All public-funded Hong Kong universities have explicit practices to promote integrity and prevent students’ academic dishonesty. Using the Behaviour Change Wheel as a conceptual framework, three common practices were analysed in the present study, namely, enforcement of policies to penalize dishonest acts, use of plagiarism detection software, and mandatory attendance at academic honesty workshops. Qualitative data were collected from 50 students (in 14 focus groups) and individual interviews with 18 faculty members from eight publicly-funded universities in Hong Kong. Content analyses reveal that, although the students and faculty staff endorsed punishment as an effective intervention to reduce motivation to cheat, they also believed it would not enhance motivation for honest behaviours. Plagiarism detection software might reduce opportunities to plagiarize, but students with dishonest motivations will only turn to harder-to-trace means to cheat. While demonstrating good concepts of academic honesty, a sign that academic honesty education was working, the students attributed dishonest motivation to insufficient capability to perform academic tasks, which they described as a common problem. Both students and staff opined that the solution lies in more responsive learning support and pedagogical enhancement, but that it is constrained by university policies. Copyright © 2022 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Having academic honesty is a valuable character for tertiary level learners in their learning journey. The purpose of the current study was to study tertiary students’ behaviors of academic honesty regarding school assignments. Data from 8 public universities in Hong Kong were collected through a questionnaire. This questionnaire contained ten scales for evaluating the five components of “the theory of Planned Behavior: 1) attitude toward behavior, 2) subjective norm, 3) perceived behavioral control, 4) intention and 5) behavior”. Rasch analysis had been used for examining psychometric properties of the modified study instrument and generate students’ measures. These students’ measures were then subjected to a path analysis for investigating relationships among 5 components. Results of the path analysis revealed good model-data fits on the two constructs: avoiding academic misconducts and upholding academic truth. Regardless of the predictive power of subjective norms is debatable, attitudes toward behavior and perceived behavioral controls are significantly related to the intentions and behaviors of tertiary students in maintaining academic honesty. The significance of this current study suggests that the implications of results contribute to further research. These contributions to researchers and practitioners include the advancement of current research and teaching techniques, all of which are presented in this thesis. All rights reserved.

Research Findings: This study examined whether physical coercion and psychological control by mothers and fathers can influence preschoolers’ use of physical and relational aggression, and whether the relations are moderated by children’s effortful control in a Hong Kong Chinese sample. Data were collected from a sample of 168 children (88 girls; M = 60.97 months, SD = 5.51 months) and their parents twice, six months apart. At Time 1, mothers and fathers reported on their spouse’s, as well as their own use of physical coercion and psychological control, and a puzzle box task was administered to assess child effortful control. At Time 2, mothers, fathers, and teachers completed questionnaires to assess child physical and relational aggression. Results show that mothers’ physical coercion was associated with child physical and relational aggression. In contrast, fathers’ physical coercion was significantly related to child physical aggression but its relation with child relational aggression was not statistically significant, and both these two associations were moderated by effortful control. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that general intervention efforts are needed to prevent aggression among children of physically coercive parents, and particularly among children with low effortful control and physically coercive fathers. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

To promote our understanding of moral behavior of adolescents as well as moral and civic education in Hong Kong, Wofoo Foundation collaborated with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to conduct five studies. While the first three studies are survey studies examining the issues from the perspectives of high school students, teachers and parents, the fourth and fifth studies reviewed moral and character education in Hong Kong and examined the views of principals and teachers on moral and civic education, respectively. In this paper, we present the major findings and recommendations of these studies and integrate them for future service, policy and research considerations. Copyright © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Research Findings: This cross-sectional study examined the class- and child-level associations of social-emotional competence with behavioral and academic adjustment among Chinese kindergarten children and tested teacher collectivistic socialization goals as a moderator. Participants were 523 kindergarten children and their mothers and class teachers from Hong Kong, China. The mean age of children was 4.37 years (SD = 0.60), and 53% of them were boys. Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, class teachers rated children’s social-emotional competence and their own socialization goals, and mothers rated children’s externalizing behaviors and school readiness and provided demographic information. Also, in structured interviews, children completed a Chinese word reading test. Multilevel models indicated that, controlling for child gender and age, mother age and education, and teacher experience of teaching, the class average of child social-emotional competence – which indicated the overall social-emotional climate of the classroom – was linked negatively to child externalizing behaviors and positively to child school readiness and Chinese word reading ability. Moreover, children who scored higher on social-emotional competence – compared to their own class average (i.e., their everyday companions) – scored lower on externalizing behaviors and higher on school readiness. There was no evidence of the moderating role of teacher socialization goals, however. Practice or Policy: Findings pointed to the utility of using class-wide initiatives to promote the overall classroom climate and using child-specific activities to promote individual social-emotional development. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Bullying is a common aggressive behanviour and a hidden issue in special schools. Maladaptive family backgrounds breed bullies and victims. The characteristics and myths of bullying are discussed. A multi-level approach of school intervention is suggested. Local research on this area is desperately required. Copyright by Special Education Society of Hong Kong Limited. All Rights Reserved.

本研究以行動研究探討正向行為支持的模式對自閉症譜系學生之影響,研究對象為一位被確診為自閉症譜系的小三學生,研究者發現學生表達情緒的方法,對課堂及其本身都造成困擾。研究者利用正向行為管理策略製訂個別行為奬勵計劃,並於本年度試行。研究者透過觀察、訪談等方式來蒐集資料,並在研究過程中調整計劃的細節。研究發現:(1)正向行為管理策略有助強化學生的正面行為;(2)學生能遵守課堂規則,自我形象亦提升了;(3)研究者重新肯定「奬勵計劃」對處理具行為及情緒問題學生的功用。綜合本研究之結果,提出反思與建議,以供教師及日後相關研究參考。This action research was conducted to discuss the effectiveness of positive behavior support on a student with ASD. The subject of the research is a P.3 student with ASD. According to the observation of the student’s behaviors and how the student expressed his negative emotions, student showed a lack of intention to learn and was failed to express his emotions properly. A positive behavior support plan was set and was taken place in 2016-17. Data was collected through the record of behaviors, meetings of reflections and interviews. The research findings are as followed: (1) Positive behavior support strategies can strengthen the student’s positive behavior. (2) After detailed discussion and explanation, the student behaved well in most of the time. (3) Researcher’s reception to the token scheme was turned about, the effectiveness of token scheme was reaffirmed. Based on the result of the study, some suggestions and reflections were made for teachers and future studies.
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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。
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