Effective teacher training programs entail cultivating not only professional teaching competencies but also promoting psychological strengths. However, there is a lack of investigation into how different modes of delivering psychological interventions influence well-being outcomes in the teaching profession, such as preschool educators. This study examines the effects of different technologically driven modes of implementing a PROSPER-based psychological intervention on positivity, relationship, outcome, strengths, purpose, engagement, and resilience. One hundred twenty-eight pre-service preschool teachers were randomly assigned to (1) the full intervention (i.e., online workshop and smartphone app); (2) the online workshop; (3) the smartphone app; and (4) the wait-list control group. The results demonstrated that the online workshop mode yielded the strongest intervention effects on well-being outcomes: positivity, purpose, engagement, and resilience. Although the smartphone app mode did not significantly improve psychological outcomes, combining this approach with the online workshop format appeared to have positive retention effects on positivity at the Time 3 follow-up. The findings suggest that the traditional mode of implementing positive psychological interventions could be more effective than the smartphone app-based mode in bolstering pre-service teachers' well-being. Copyright © 2023 International Association of Applied Psychology.

The persistent challenges posed by COVID-19 and political unrest have urged teacher educators in Hong Kong to develop innovative strategies in curriculum design, pedagogies, and assessment and feedback practices in the online environment. The challenges in online teaching have also encouraged teacher educators to reflect on their practices and conduct practitioner-based research to enhance their scholarship of teaching, to respond to the changing society, changing schools and diverse needs from students. The crises caused by the pandemic of COVID-19 and political unrest have driven almost all school teachers and teacher educators to exercise various modes of online teaching, which undoubtedly presents the importance of technology-supported teaching and learning in schools and in teacher education. In the post-COVID-19 era, technology will continue to be one of the major driving forces of educational changes. However, a few issues concerning the negative impacts of online teaching have been rarely addressed in the existing literature. In this concluding chapter, we look into three issues that are relevant to online teaching in the post-COVID-19 era. They are virtual teaching and technology-enhanced curriculum, social and emotional learning, and digital divide and inequity. The discussion of these issues provides a basis to suggest the ongoing innovations in teacher education and directions that deserve further research in future. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

In the past few years, the education sector, including teacher education, has encountered unprecedented challenges resulting from the global pandemic of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). In Hong Kong, it was fuelled by protests and campus occupation due to the unstable political situation. Many universities were forced to suspend face-to-face instruction and adopt online teaching. This volume is a response to the global transformation of teaching and learning from the face-to-face mode to the online mode triggered by these challenges, with a focus on teacher education in Hong Kong. This introductory chapter pulls together the narrative of the volume by detailing such challenges and showcasing how the challenges have accelerated the use of e-technology in teaching and learning online. It provides an overview of the chapters included in this volume and discusses how they contribute to the rationale of the volume and the various sections, which include challenges in teaching and learning in times of crisis, curriculum and pedagogical innovations, assessment and feedback practices, and the scholarship of teaching and learning in the teacher education context. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

This study focused on Hong Kong mathematics teachers' experiences and challenges in online distance teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 109 frontline mathematics teachers participated in the survey. Their teaching experiences and challenges during the pandemic were investigated through an online questionnaire and followed up through in-depth interviews. The results show that most teachers believed that their way of teaching mathematics had somewhat changed and that they had tried to offer e-learning as an alternative teaching mode to maintain the quality of teaching during the pandemic. They also tended to focus on external factors rather than internal factors during online teaching. Teachers agreed that a paradigm shift had occurred in the role of teaching during this time of crisis. Although they had developed sufficient levels of technology use, these did not necessarily translate to competence in achieving instructional goals. Ultimately, teachers' personal experiences with online teaching and their beliefs about mathematics teaching are crucial factors affecting the role and effectiveness of online teaching. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

English, as a worldwide language, is the language most often used both online and offline. The implementation of e-learning practices widens learners’ horizons through different educational opportunities and enhances their learning abilities, and it reduces the costs of higher education. Upon reviewing the literature, some research gaps related with this study are listed. The first was that preservice English teachers sometimes lacked adequate knowledge and skills to choose the proper educational technologies for implementing e-learning in their field practices. The other was that some teacher educators over-focused on their choices of educational technologies and not on their implementation of e-learning in a precise subject. Although many studies have focused on the use of English learning strategies and skills, this research will focus on implementation of e-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education. Second, the existing research lacks adequate coverage of the training for preservice English teachers to become English language teachers, when that training is conducted through implementing e-learning practices in English language learning strategies. Meanwhile, other current issues are apparent: preservice English teachers do not have sufficient resources to lead their teaching process using supplementary digital resources. The methods designed and used to implement e-learning practices are vital aspects of those implementations. E-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education have been discussed extensively in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It is important that teachers nurture students’ digital literacy and their abilities for critical thinking and conducting logical presentations. Student teachers not only understand the pros and cons of e-learning practices in preservice English language teacher education, but also the general developments of teacher education. This study aims to investigate how e-learning practices

The international school sector in Hong Kong makes a substantial contribution to educational provision in the city, employing many expatriate teachers. Wellbeing has taken on increasing prominence in international school discourses, but little research has investigated how the wellbeing of international school teachers is influenced by school-level factors. For the purposes of this study, thirteen expatriate teachers from ten different international schools in Hong Kong were interviewed and the data were analysed thematically. The teachers’ wellbeing was found to be influenced by relationships with students, colleagues and senior leaders, and a pervasive climate of accountability. Teachers felt a sense of social isolation associated with cultural differences, and often did not feel supported by their schools. Teachers’ wellbeing, it is proposed, may be improved by the articulation of a shared vision which focuses on classroom-level interactions, an affiliative climate, and an institutional environment which addresses social isolation and protects teachers against an excessive climate of performativity and accountability. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s).

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of an intervention program based on the PROSPER, a comprehensive framework which emphasises the importance of positivity, relationships, outcome, strength, purpose, engagement, and resilience in pre-service teachers’ well-being in Hong Kong. Participants were pre-service pre-school teachers (N = 77) who participated in a 1-month randomised control trial with four intervention workshops. They were randomly assigned to either intervention (n = 40) or wait-list control conditions (n = 37). A survey with measures that assessed PROSPER well-being components was administered to participants before and after the intervention. Findings of repeated measures MANCOVA revealed no significant time x group interaction effect, Wilks’ Lambda F(7, 50) = 1.66, p = .14, η² = .19. Results of univariate analyses showed that a significant time x group interaction effect existed in relationship component (η² = .08), indicating that the intervention was effective in facilitating pre-service pre-school teachers’ positive relationships with their peers. Findings underscore the potential benefits of designing positive psychological interventions for teachers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This chapter discusses the effectiveness of current professional development programmes for teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Hong Kong. The article first introduces the available services for students with ASD. The Resource Teaching Programme has been the major service provided by special schools since 1984. The principle of teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) in the least restrictive settings has rendered a rapid growth of the population of students with ASD in ordinary schools in the last decade, causing concern among the teachers. Different tiers of professional development programmes have been developed to equip teachers in ordinary schools with the knowledge and skills needed in dealing with students with SEN. However, these programmes are mainly short term and transmitted directly from the top down. The lack of opportunity to practise newly acquired knowledge and skills in real environments cannot provide sufficient confidence for teachers to handle students with ASD independently. The final part of this chapter provides a recommendation for a collaborative mode of professional development that can assist teachers in gaining practical experiences in a field-based training programme. Copyright © 2022 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.