與策略的兩項調查，發現教師中心的課堂環境對香港學生的自主學習同樣具有促進作用，並依此分析了華人文化情境中課堂環境及學生自主學習的特徵。
[Copyright © 2010北京大學.]