Career and life planning is extremely important for all adolescents in order to enhance transition outcomes, but to date, little attention has been paid to its role in education for students with special educational needs (SENs). There is no specific model in Hong Kong for supporting career and life planning for SEN students, nor has there been any research on the topic. As a result, their needs are easily overlooked and they have had fewer opportunities to explore and develop their vocational interests. To address this problem, a charitable organization in Hong Kong initiated in 2016 a two-year program for junior secondary students with SEN. The program aimed to develop a service model for supporting career and life planning for these students in Grades 7–9. Evaluation of the program included obtaining views from different stakeholders, including parents of the SEN students. In this chapter, we discuss findings from the evaluation study using a qualitative approach with data from parent interviews. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The psychological construct of self-efficacy plays a salient role in students’ pursuit of a career path. Career-related self-efficacy is strongly associated with life satisfaction and emotional well-being. Most of what is known about this construct has come from research with mainstream students in the West, and considerably less attention has focused on students with special educational needs. The limited knowledge we have of SEN students’ career-related self-efficacy may be due to lack of appropriate assessment instruments with sound psychometric properties that can be used across cultures. This chapter reports steps taken to validate such an instrument, the Career Development Self-Efficacy Inventory (CD-SEI), for assessing career life skills self-efficacy in SEN students. The authors describe the use of a short form of CD-SEI in Hong Kong with a sample of SEN students and a comparison group without special needs. Theoretical and practical implications of using this instrument to assess career life skills self-efficacy of SEN students are discussed in light of current career development theories. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Purpose: A growing body of research has focused on the topic of inclusive education for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. At the same time, few scholars have explored the role technology can play in enhancing inclusivity within the context of quality education. This study examines how the differentiated use of technology that takes into account disparities in prior knowledge can benefit students of different learning backgrounds.Design/Approach/Methods: This study adopted an experimental design to investigate how content-specific and content-neutral technologies can be strategically used to support the classroom discussions of Chinese and ethnic minority students' learning Chinese language and mathematics. One hundred and twenty-one secondary school students participated in the study. Each student was randomly assigned to a condition, in a 2 (ethnicity: Chinese vs. ethnic minority) × 2 (content: content-specific first vs. content-neutral first) design.Findings: The study found that (a) for Chinese language lessons, ethnic minority students preferred to learn with content-neutral and content-specific technologies in prediscussion and postdiscussion activities, respectively; whereas the Chinese students' preferences were the opposite and (b) for mathematics lessons, both groups of students performed better when content-specific and content-neutral technologies were used in prediscussion and postdiscussion activities, respectively.Originality/Value: The study presents five practical suggestions for the strategic use of technology in inclusive classrooms in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

Background: Hong Kong students with physical disabilities were being seen as physically inactive compared with typically developed people or even people with other disabilities, such as visual impairment or intellectual disabilities. Lack of regular physical activity would lead to poor physical fitness, and yet is associated with a higher risk of being obese or other physical as well as mental health problems. Currently, a newly developed sport, sitting light volleyball, modified from the Paralympic sitting volleyball, is considered as suitable for disabled people with lower physical fitness, in which was able to increase fitness level and increase their physical activity.Objectives: The current study aimed to examine the effect of sitting light volleyball in improving physical fitness among students with physical disabilities in Hong Kong.Methods: The current study was an interventional, quasi-experimental study. Nineteen participants, 8 males and 11 females, with the age of 18.5 on average (SD = 3.24), participated in the study. Two local special education schools were involved in the 10-week (65 minutes per session) sitting light volleyball intervention program. Participants took part in a fitness test before and after the intervention. The intended-to-treat approach was adopted throughout the data analysis, with the last observation carried forward method for managing the missing data.Results: No significant changes in body composition outcomes of the participants were found. The non-parametric sign test showed significant median differences on dumbbell press test and flexibility test of the right shoulder before and after the intervention, with Z = 2.94, P = 0.003; Z = 2.20, P = 0.028, respectively.Conclusions: This indicated that the sitting light volleyball intervention was able to provide preliminary evidence on showing the enhancement of muscle endurance and flexibility of the students with physical disabilities. Whereas, intensified interventions should be

Objective This quasi-experimental study reported the results of a structured literacy intervention programme designed for secondary school students of Year 7 to Year 9 with dyslexia. Students of the intervention group (n = 116) participated in 40-week sessions of small-size, classroom-based, and split-group intervention setting with 45-min daily lesson on both Chinese and English language compared with students in the control group who received normal classroom instructions (n = 98). Results Students in the intervention group outperformed the control groups in self-regulated learning scales, which indicated that there was positive change in students' behavioural and cognitive outcomes in learning. Although students demonstrated gains in phonetic skills, posttest results in academic achievement did not exhibit significant improvement when compared with their control group peers. Conclusion The findings provided some encouraging evidence of the effectiveness of intervention programme. Students that demonstrated gains in phonetic skills and improvement in behavioural and cognitive aspects required continuous intervention lessons to become a self-regulated learner, who would be self-motivated to improve methods of learning and adopt strategies for attaining academic goals. The study contributed to the literature by presenting one of the very first school-based, small-size, classroom-based, and split-group intervention programme for secondary school dyslexic students, which included teachers and students training on English and Chinese intervention content (phonological and literacy content), teaching curriculum integrated with school curriculum, and coteaching with school teachers in the mainstream classrooms, whereas most of the existing intervention programmes used pull-out approach involving the first language only.
[Copyright of Dyslexia is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.]

This study analyses responses (n = 309, across 94 schools) to the General Self-Efficacy Scale (Zhang and Schwarzer [1995]. "Measuring Optimistic Self-Beliefs: A Chinese Adaptation of the General Self-Efficacy Scale." Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient 38 (3): 174-181) from Hong Kong primary teachers of inclusive music classes. Analysis of these results sheds light on the impact that contextual reforms have on these non-core subject music teachers' practice. Respondents' perceived self-efficacy is moderate - characterised as a see-saw relationship between their personal and external domains. A possible behavioural intervention suggests professional-sharing being further enriched were current Education Bureau's in-service SEN courses to be inclusive of all primary school subjects, including music. Specific factors that underpin these respondents 'moderate' self-efficacy are identified as forming two clusters, human resource management and stress, with possible behavioural interventions for these being outlined.
[Copyright of Music Education Research is the property of Routledge.]

香港政府倡導融合教育，照顧學生多樣化，亦鼓勵學生達致全人發展，但教師工作繁忙，如何同時達成二者目標實屬挑戰。本文旨在為初高中和專上教育教師提供能夠糅合二者的教學方法，文章介紹了「服務學習」概念，強調教學時需「服務」和「學習」並重，給予學生機會設計和帶領活動，學習理解不同群體的需要，深入反思社會現況。研究團隊有系統地建立了一套「服務學習」框架，並以香港教育大學和香港浸會大學的合作計劃為參考示範。The advocate of inclusive education and whole person development has been one of the major missions of Hong Kong government, but to fulfill the goal of such mission in the classroom poses a great challenge to teachers. The present paper aims to provide a pedagogy for teachers of secondary and tertiary educations that achieves both the purposes of inclusive education and whole person development. The concept “Service-Learning” which emphasizes the importance of “service” and “learning” in teaching is introduced. Teacher following such pedagogy offers student chances to organize and undertake activity, to learn to understand the needs of different people and to have a deep reflection about the society. Our team, based on the concept, has developed a structural framework to operationalize the concept in teaching and a project co-organized by The Education University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University is provided as case demonstration for reference. Copyright © 2019 香港教師中心.

The role of emotions in student engagement has been examined in many studies. However, little is known about how emotional intelligence (EI) is related to engagement and other key learning outcomes in higher education. To fill this gap, this study examined how EI is associated with student engagement and how EI and engagement jointly predict key learning outcomes in higher education, including the students’ GPA, generic outcomes, and satisfaction with the university experience. The study adopted a prospective longitudinal design involving 560 first-year students from 10 faculties of a university in Hong Kong. The data were collected at two-time points, namely before the start and after the end of the students’ first year in the university. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the measurement and hypothesized models. Results indicated that EI positively predicted all dimensions of student engagement and promoted key learning outcomes (including GPA, generic learning outcomes, and students’ satisfaction with the university) via the different dimensions of student engagement. The model also explained 16%, 44%, and 38% of the students’ GPA, generic learning outcomes, and satisfaction with their university experience, respectively. This study provides empirical evidence on the positive effect of EI on the students’ optimal functioning in the higher education context. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2020 Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa and Springer Nature B.V.

This study adopted a pre- and post-intervention design to develop and investigate the efficacy of the social inclusion intervention for pre-schoolers with social communication deficit (SCD). It is based on the operant conditioning theory to promote peer acceptance and positive attitude towards children with SCD for their friendship formation in inclusive preschool settings. The participants were 128 pre-schoolers aged from 3 years 9 months to 6 years 11 months old (Mean age = 4 years 9 months) in Hong Kong. There were 54 children with SCD and 74 without SCD with 71 boys and 57 girls. A quasi-experimental research design was conducted, and quantitative data analysis methods were applied. The data were analyzed using a mixed measures ANOVA, followed by two-way ANOVA and independent samples t test or pair samples t test for further analysis. By comparing the sociometric, observation, and questionnaire data before and after the social inclusion intervention, the changes in the sociometric status, interaction frequency, and questionnaire scores of the participants were analyzed. The results indicated a significant increase in popularity and decrease in peer rejection for social acceptance level (SAL) and gain in mutual friendships (MF), F (1, 124) = 4.74, p < .05, ηp² = .04, for all children (both SCD and non-SCD) in the experimental class. No significant differences were found in the Mutual Social Interaction (MSI) and Social Inclusion Status (SIST) scores for all children in the experimental and control class, ps > .05. The performance across the diagnostic types (SCD versus non-SCD ) were further compared. The results in the SCD group revealed a statistically significant gain in the production of SAL and MF, F (1, 124) = 5.08, p < .05, ηp² = .04, and no statistically significant differences in MSI and SIST, ps > .05. The key findings suggested that the novel intervention in the current study is effective to enhance children’s social acceptance level and friendship formation

According to the Hong Kong Education Bureau, the number of students with special education needs (SEN) has been on the rise. In order to cope with an increasing demand for inclusive education, professional training programmes aiming for pre-service teachers to educate students with SEN have increased locally. Guided by the theory of planned behaviour, this study aims to investigate the relations between Chinese pre-service teachers' views and self-efficacy in implementing inclusive education in Hong Kong. A total of 94 Chinese pre-service teachers were recruited at a public university to complete an online questionnaire. Controlling for age, teaching experience, and relevant training, differential effects were found between pre-service teachers' views and self-efficacy. Specifically, teachers' positive attitudes towards inclusion were related to their greater self-efficacy in implementing inclusive instructions and managing students' behaviours. Teachers' fewer sentiments about inclusion were related to their greater self-efficacy in collaborating with parents and professionals. Teachers' fewer concerns about knowledge, workload, and overall feasibility were also related to their greater self-efficacy in collaboration and behavioural management. These findings broaden the literature and inform policy makers the need to strengthen teachers' efficacy by reducing practical barriers and increasing their positive attitudes towards inclusion. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.