The purpose of this study are to examine whether demographic variables are related to teacher stress, if individual factors including self-efficacy and resiliency and systemic factor, school environment are related to teacher stress and how the individual factors together with the systemic factor jointly affect stress. The study is comprised of a convenient sample with 390 secondary school teachers.
Reliability test and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the Teacher Stress Inventory, Generalized Self-efficacy Scale, Ego Resiliency Scale and the School-Level Environment Questionnaire and the instruments were found to be reliable and valid.
Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to test for main effect of demographic variables on teacher stress. Findings revealed that years of teaching and school banding had significant main effect on stress. Teachers with more teaching experience were found to exhibit more stress than teachers with less experience in emotional manifestation and cardiovascular manifestation. Teachers worked in band three schools were found to be more stressful than teachers of band one and two schools in behavioural, emotional, fatigue and gastronomical manifestation of stress.
Moreover, structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test and compare the goodness of fit of an overall direct effect model, a mediating model and a modified direct effect mediating model. Results indicated that the modified direct effect mediating model provided the best model fit with the data. School environment, self-efficacy and resiliency were found to be all negatively correlated to teacher stress. School environment exerted significant impact on teacher stress. Among the factors of school environment evaluated, affiliation, student support and work pressure had high correlation with secondary school teacher stress in Hong Kong.
All in all, the research findings had confirmed the hypotheses of this study. Demographic

The study examined knowledge building and scientific understanding in the context of high school students working collaboratively on Knowledge Forum in a chemistry classroom in Hong Kong. Three specific questions were explored: 1) How can knowledge building be assessed and characterized? 2) What are the roles of knowledge building in scientific understanding? and 3) How does the community develop and how do teacher and contextual factors influence its growth and evolution? Participants included 34 Secondary Four students (Grade 10) who worked on knowledge building pedagogy mediated by a computer supported platform called Knowledge Forum for eight months. Various data including Analytic Toolkit statistics (ATK), depth of inquiry, learning portfolios and examination results were examined. Students' Knowledge Forum discourse was also analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings show that 1) a three-pronged approach using ATK, depth of inquiry, and discourse analysis was a suitable tool for tracing both individual and communal growths in knowledge work, 2) knowledge building learning portfolio and the ATK index "linked notes" predicted students' conceptual understanding, and significant differences in students' school examination, a measure of their scientific understanding, were obtained favoring Knowledge Forum students over comparison counterparts, and 3) three distinctive phases were identified suggesting students' growth in epistemic agency; as well as showing how the growth of the community was mediated by contextual and teacher factors. Discourse analysis suggests how knowledge building might be a useful means of promoting scientific understanding at both individual and communal levels interweaving progress in conceptual understanding with growth in views and ways of doing science, thus helping students to move towards both "science learning" and "learning about science". Theoretical and pedagogical significances of the findings and the limitations of this

Chinese-English bilingual education is common practice in Hong Kong schools. In 1997, the Education Department published the paper "Strong Guidelines for Medium of Instruction" to stop the teachers use mixed languages or code-switching in secondary schools. All students entering secondary schools have to undergo the Medium of Instruction Grouping Assessment (MIGA) which is the basis of the assignment to study in Chinese or English-medium schools. The present study of bilingual memory models in local primary school students attempts to provide a theoretical framework for the planning and implementation of bilingual education. It will also contribute towards the development of effective bilingual education in Hong Kong.
For student to communicate and study effectively and efficiently in a second language, a vocabulary of a certain number of words has to be stored up. Cognitive psychologists have four basic models in describing the semantic network of bilinguals. There are namely, Separate Store Model, Common-store Model, Verbal-imagery Dual-code Model and Overlapping Distribution Model. There is no single model that isconsidered to be comprehensive enough in explaining all observed phenomena.
Generally Hong Kong primary school students showed positive attitudes to English learning and English-based teaching. They are fully aware that English is an essential commercial language and a necessary learning tool, which would definitely bring helpful for further studies or future careers. Nevertheless, students also agreed that learning in their mother tongue Chinese or in a mixed code of Chinese and English would reduce their learning difficulties. Primary school students adopted varying strategies in learning Chinese and English. In learning Chinese vocabularies, students only relied on Chinese characters or the Chinese language system without utilizing the English language system. Whereas in learning English vocabularies, students still relied on Chinese resources

This study aimed to compare the adaptation of two groups of migrant Chinese adolescents with their nonmigrant peers. The migrant adolescents included 55 Chinese migrant adolescents who migrated to Australia (Chinese-Australian) and 111 China-born adolescents who migrated to Hong Kong (Chinese-Hong Kong). The nonmigrant adolescents included 157 Anglo-Australian adolescents residing in Australia and 456 Hong Kong-born Chinese adolescents residing in Hong Kong. There were three research questions in this study. First, would there be any differences in the adaptation of Chinese migrant adolescents in different societies of settlement? Second, would migrant adolescents experience more adaptation problems than nonmigrant adolescents? Third, would there be any differences in the adaptation of adolescents in the two societies, Australia and Hong Kong? It was hypothesized that: (1) mainland Chinese migrant adolescents in Hong Kong would experience more adaptation problems than Chinese migrant adolescents in Australia; (2) migrant adolescents would report better adaptation than nonmigrant adolescents; (3) adolescents in Hong Kong would report poorer adaptation than adolescents in Australia. The participants were requested to complete a questionnaire on various adaptation outcome measures including life satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological symptoms, academic satisfaction, and behaviour problems. The results indicated that Chinese-Australian adolescents reported better psychological adaptation but Chinese-Hong Kong adolescents reported better sociocultural adaptation. Adolescents resident in Australia reported higher psychological adaptation but lower sociocultural adaptation than those in Hong Kong. Migrant adolescents reported better psychological and sociocultural adaptation than their nonmigrant counterparts. The results were discussed in relation to the social and educational systems of the two societies.
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