Purpose: Many master's students enrol in coursework-based programmes to improve their professional knowledge and skills for the job market. Most studies of employability in higher education focus on undergraduates rather than master's students, although the number of master's students worldwide has increased significantly in recent years. This study explores the factors involved in the perceived employability (PE) of master's students in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The authors first proposed a conceptual model of PE based on the social cognitive career theory. Using survey data from 786 master's students in Hong Kong, the authors applied descriptive statistics and an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to address the following research questions: How do master's students gauge their PE? How do person, learning and environment variables influence the PE of master's students? Findings: The authors found that PE is influenced by students' approaches to learning and their institutional career support.Originality/value: Few studies examined whether students' learning experiences during the master's programmes influence their employability. This study highlights the importance of learning experiences and career support in coursework-based master's programmes for enhancing graduate employability. Copyright © 2024 Emerald Group Publishing.

This study utilised 2015 PISA data from the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to examine the relations between outside school ICT use for learning and science performance through a mediation model. The results uncovered three key findings: Firstly, ICT use for learning exhibited negative total effects on science performance in the United Kingdom, whereas the effects were non-significant in Hong Kong. Secondly, ICT use for learning consistently showed positive indirect effects on science performance through the mediation of self-efficacy, enjoyment and interest. However, no indirect effects were observed through utility value in either of the sampled countries/regions. Notably, ICT use for learning showed positive indirect effects through the mediation of epistemological beliefs in Hong Kong but not in the United Kingdom. Thirdly, ICT use for learning displayed negative unexplained (i.e., direct) effects on science performance, suggesting that potentially negative mediators have not been fully identified. Future research shall focus on exploring potential mediations that may cause negative indirect effects to develop more targeted interventions. Copyright © 2025 Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Purpose Guided by situated learning theory, this study explores the influence of a professional development program on the evolving perceptions of middle leaders as entrepreneurial leaders. It investigates which elements of situated learning design foster the growth of middle leaders' entrepreneurial behavior. Design Using a narrative case inquiry approach, 20 participants from five primary and seven secondary schools in Hong Kong. These participants engaged in a situated middle leader development programme designed to enhance teacher entrepreneurialism in authentic, job-related contexts. Findings This study uncovers the incremental learning growth of middle leaders across three phases: initial struggle with authority constraints; reflection on the role of entrepreneurial middle leaders; and eventual advocacy of innovative opportunities to colleagues. It underscores the importance of authenticity and guided reflection in the situated learning program design, which fosters a social environment stimulating reflective dialogue and enables middle leaders to reflect on their leadership behavior. Originality This study broadens the application of situated learning theory by demonstrating how the interplay of contextual, social, and individual-level environments can enhance the professional development of middle leaders, particularly in fostering entrepreneurial behaviours. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

From an ecolinguistic perspective, this paper investigates the connection between multilingual environments and Cantonese English identity in the Greater Bay Area through questionnaires and interviews. The findings reveal the following: (1) Affective and behavioural indicators of self-identity varied significantly among different majors, as well as among different environmental groups; (2) Students' social identity remained unaffected by their majors but exhibited significant differences among groups; (3) Cantonese English self-identity and social identity of the students (except for Hong Kong and Macau students) with multilingual backgrounds demonstrated a high correlation. In brief, the identity ratios were as follows: English majors > non-English majors; Hong Kong-Macao students > Pearl River Delta students > New Arrivals. These results suggest and confirm the symbiotic and coordinative interaction between language and environment. Different environments impact learners' cognitive psychology, leading to varying degrees of self-identity in Cantonese English. In other words, the environment determines language, and conversely, language, together with its intralingual environment, imbued with historical and cultural values, emotions, and identity, plays a behavioural role in influencing cognitive psychology, society, and even nature. Copyright © 2024 Routledge.

In recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of master's education worldwide. Using a mixed methods research design, this paper explores the factor structure of students' motivation for pursuing a master's degree and their changing expectations of its returns, with a focus on mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong. We first distributed an online survey to students enrolled in various kinds of coursework-based master's programmes; we collected 302 responses. The survey data were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis from which four factors emerged: positional advantage, educational pursuit, intrinsic motivation, and career progression. Twenty-six interviewees participated in follow-up, semi-structured interviews. The content analysis of the interview data corroborated and supplemented the interpretations of the exploratory factor analysis. The declining expectations of economic returns upon graduation suggest that master's degrees were not necessarily viewed as guaranteeing career progression. Furthermore, students' changing expectations of non-monetary returns, including social benefits and self-growth as viewed retrospectively, contributed to students' overall satisfaction level on master's education. The study has implications for understanding and responding to the increasing demand for master's education and rethinking the value of master's education. Copyright © 2024 Springer.

We examined the associations between home literacy environment (HLE) and children's word reading in L1 Cantonese and L2 English and whether the associations were moderated by other child- and family-related factors (children's grade level, reading interest, and family socioeconomic status [SES]) in Hong Kong Chinese families. Participants were 190 children (Mage = 86.05 months; 54.7% female) in Grades 1 and 2, and they were tested on their word reading skills (accuracy and fluency) in L1 Cantonese and L2 English. One corresponding parent of each child responded to a questionnaire assessing two aspects of HLE (parent teaching and access to literacy resources), family SES, and their child's reading interest. Results showed that access to literacy resources was associated with L2 English reading but not L1 Cantonese reading, regardless of grade level, parent-rated reading interest, or SES. In addition, whereas parent teaching was positively associated with L2 English reading in Grade 1, it was negatively associated with L2 English reading in Grade 2. These results suggest that whereas access to literacy resources may be positively associated with L2 English reading across different family contexts, the role of parent teaching in L2 English reading may change during this developmental period. Copyright © 2024 Springer.

Recent studies on ethnic minority students in Hong Kong have highlighted the difficulties they face when learning Chinese-as-an-Additional-Language (CAL). These linguistic challenges can cause anxiety and hinder their integration into Hong Kong society. Transpositioning is an emerging notion in the field of Applied Linguistics and involves individuals stepping out of their assigned roles and adopting different perspectives through translanguaging. It has been argued that engaging in transpositioning can potentially engage students' learning and participation in classroom interaction. However, there is limited research on how multilingual classroom teachers can suspend their social roles to alleviate students' anxiety while learning a second language in classrooms. This paper seeks to fill this research gap by examining how a Chinese teacher creates a safe translanguaging space for co-learning, which allows him to move beyond his predefined social roles and alleviate ethnic minority students' anxiety in learning CAL. The study uses Multimodal Conversation Analysis to analyse classroom interaction data. The fine-grained classroom analysis is triangulated with the video-stimulated-recall-interviews with the teacher and students which are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The paper argues for a Transpositioning-Translanguaging-Co-Learning approach to reduce students' anxiety related to CAL learning. By positioning both the teacher and students as equal contributors to knowledge, this can foster student engagement and active participation in classroom interactions. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier.

PurposeThis research investigates mobile security awareness among university students in Hong Kong, who increasingly rely on mobile devices for their daily activities and academic needs. This research seeks to inform targeted educational strategies and policies to enhance mobile security practices among young adults, particularly in regions similar to Hong Kong, where mobile usage is extensively integrated into everyday life.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing an online survey, this research assessed the mobile security awareness of 407 university students from Hong Kong. The Mann-Whitney U-test and other statistical methods were employed to analyze differences in security awareness based on demographic factors such as IT background, gender, educational level and participation in mobile security courses.FindingsThe research revealed a generally high level of mobile security awareness compared to similar research in other regions. It also highlighted that despite no significant difference in awareness between genders, students from IT-related fields or those who participated in mobile security courses exhibit higher awareness levels. These findings underscore the impact of focused education and training on enhancing mobile security awareness.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the limited but growing body of literature on mobile security awareness from the end-user perspective, particularly among university students in the Asia Pacific region. It offers valuable insights for governments, educators and corporate policymakers worldwide, providing a basis for integrating mobile security education into broader academic and professional training programs. Copyright © 2025 Emerald Group Publishing.

Although teachers have access to a great deal of scholarship on teaching academic vocabulary (AV), much less is known about the experiences and perceptions of English language learners regarding AV. To address this gap, we used an online metaphor elicitation survey and follow-up interviews to collect data from 432 undergraduates at a Hong Kong university on their experience of learning AV. For this paper, we focus on the 199 students whose metaphors related to difficulties or challenges. A thematic analysis of this data showed that about two-thirds of this subgroup perceived AV to be inherently difficult, while for the other third, the challenge primarily concerned their negative perceptions of their experience or abilities. We conclude by arguing for the value of understanding learner perspectives and proposing specific teaching strategies for addressing each of the perceived challenges. Copyright © 2024 Wiley.

Teaching science in English is increasingly common worldwide. This study explores the role of language in science meaning-making during classroom interactions by drawing on video-recorded classroom observations of four biology lessons in secondary English medium instruction (EMI) settings in Hong Kong. Informed by systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we integrate classroom interaction analysis with Lemke's approach to thematic analysis. The results reveal similar interactional patterns across full- and partial-EMI science classrooms, characterised by a lack of interactivity and authoritative teacher behaviour in selecting student responses to engage with. During extended initiation-response-feedback exchanges, teachers' feedback on students' responses appears to underscore the importance of teachers' modified input - specifically input emphasising semantic relations within the field of biology - in developing students' content knowledge and language skills. The implications of the findings for applying SFL pedagogies in EMI science classrooms to improve teacher-student interaction are discussed. Copyright © 2025 De Gruyter .