School counselling is a well-established means of supporting the mental health of children. Counsellors are most effective when they collaborate with parents, so it is important that parents have a good understanding of and access to school counselling services. Despite this, little is known about parents’ perceptions of counselling in Hong Kong schools. We interviewed 27 parents in Hong Kong to investigate how they perceived the counselling services provided by their children’s local and international schools, and analysed the data thematically. International school parents recognised the potential of school counselling as a means of support for their children and wanted to work more closely with counsellors to a greater extent than local school parents. Parents were confused about the roles of counsellors and experienced stigma and concerns about confidentiality which inhibited them from engaging with counselling services. Our findings suggest that school principals should work with counsellors to establish and communicate roles more clearly. Greater recognition of counsellors’ professionalism, and clearer role differentiation between counsellors and other mental health and educational professionals may improve parental engagement with and support for school counselling. Copyright © 2023 NAPCE.

Against the backdrop of rapidly growing attention to FL learners’ emotions, the present study investigated learners’ classroom emotions (anxiety, boredom, and enjoyment), literacy outcomes (reading and writing proficiency), and a largely neglected factor in FL emotions research to date – maternal education as a proxy for socio-economic status. One hundred and ninety-one Grade-three/four EFL learners from Hong Kong participated in this study. These learners completed a questionnaire about their classroom emotions, and reading and writing tests. Their parents/guardians attended individual interviews in which the highest level of maternal education was elicited. Overall, the results showed that maternal education and enjoyment were significantly associated with reading and writing proficiency. The contribution of maternal education to literacy outcomes was partially mediated by enjoyment, but not anxiety and boredom. The importance of maternal education and enjoyment are highlighted and discussed. Copyright © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This study aims to advance our understanding of the role of word knowledge in second language (L2) reading comprehension by exploring whether morphological awareness and vocabulary assessed one year ago contribute to decoding and listening comprehension which in turn contribute to reading comprehension in Chinese children learning English as an L2. A total of 167 Grade 3 and 4 primary school students (Mage = 8.99 years) in Hong Kong were tested on English morphological awareness and vocabulary at Time 1, and they were also tested on English decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension at Time 2, one year later. Our regression models showed that word knowledge tested at Time 1 was a significant predictor of decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension at Time 2; and word knowledge explained more variance in decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension in children who had higher levels of word knowledge. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that vocabulary contributed to reading comprehension fully through decoding and listening comprehension. Morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension partially through vocabulary and decoding, and it also had a unique direct contribution to reading comprehension. The findings from this study suggested the importance of emphasizing word knowledge in developing children’s reading comprehension in an L2 at an early stage of learning to read. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

This study explored whether children's second language (L2) vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension contributed to the growth of each other. A total of 184 Chinese primary school children (91 girls) aged 8–10 years old in Hong Kong participated in the pre-test of this study. Among them, 88 were in Grade 3 and 96 were in Grade 4. One year later, 178 of these children also participated in the post-test. These children learned English as an L2 at school. They completed a series of English language tasks. The results from a cross-lagged panel model show that vocabulary predicted the growth of syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. Syntactic awareness predicted the growth of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Reading comprehension facilitated the growth of vocabulary, and it also predicted the growth of syntactic awareness in Grade 4 students but not in Grade 3 students. Implications for teaching children an L2 are discussed. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research Findings: Previous studies have found that a growth mind-set was associated with optimal learning and well-being outcomes. However, much of this research has been conducted among adolescents and young adults. Relatively little is known as to whether these associations also apply to young children. The present study aimed to examine whether mind-sets are associated with school engagement and subjective well-being in the early childhood context (i.e. first-grade students). A total of 402 Hong Kong first-grade students (219 boys and 183 girls; mean age = 6.69) were recruited. Self-reported questionnaires were administered to assess students’ growth mind-set, engagement, and subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that students who endorsed a growth mind-set were more likely to report higher levels of engagement and subjective well-being. Practice or Policy: Our study demonstrates the importance of growth mind-set for optimal functioning among young children. Growth mind-set may need to be nurtured in the early childhood context as a potential pathway to improving students’ academic engagement and subjective well-being. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Objectives: Interprofessional education (IPE) harnesses the power of teams to facilitate collaborative learning across disciplines. However, prior research has not paid sufficient attention to the role of team-level factors on IPE outcomes, posing a major theoretical and methodological limitation. In response to this, using social interdependence theory (SIT), this study aimed to delineate the independent contributions of both team-level and student-level interprofessional attitudes (teamwork, roles, and responsibilities; patient-centeredness; and community-centeredness) in predicting IPE collaboration outcomes (goal achievement, team effectiveness, and team performance) employing multi-level analysis.Methods: To test whether interprofessional attitudes at the team and student levels predict IPE collaboration outcomes, conducted multilevel modeling. We used the pretest and posttest data from 323 healthcare students in Hong Kong from Chinese medicine, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work programmes enrolled in the IPE Cancer module.Results: Among the interprofessional attitudes, “teamwork, roles, and responsibilities” was found to be the best predictor of IPE outcomes, both at the student and team levels. Students who recognized the benefits of shared learning had better goal achievement and team effectiveness. Furthermore, teams that emphasized shared learning also had better overall team performance.Conclusions: Students' attitudes towards teamwork, roles, and responsibilities in interprofessional collaborative practice, both at the student and team levels, are important to attaining positive student- and team-level outcomes. The study contributes to the expansion of existing knowledge in medical education, theoretically, by adopting SIT as a lens through which collaborative learning in healthcare teams can be understood, and methodologically, by applying multi-level approaches and delineating important student- and team-level predictors of IPE outcomes. Copyright

Objective: This study investigated how school counsellors in international schools in Hong Kong supported the wellbeing of students and families during the period of school closure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of parents.Method: Sixteen parents with children in eleven different international schools in Hong Kong were interviewed and the data were analysed thematically.Results: Strong pre-existing relationships, role clarity, and open communication between counsellors and parents were associated with the effective adaptation of counselling services to the changing needs of parents during the school closure period, but these characteristics were often weak or absent.Conclusions: Parents’ perceptions of counselling during the school closure period provide important feedback that schools can use to build more integrated and responsive support services. Counsellors can support students’ wellbeing more effectively during crises by communicating their roles clearly, building strong relationships with parents, and helping students to maintain a diverse experience in their schooling. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited.

Morphological awareness (MA) was defined as “awareness of morphemic structures of words and the ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure” (Carlisle, 1995, p.194). MA is viewed as a multi-faceted construct, including aspects like inflectional, derivational and compounding morphology. It has been identified as a crucial metalinguistic awareness influencing children’s literacy outcomes. Though a growing body of evidence has shown positive the effects of MA instructions, it remains relatively unclear regarding what components of MA instructions uniquely contribute to literacy outcomes. This study adopted randomized controlled trial design and examined the effects of English morphological instructions on improving word reading, reading comprehension and spelling skills in 29 Hong Kong Chinese third graders who speak English as a second language. Students were randomly assigned into three groups: a) derivational morphology group (n = 10), b) compounding morphology plus derivational morphology group (n = 10) or c) business-as-usual group (n = 9). All children received intervention for 8 hours (two 30-min sessions per week for 8 weeks) and were administered a battery of linguistic and cognitive tasks, including non-verbal intelligence, inflectional, derivational and compounding morphology, vocabulary, word reading, spelling skills and reading comprehension at pretest and posttest. The results of the study would be discussed in the presentation. The findings may shed light on the causal role of morphological awareness on literacy development as well as the optimal manner in teaching morphological awareness. Copyright © 2020 ARWA.

In Hong Kong, English instruction begins early and is delivered as a school subject in kindergartens. English teaching approaches are diverse and English Teachers’ background varies greatly among different kindergartens. It is acknowledged that teachers’ background may influence their pedagogical approaches and students’ learning. In the present study, we explore the differences between the teaching content and quality of instruction delivered by English teachers who are native speakers of English or non-native speaker of English. We compare their teaching content and quality of instruction based on lesson observations over one school year in 12 Hong Kong kindergartens. The findings have implications for future professional development in English teaching and learning in early childhood education. Copyright © 2017 ICLLL.

Background. Word reading and linguistic comprehension skills are two crucial components in reading comprehension, according to the Simple View of Reading (SVR). Some researchers have posited that a third component should be involved in reading and understanding texts, namely executive function (EF) skills.Aim. This study was novel in two ways. Not only did we tested EF skills as a predictor of reading comprehension in a non-alphabetic language (i.e., Chinese) to extend the theoretical model of SVR, we also examined reading comprehension further in kindergarten children (age 5) in Hong Kong, in the attempt to reveal possible early precursors of reading comprehension.Sample(s). A group of 170 K3 kindergarteners was recruited in Hong Kong.Methods. Children’s word reading was assessed. Their linguistic comprehension was assessed with phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, and vocabulary knowledge. Using a structured observation task, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS), we measured their composite scores for EF skills.Results. Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders performance predicted unique variance in children’s Chinese reading comprehension concurrently beyond word reading and a set of linguistic comprehension skills. Conclusions. The results highlight the important role of EF skills in beginning readers’ reading comprehension. Copyright © 2018 The British Psychological Society.