Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that autonomous motivation is a critical condition for optimizing human flourishing. In the school context, autonomy-supportive teaching promotes student learning and well-being. In Asian contexts, however, an indispensable part of classroom instruction seems to relate to control, which is conceptualised as the opposite of autonomy-support. While some researchers interpret Asian teachers’ instructional practices as authoritarian, increasingly more studies have argued that children in collectivist societies indeed benefit from teachers’ ‘control’. Some researchers proclaim that autonomy support is more appropriate in Western contexts while control is more important among Asian teachers. However, other studies claim that the need for autonomy-support is universal. This chapter aims to address this debate by reporting a study of the teaching style of two Hong Kong teachers. The mixed-method study was based on classroom observations and interviews of two teachers regarding their teaching styles, and a survey measured the motivation of 67 junior form students who were taught by the teachers. The coding results of classroom observation indicated that the two teachers have largely embodied autonomy support in their teaching, and that minimal controlling behaviour was found in the teachers. Their classroom practice was dominated by fostering student interest, with relatedness support and promoting mastery learning orientation as the dominant features of the two teacher’s teaching styles respectively. The two teachers’ beliefs and practices showed a strong resemblance to Confucian philosophical ideas, demonstrating the characteristics of being altruistic (jen), self as relational, and self-cultivation. Their students’ motivation was almost equally high in terms of students’ relationships with the teachers, perceived self-efficacy, learning goals, and self-handicapping behaviour (reverse score). The results disagreed with the point of view

Teaching has often been discussed as skills hence teacher education is focused on promoting a certain set of competencies. The changing view of education has turned researchers to study the internal factor of teachers to account for teaching behavior that benefits learners. The current study is underpinned by self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000). It aims to identify work engagement as a significant factor that affect teachers to adopt teaching behavior that effectively supports learners, it also explores teachers social support behavior. It is a mixed method study including an investigation based on psychological measurement and a qualitative study based on interview. The paper first reports a survey study which is based on 309 Hong Kong junior secondary school teachers. The path analysis results showed that Work Engagement fully mediates the impact of Autonomy and Competence, as two factors of Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work, on teachers' Social Support giving. It then reports an interview study on twenty teachers as the second part study. The content analysis results suggest that social support is featured by teachers' use of questioning, dialogical feedback, authentic interaction, and metacogntive teaching in the classroom. Enabling learners to pursue a good life are identified as a common goal of teaching. The study provides a theoretical framework to explain teachers' engagement behavior. It contributes an important perspective that effective teaching and teaching competencies should be generated internally, suggesting that basic need satisfaction should be promoted as it support teacher development and student learning positively. The study also has important implications to make on teacher education and training. Copyright © 2022 RPIC.

Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this study examines the relationships of Basic Psychological Need (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) at Work (BPNW), Social Support Giving (SS), and Well-being measured by Psychological Meaningfulness, Health and Work Engagement. It addresses human beings’ integration in social environment, highlighting eudemonia satisfaction as the core of well-being. Results based on a survey on 309 Hong Kong teachers revealed that BPNW significantly predicts all the well-being indicators, the predictive patterns are mostly consistent with SDT. The results also inform that BPNW (competence and relatedness) predicts SS, and SS significantly predicts well-being. The study suggests the influential role of BPNW on teachers’ well-being, it endorses social support as an important instructional behaviour that would benefit teacher development. Implications to the development of SDT and enhancement programs promoting BPNW to boost teachers’ wellbeing will be discussed. Proposals to strengthen learning and teaching in school policies and practice are suggested. Copyright © 2021 HKERA-APERA International Conference.

Social support is a feature of instructional behaviour, it is an engaged behaviour of enthusiastic teachers. As an altruistic behaviour, teachers’ social support to students has been regarded as a factor that impact teachers’ well-being, however, this factor has yet to explore. The present study attempts to fill such research gap. The paper first reports a survey study based on 309 Hong Kong teachers. The path analysis results showed that Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work (BPNW) significantly predicts the three indicators of well-being, i.e. Psychological Meaningfulness, Health and Work Engagement. The predictive patterns of BPNW on well-being are mostly consistent. The results also suggested that the mediating effects of social support between BPNW and well-being indicators are small. Given the positive correlations with both BPNW and well-being indicators, social support can be regarded as an instructional behaviour that would benefit teacher development. The second part of the paper reports interviews of a sample of 15 teachers. Content analysis suggests that teachers’ source of satisfaction has largely derived from engaging with students, such as in assisting students’ growth, or developing good teacher-student relationships; teacher satisfaction derives from higher-order value of a job (i.e. serving students) that causes psychological meaningfulness and commitment. Implications to the development of enhancement programs promoting BPNW to boost teachers’ wellbeing and engaging teaching behaviour will be discussed. The study highlights eudemonia satisfaction as the core of well-being, for teachers, social support behaviour may be significant indicator of work engagement. Copyright © 2022 Tenth SELF International Conference.

The current article examines the issue of teachers' high job stress and low motivation to develop their careers, in Hong Kong, whose situation echoes the ones in many other parts of the globe. Based on some previous research, we propose that the giving of social support from teachers to students is helpful to protect teachers from this negative effect. We carried out a pilot study with a sample of 41 local teachers who have a range of ages and teaching experience, whose position in school is at the middle management level, across 41 different schools. Questionnaires were used to examine the teachers giving of social support to their students, work-related self-efficacy, job satisfaction and aspiration. Regression analysis revealed that offering social support to students is associated positively with the teachers' work-related self-efficacy, which in turn is positively associated with the job satisfaction and aspiration of the teachers. Based on this, it is suggested that prompting teachers to give social support to their students is an effective way to tackle the current problem of teachers' high job stress and low motivation for teacher development. Implications are discussed.
[Copyright © 2015 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.]

Teacher Professional Development” (aka teacher PD) has garnered research attention in recent years. Scholars seek to understand the teacher PD process, while practitioners are interested in deriving policies to facilitate teacher PD. The consensus emerging from the pool of literature is that teacher PD should be “individualized”: more focused on fostering teachers’ personal growth instead of enforcing “standard practices”. The Anglosphere has been leading in the domain of teacher PD, causing many regions to imitate its practices. Using documentary analysis, this paper reviews teacher PD policies in Hong Kong over the past forty years and compares them with practices typically adopted in the Anglosphere. The paper suggests that the PD policies of Hong Kong progressed from ‘solely teacher training’, to ‘emphasis on generic skills’, to ‘lifelong learning’. The concept of ‘Confucian Heritage Culture’ is used to explain the differences between the Angloshpere and Hong Kong in terms of PD practices. Implications for adapting teacher PD practices cross-culturally are discussed.
[Copyright © 2015 AAPE.]

152 elementary students age ranged from 8–11 were studied on their affective and social domains in a school with an inclusive school curriculum in Hong Kong. Five questionnaires from the Assessment Program for Affective and Social Outcomes (APASO) (EMB 2001) were used to measure students’ attitude to school, self concept, attitude to learning, interpersonal competence, and problem solving strategy. The differences between normal (N=136) and inclusive (N=16) students were examined by one-way ANOVA tests. The outcome was triangulated with teachers’ perspective through teacher conference and school profile report and curriculum policy to reach a descriptive account is reached. The two groups had significant differences on social and academic self concept which were explained by a “positive discrimination” perspective to suggest a gap between what students perceived and teachers thought. There are discrepancies between teachers’ perception on the school curriculum and the effect that students reflected by the study, which suggests the how an inclusive curriculum could be shaped, such as cultivating a multicultural environment and the perspectives on both teachers and students.

The paper discusses the current school curriculum of Hong Kong with reference to the education development in our society, to generate a thesis about the direction of education. The methodology includes: (a) documentary analysis of curriculum reform documents, key education policy documents and policy documents. (b) Interview with 5 experienced teachers on the teaching job and student learning. Content analysis was performed based on triangulating the data. Some findings are gathered: (a) the “Learning to Learn” (CDI, 2000) curriculum was only too passively reactive to the current globalization tide, in which competition, productivity, and efficiency (OECD, 1998; Wallerstein, 1979; Zajda, 1998) are the values. It identified a standard “global outlook” (CDI, 2001) our future young generation should model to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. (b) the curriculum connected harmoniously with the traditions of Hong Kong education, which was commented as “predominantly a highly utilitarian means to economic and vocational ends” in a external review (Llewellyn, 1982). When the curriculum reform was in full swing, the auditing systems were in place to transform school into an economy activity. This paper reexamines education and how we can respond to lead our future towards the goal of education, but not globalization.