For some time, change has been the driving force in language teaching and learning. This seems to be even truer today than it was in the past, and seems set to be even more so in the future, which raises the questions of how to identify what is known and what is needed by teachers managing the changes, and how to address any needs. In this study, we asked 35 experienced secondary school teachers of English in Hong Kong to rate their own change-related knowledge, skills and personality characteristics, to find out how they would rate themselves in the various areas, and to consider whether such information can be of use in identifying change-related support needs. The results show that the teachers self-assessed some of their change-related knowledge, skills and personality characteristics as more and some less developed than others. Reasons are put forward to explain these different ratings, and ways in which such information might be used to identify teachers' change- related needs are discussed.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13598660120061327]

The present study replicated investigation of the link between Holland's six career interest types and Costa and McCrae's big five personality traits in a Chinese context. A sample of 79 university students from Hong Kong evaluated their own abilities and responded to the Short-Version Self-Directed Search (SVSDS) and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Results demonstrated external validity for the SVSDS, and suggested that even when students' self-rated abilities were taken into account, career interests and personality traits still significantly overlapped, although each construct made a unique contribution to the variance in the data. The specific ways in which the dimensions of career interests and personality traits were related to one another were generally consistent with those documented in the literature. The implications for educational research and educational practice in the Chinese context are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410701366092]

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of the first online self-directed inventory on the measurement of academic programme preferences (MAPP) for potential students at the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK). In this study, trait-factor theory and personality type theory were employed. 1,963 respondents in Hong Kong were surveyed using a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. The inventory, consisting of 132 items, was developed and eight personal attributes were found: Influential , Enterprising , Social , Helping , Explorative , Technological , Logical , and Reflective . The minimum desirability of each of these attributes for all programmes offered at the OUHK was assessed by course administrators. Students' ratings on the eight personal attributes were evaluated against the minimum ratings, based on a nine-point scale, to determine their academic preferences. A computer-assisted multidimensional MAPP was set up online in both English and Chinese and was linked to the University's homepage. By completing the MAPP online, distance learners could obtain their personal profiles and a list of suggested OUHK programmes instantaneously. Connected to the University's aim to foster lifelong learning, the MAPP is expected to ease the academic selection process and reduce the number of dropouts by enhancing students' success with their chosen programmes.
[Copyright of Distance Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158791032000127482]

In this article, the authors investigated personal beliefs and values and opportunism variables that might contribute to the academic dishonesty of American and Hong Kong master of business administration (MBA) students. They also compared American and Hong Kong MBA students with respect to their personal beliefs and values, opportunism, and academic dishonesty variables. Results showed that American MBA students who were idealistic, theistic, intolerant, and not opportunistic were likely to behave ethically. Hong Kong MBA students who were idealistic, intolerant, positive, and not opportunistic tended to act morally. Hong Kong students tended to be less theistic, more tolerant, more detached, more negatively oriented, more relativistic, less achievement-oriented, and more humanistic-oriented than were their American counterparts.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Business is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.82.3.146-158 ]