The availability of educational data in novel ways and formats brings new opportunities to students with special education needs (SEN), whose behaviour and learning are highly sensitive to their body conditions and surrounding environments. Multimodal learning analytics (MMLA) captures learner and learning environment data in various modalities and analyses them to explain the underlying educational insights. In this work, we applied MMLA to predict SEN students’ behaviour change upon their participation in applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapies, where ABA therapy is an intervention in special education that aims at treating behavioural problems and fostering positive behaviour changes. Here we show that by inputting multimodal educational data, our machine learning models and deep neural network can predict SEN students’ behaviour change with optimum performance of 98% accuracy and 97% precision. We also demonstrate how environmental, psychological, and motion sensor data can significantly improve the statistical performance of predictive models with only traditional educational data. Our work has been applied to the Integrated Intelligent Intervention Learning (3I Learning) System, enhancing intensive ABA therapies for over 500 SEN students in Hong Kong and Singapore since 2020. Copyright © 2023 IEEE.

This study aims to compare auditory temporal processing and phonological processing across locations and age levels and to test the direct and indirect effects of auditory temporal and phonological processing on proficiency in Chinese character reading. We recruited 108 typically developing children — 25 and 24 kindergarteners from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively, and 34 and 25 primary school students from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively. Our findings showed that, before learning PCS, the languages’ phonological complexity did not affect the importance of ATP in Chinese reading. Also, we found the use of PCS could lead to a direct effect from students’ ATP to Chinese character reading as well as through phonological awareness. Our findings indicated that ways of learning to read influence children’s patterns of cognitive and linguistic abilities, which should be considered in teaching designs for reading. Copyright © 2023 Fundacion Infancia y Aprendizaje.

Objectives: Research shows that compassion from others and from the self may enable university students to face, overcome, and bounce back from adversity and generate a greater sense of thriving and meaning in life. However, the underlying processes are largely unknown. The present study aimed to examine the associations of compassion with psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life among university students and explore the mechanisms underlying these associations. Methods: A total of 536 Hong Kong university students completed questionnaires measuring their experiences of compassion from others, self-compassion, resilience, psychological distress, flourishing, and meaning in life. Results: Serial mediation analyses showed that compassion from others was associated positively with self-compassion, which was, in turn, linked to greater resilience and consequently lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of flourishing and meaning in life. Conclusions: Our findings reveal the associations of compassion from others and self-compassion with the well-being and life meaning of university students. The findings highlight the importance of being open and receptive to love and kindness from others. The findings also point to the importance of developing a caring attitude toward oneself. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

According to recent census figures, the number of ethnic minority and non-local Chinese youths has doubled from 27,322 in 2001 to 42,644 in 2011, many of whom are receiving secondary or tertiary education. Despite efforts in promoting diversity, equality, and cultural sensitivity, stigma towards ethnic and cultural minorities remains common in the local context. Minority members’ negative experiences give rise to stress and poorer well-being. Within the existing local teacher education curriculum, there are general education courses that focus on multicultural and race issues. However, they are elective courses and engage a relatively small number of students. We believe basic aptitude in multiculturalism should be cultivated in all student teachers. As such, this intervention study was conducted to enrich student teachers’ training to manage diversity in school setting. The intervention involved a three-hour guest lecture, a three-hour e-learning session, and a three-hour multicultural discovery tour. Participants were pre-service teachers from five undergraduate courses at a local University. Following the intervention, the participating course lecturers commented that the intervention boosted multicultural competencies in preservice teachers innovatively. In addition, 100% of the multicultural tour participants agreed that their learning performance has improved through the activity, and that they would continue to apply the knowledge in the future. Based on these findings, it is recommended that similar activities should be incorporated in the teacher education curriculum in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2020 International Conference on Learning and Teaching.