One hundred and thirty-eight Hong Kong and 195 Shanghai in-service teachers participated in this study. Three different scales were used namely the trait anxiety scale, the self-esteem scale and the teaching anxiety scale. Each scale was translated from English into Chinese. This study aims to compare the teaching anxiety level of in-service teachers in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and from a psychological perspective, it also aims to find out if trait anxiety and self-esteem can predict teaching anxiety. Overall, the study found that Hong Kong in-service teachers had higher teaching anxiety than their Shanghai counterparts. In addition, it was found that teaching anxiety was predicted by both trait anxiety and self-esteem as assumed. Teaching anxiety has been found to have many negative effects on both students and teachers. Thus, based on results from the questionnaires, factors that may reduce teaching anxiety of Hong Kong in-service teachers were suggested by interviewing 10 Hong Kong in-service teachers who also participated in the first part of the study, and their suggestions could be applied to professional developmental courses in reducing teaching anxiety for in-service teachers.

This paper is based on research investigating Hong Kong Chinese teachers' and students' perceptions of junior secondary students' concerns and of the causes of students' difficulties. Responses from 2,045 secondary students and 214 teachers revealed that both students and teachers had similar systems of beliefs about students' concerns and the causes of students' difficulties. As dimensions of most students' concerns, both groups referred to study and educational future; friendship; physical appearance; relationships at home, with peers and at school; and psychological well-being and maladjusted behaviour. Both groups in various degrees attributed students' difficulties to students themselves, the family, school or peers. Employing Moscovici's theory of social representation as a conceptual framework, the findings illustrated that students' concerns and causal attribution are social representations shared by both student and teacher groups. Mismatch between students' and teachers' perceptions was more a divergence of views than a disparity. Students' and teachers' different social identities and their protection of group self-esteem are offered as an explanation for the mismatch in perception.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131880110081044]