The occupational well-being (OWB) of early childhood educators (ECEs) play a crucial role in their job performance, the development of a child, and the operation of early childhood education sectors. OWB of ECEs has been an increasing concern in recent years and this concern might be particularly salient for beginning ECEs given the multiple adaptive changes and challenges they encounter during the transition from training to teaching. However, research on the beginning ECEs’ OWB has been scarce. In this study, we employed both variable-centered and person-centered approaches to explore OWB and examined job demands and resources as predictors in 117 Hong Kong beginning ECEs (113 females, Mage = 21.71 years). They first reported job demands (i.e., class size, working hours, dealing with children with special education needs) and job resources (i.e., salary and job support) at the end of the first month of the fall semester upon working as in-service teachers. They then reported on four OWB variables (i.e., job satisfaction, work engagement, job stress, and job burnout) at the beginning of the spring semester. Results of the variable-centered analysis revealed that beginning ECEs reported medium or above-medium levels on the positive OWB indicators and medium or below-medium levels on the negative OWB indicators. Regression analysis found that despite some exceptions, job demands and job resources negatively (positively) and positively (negatively) predicted positive (negative) OWB indicators, respectively. Results of person-centered analysis suggested that the complex pattern of different OWB indicators could be categorized into two OWB profiles (medium well-being vs. relatively weak well-being – emotional exhaustion). Results of regression analysis showed that beginning ECEs with higher job demands were less likely, whereas those with more job resources were more likely, to be assigned to the medium well-being profile. These results inform which leverage points could

Novice kindergarten (KG) teachers often encounter various challenges that may prevent them from performing satisfactorily during the transition from school to work. In Hong Kong, this issue has become more salient under the Free Quality Kindergarten Education Scheme which induces heavier workload and higher expectation on teachers’ performance. Self-control is a crucial factor that facilitates individuals’ performance via promoting positive thoughts, emotion, and behavior as well as preventing the negative counterparts. In this research, we examined the hypotheses that novice KG teachers’ pre-existing self-control would predict better subsequent job performance through promoting work engagement and preventing work stress. Students from an early childhood education (ECE) higher diploma program reported their self-control at the final semester of the program. Those working in the ECE classrooms after graduation rated their work engagement and work stress at the end of the first month of the new semester, and those who retained in the job also reported their job performance at the end of the first semester (final N = 117, 96.6% females). The results of mediation model fully supported our hypotheses. These findings suggest that enhancing self-control, improving work engagement and reducing work stress could be promising ways to facilitate novice KG teachers’ job performance during the school-to-work transition period. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Background Entering primary school is an important childhood milestone, marking the beginning of a child's formal education. Yet the change creates a time of vulnerability for the child, the parents and the parent--child relationship. Failure to adjust to the transition may place the family in a psychologically devastating position. The aims of this study were to test the effectiveness of a parental training programme in enhancing the parent--child relationship and decreasing parental stress by reducing harsh parenting in preparing children for the transition to primary school. Methods A randomised controlled trial incorporating a two-group pre-test and repeated post-test was conducted in one of the largest public housing estates in Hong Kong. A total of 142 parents were recruited, with 72 parents randomly assigned to the experimental group and 70 to the control group. Harsh parenting practices, parent--child relationships and parental stress were assessed. Results In comparison to parents in the control group, those in the experimental group engaged in less harsh parenting practices and reported better parent--child relationships. However, parental stress scores did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusion This study addressed a gap in the literature by examining the effectiveness of the training programme for enhancing parent--child relationship and decreasing parental stress at the time of a child's transition to primary school. The findings from this study provide empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the parental training programme and highlight the significance of parenting in promoting a smooth transition for children from kindergarten to primary 1.
[Copyright of BMC Public Health is the property of BioMed Central Ltd. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-1079]

The teaching practicum is a pivotal event for pre-service teachers to experience the transition from being students to being teachers. This paper examines the emergence of 'unruly pupils' as a central concern for pre-service English language teachers in their teaching practicum. The inquiry relates the pre-service teachers' perceived challenge of 'unruly pupils' to the mediation of contextual conditions and processes as well as the marginal positions in which they found themselves during the teaching practicum. The article also reports on the efforts that they undertook to address this perceived challenge. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers are encouraged to interrogate the contextual conditions and processes underlying the perceived challenge of 'unruly pupils' in their transition to being teachers, rather than treat it merely as a relationship challenge.
[Copyright of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2012.656440]

In this paper the authors employ a case study approach to investigate the transition process for a student with special educational needs from a Hong Kong subsidised primary school into a secondary school. An analysis of transcripts from individual and focus group interviews with the student, his parents, his 4 primary teachers and his 10 secondary teachers, as well as government documents and notes of school observations, indicated that a lack of formal procedures for supporting a student's transition can result in a range of significant difficulties. The discussion focuses on the urgent need to develop strategic guidelines at a systemic level within Hong Kong, with a much greater focus on a collaborative school approach rather than the current overreliance on the parents to lead this process.
[Copyright of Australasian Journal of Special Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jse.2013.8]