Mosston’s “spectrum of teaching styles” which composes of 11 pedagogical approaches in physical education, has been popularly promoted for maximizing students’ learning in the Western countries. However, very few of them have been put into practice and studied in Hong Kong. One of the teaching styles, reciprocal teaching style is thought to help tackle problems associated with large classes, limited equipment, and insufficient feedback to students. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions and experiences of students and physical education teachers in reciprocal teaching. The factors that influence their teaching and learning were also examined. Four primary and secondary physical education teachers teaching in Kowloon, Hong Kong and New Territories and their four classes of students were purposely invited to take part in the study. The teachers were briefed the principles of the implementation of the reciprocal style and adopted reciprocal teaching implementing a 10-lesson unit. Qualitative data were collected by a combination of techniques: lesson observations, formal interviews of students and teachers, student reflective journals and teacher self-review. Constant comparison and analytic induction were used to organize and categorize the data. Findings indicated that the teachers were not used to the teaching format and encountered difficulties during the preparation. Experience, resources and tutors’ abilities were identified as major factors influencing the implementation and learning of students in reciprocal teaching. The help of teachers and the preparation of task card assisted both the tutors and tutees in the learning process. Most students held positive views of the reciprocal teaching and recognized the values of the approach. The more the teachers implement the approach, both teachers and students will get more familiar to the approach. Findings of the study hold implications in helping preservice and in-service physical education teachers

Physical activity has numerous positive and psychological benefits. Therefore, a physically active lifestyle benefits both the individual and the society. Nevertheless, many people drop out from their sport or exercise regimen. In this inquiry three motivational factors in exercise adherence, including predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors, were studied from a cross-cultural perspective. A total of 235 male (n=151) and female (n=84) volunteers (mean age=21.4 ± 2.6 years) from Hong Kong (n=112) and United Kingdom (n=123) completed an exercise habits inventory and the Physical Activity Adherence Questionnaire (PAAQ). All participants were physically active, of whom 132 have once quit a sport/exercise in the past whereas 103 never quit. Results revealed that differences exist in predisposing and enabling motivational components of exercise adherence in both cross-cultural and gender comparison studies. Participants who quit a sport or exercise report lesser reinforcing experiences than those who never abandoned an adopted sport or exercise. It is concluded that reinforcing factors play a crucial role in the long term maintenance of a sport or exercise and that both cultural and gender differences need to be taken into serious consideration in the course of facilitation of various exercise/sport behaviours.
[Copyright © 2003 Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University.]

Competitive anxiety (CA), task and ego orientation (TEO), and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were studied in 1086 secondary school children from Hong Kong (HK), Britain, Hungary, and Romania. Statistically significant nation by gender interactions emerged for TEO as well as extrinsic motivation. Apart from HK where the highest scores for TEO were recorded, boys generally scored higher than girls on all dependent measures except CA for which the inverse results emerged. Children in the four nations showed statistically significantly different response profile in the studied measures. This research substantiates the need for local/cultural research data in developing sport education programmes.

The value and attitude of teachers can have profound influence on shaping the character of their students. In sport, participation and discontinuation are the two most controversial topics being discussed. This study examines the motivational patterns in sport participation of pre-service physical education teachers in Hong Kong. The pre-service physical education teachers will have direct contact with children in the area of physical education and sports in one or two years' time. They will be the most important media in influencing the attitude and value of the children towards physical activities and sport. This study highlightes the conceptual links among Achievement Goals Theory (Maehr & Nicholls, 1980; Nicholls, 1984), Cognitive Evaluation Theory(Deci, 1975; Deci & Ryan, 1985) and Competence Motivation Theory (Harter, 1978) by examining the relationship between task/ego goal perspective and intrinsic/extrinsic motivational orientation. Eighty-one pre- service physical education teachers from the Hong Kong Institute of Education completed the Chinese version of Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda, 1989) and Sport Motivation Scale (SMS; Pelletier et. al., 1995). The mean and standard deviations for the scores of the questionnaires were analysed to examine the motivational behavior of the subjects. Simple correlation analysis had been performed to determine the relationship between task/ego goal orientations and intrinsic/extrinsic motivational orientations. Gender differences in goal perspectives and motivational orientations had been examined by using independent sample t-tests. The results were used to compare with another sample of 59 pre-service non-PE teachers in order to examine whether RE elective and non-PE elective teachers differ in their goal perspective and motivational orientations. The results demonstrated significant gender difference and elective difference in motivational orientations; with RE elective and male subjects significantly