AIMS: This study aims to describe the health-related quality of life of both in-service and pre-service teachers who engaged in the teacher education of the Hong Kong Early Childhood Education (HKECE) programme. The research questions are: (a) What is the health-related quality of life of ECE teachers in Hong Kong? (b) Are there differences between ECE teachers in Hong Kong and those in other South-East Asian Chinese communities? (c) What demographic factors are related to quality of life of ECE teachers? METHODS: The sample comprised 1,026 ECE teachers, including 834 in-service and 192 pre-service teachers of early childhood education. Participants completed the self-administered Chinese version of the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) (SF-36) questionnaire. The HRQOL has been validated for use with the Chinese communities in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Taiwan. Mean values of the HRQOL main scale and subscales for this sample were compared against pervious similar samples in other Asian countries. Subgroups (according to age, housing-related socio-economic status, and experience of illness/diseases) were compared on the HRQOL main scale and subscales using the methods of MANOVA and ANOVA. RESULTS: The results suggest that the HKECE teachers were found to have not only poor self-rated health-related quality of life, but also low quality of life compared to four other Chinese samples in South East Asian communities that were reported in the literature. Analysis showed that in-service teachers had significantly poorer quality of life than pre-service teachers, and old teachers tended to have worse quality of life than their young colleagues. Significant differences were also found in socio-economic status and experience of illness/disease. CONCLUSIONS: Hong Kong healthcare and education policy makers should aware of the phenomenon that some ECE teachers are in a serious state of ill health, especially those in-service teachers who have families, having low socio-economic

Objective The aims of this study are to explore the interplay between parental feeding style, child eating behavior, parenting stress, and young children's weight outcomes in preschool settings in relation to the intervention and prevention of childhood obesity. Design, Setting and Participants Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. A survey of 336 Chinese parents and primary caregivers of preschool children aged 2 to 6 years was nested in 3 detailed case studies in 2011. Outcome Measures and Analysis The Parental Feeding Behavior Questionnaire and Child Eating Behavior Questionnaires, Parenting Stress Index, and BMI of young children were measured. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Analysis of variance, χ2 test, and Fisher exact test were used to compare and investigate associations between variables. Qualitative data were analyzed by a multilevel framework and incorporated data from the quantitative study into an overall model. Results Significant differences were found in food responsiveness (F3,332 = 4.25, P < .01), enjoyment of food (F3,332 = 6.00, P < .01), desire to drink (F3,332 = 4.36, P < .01) with obese children; satiety responsiveness (F3,332 = 9.84, P < .01), slowness in eating (F3,332 = 24.19, P < .01), and emotional undereating (F3,332 = 4.71, P < .01) with underweight children; and parents' encouragement to eat (F3,332 = 4.10, P < .01) with underweight children. Parent-child dysfunctional interaction positively correlated with instrumental feeding (radj = 0.37) and emotional feeding (radj = 0.29). Child age, schooling, and housing were associated with child BMI (P < .01). Conclusions and Implications These findings confirmed that children's eating and feeding relates to abnormal weight, which also links to parenting stress, family socioeconomic status, and childcare practices. Funding S.A.S. Dragon Holdings Ltd. R2090.
[Copyright © 2012 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior]

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the health concepts of preschool teachers. The samples were from 72 in-service teachers and 128 pre-service students, totalling 200 preschool teachers. The data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire survey and a quantitative methodology was employed in the study. The findings indicated that both in-service and pre-service teachers shared similar concerns and attitudes towards health, which tend to be socio-culturally determined. Demographic factors seem to affect the health concepts of preschool teachers. The overall findings provide useful information for health professionals and educators in developing health training materials for preschool teachers.
[Copyright © 2005 Institute of Health Promotion and Education.]

This article is concerned with parental involvement and participation in preschool education in Hong Kong. Based on the experience gained from a parental education programme, it is argued that three issues are crucial in the development of parental education: (1) an ecological approach to recognise the nature of parental education; (2) parental involvement as an indicator of school performance; and (3) training teachers or relevant professionals to work with parents from diverse families. In response to the changing nature of families’ and children’s growth and development in Hong Kong, preschool parental education in the twenty-first century has a special mission and vision regarding parental involvement and participation. This article indicates that the empowerment issue of parents and teachers has evidently been addressed by a belief in the notion of ‘people participation for development and improvement’.
[Copyright © 2004 Symposium Journals Ltd.]

An ongoing project is investigating online learning-oriented assessment (Carless, 2003) on a two-year project to redesign seven teaching and learning modules at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Simultaneously the project team is developing key principles for online learning assessment. The project uses 'design experiments' (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992), 'development research' (van de Akker, 1999) or 'use-inspired research' (Stokes, 1997) for the ongoing project. Use-inspired research "includes basic research that seeks to extend the frontiers of understanding but is also inspired by considerations of use" (Stokes, 1997, p. 74). Our focus has been to improve the use of learning-oriented assessment in eight separate modules (four completed and three in-progress) in teacher-education. Four teacher-educators from four different departments: Early Childhood Education, Information and Applied Technology, Creative Arts and the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology participated in the project. Throughout the project we have examined teachers' perceptions of assessment, teaching and learning and technology through video-interviews and concept mapping. In addition we have conducted video-focus groups with students within our classes to determine their perceptions about the new forms of assessment that we have trialled. Online learning technology has significantly changed the landscape of teaching, learning and assessment and allows new possibilities. Learning management systems like Blackboard have unique affordances in allowing collaboration between students. The use of group activities and student-centred approaches like project-based learning allow students to collaborate, debate, negotiate and crystallize their ideas whilst working within a socio-constructivist framework. The nature of the learning task is a predominant factor in the collaborative skills developed by the students. Project-based learning is defined as "an instructional technique in which meaningful