While the relationship between self-determination and the academic achievement of students has been widely tested across cultures and groups, limited research has examined the antecedents of self-determination and their impacts on school engagement, which is the pre-requisite of academic achievement. The present study, based on the self-system processes model of motivation, tested the relationships between peer support, school support, self-determination, and school engagement in 118 secondary school students with special needs integrated into mainstream schools in Hong Kong. The results showed that school support has a significant indirect effect on school engagement via self-determination as a mediator. The correlations between school support, self-determination, and school engagement are all positive and significant, whereas peer support did not correlate with school engagement. Controlling for the factors of peer and school support, self-determination was the strongest predictor of school engagement for students with special needs. The current findings may highlight the importance of school support and self-determination interventions to enhance the school engagement of students with special needs in inclusive educational settings. Copyright © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Research findings: This study explored the latent structure of socioemotional competence among Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong, China, developing and validating a culturally relevant, teacher-reported measure, the Chinese Inventory of Children’s Socioemotional Competence (CICSEC). Cross-sectional questionnaire data were collected on two samples of children from Hong Kong (N₁ = 1,731; N₂ = 475). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that, children’s socioemotional competence was best represented by a two-level, four-factor model, a model that was invariant across child gender and grade levels. Four first-level factors, cognitive control, emotion expressivity, empathy and prosocial behaviors, and emotion regulation, were identified, and they were subsumed under a second-level, overarching factor: socioemotional competence. CICSEC demonstrated many good psychometric properties: The entire scale and the four subscales exhibited excellent internal consistencies. Moreover, it demonstrated criterion validity by being correlated positively with school readiness and negatively with problem behaviors. It also demonstrated incremental validity by explaining unique variance in school readiness, above and beyond an existing measure of children’s socioemotional competence. Practice or policy: Findings pointed to the advantages of using culturally specific, locally derived measures in assessing socioemotional competence and understanding child adjustment. Copyright © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study examined the longitudinal associations of emotional regulation and school readiness among Chinese kindergarten children. Data were collected from 523 children (mean age at time 1 = 52.42 months; 52.9% male) at two time points separated by approximately 1 year in Hong Kong, China. At times 1 and 2, children's school readiness was assessed by their teachers and parents while their emotional regulation was directly tested. Teachers also rated children's emotional regulation at both time points. The results from the two reciprocal path models showed that, controlling for the corresponding autoregressive effects, school readiness at time 1 was predictive of emotional regulation at time 2. However, emotional regulation at time 1 did not emerge as a significant predictor of school readiness at time 2. Theoretically, these results underscored children's school readiness as a potential contributor to their emotional regulation. Practically, these findings suggested the utility of supporting children's school readiness to foster their emotional regulation. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Background: The study aimed to examine the impact of household composition and satisfaction with family life on sexual behaviours among high school male and female students (aged 11-22 years) in Hong Kong.; Method: High schools were randomly selected, and the final sample comprised 25 schools. Students were divided into two groups ('living with both biological parents' vs 'not living with both biological parents'). Students were asked to rate their satisfaction with family life on a five-point Likert scale in a self-administered questionnaire. Dependent variables were sexual experience, sexual harassment, sexting and nude chats. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyse the results.; Results: 3907 students were included in the analysis. 202 students (5.2%) were sexually active. 505 students had ever (13.0%) sexually harassed others and 303 students (7.8%) had ever been sexually harassed by others. 58 students (1.5%) had ever had nude chats. 1005 students (25.8%) had sexted in the last 12 months. Students who lived with both biological parents were less like to be sexually active, to sext and to have nude chats than those who did not. Students who had higher family life satisfaction were less likely to be sexually active, to sexually harass others, to be sexually harassed by others, to sext and to have nude chats than students who had lower satisfaction with their family life.; Conclusions: Sexual health programmes and interventions should consider family functioning. Students who have low family satisfaction and those who do not live with both their biological parents should be targeted for sexual health interventions.
[Copyright of BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health is the property of BMJ Group.]

This article reports on a case study of a Hong Kong undergraduate student's lived experiences of second language (L2) investments and identities across different contexts, including inside and outside the classroom on the university campus, in the professional workplace, and during study abroad. Findings indicate that the student's differential L2 investments across contexts appear to be closely intertwined with the different identities constructed in specific circumstances and mediated by the perceived likelihood of yielding a good return on the investments. His selective L2 investments were also found to be driven by a desire for membership in an imagined international community and an imagined identity associated with a cosmopolitan lifestyle in the projected future. The article argues for the importance of a holistic understanding of individuals' L2 learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom in order to appreciate the complexities of their variable L2 investments and identities across contexts.
[Copyright of Journal of Language, Identity, and Education is the property of Routledge.]

In contrast to a burgeoning research literature on the role of emotions in learning and instruction in Western culture, research on how emotions impact student and teacher development in Asian countries is lacking. The present paper reviews seven publications included in the 2019 Special Issue of The Asia--Pacific Education Researcher examining the role of emotions in Asian learners and in Asian educators. Three studies conducted with Asian students across education levels (primary, secondary, post-secondary) and countries (China, Singapore) explored students' emotions ranging from global constructs (engagement, satisfaction) to discrete experiences (hope, gratitude) in relation to personality, self-regulation, persistence, and contextual variables (perfectionism, self-compassion, resilience, relatedness). Four studies additionally investigated the emotional experiences of pre-service and practicing Asian teachers (China, Hong Kong, Philippines) in relation to varied motivational variables (self-efficacy, self-theories, passion, psychological capital), social-environmental factors (cooperative interactions, practicum evaluations), as well as psychological and physical health (coping styles, burnout, sleep quality). Study findings and protocols are discussed with respect to specific directions for future research on academic emotions in an Asian educational context.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Education Researcher is the property of Springer.]

Aims and objectives: To test the effectiveness of a musical training programme in promoting happiness and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children. Background: The impact of poverty and income disparity on the psychological wellbeing of children remains a profound global public health concern. There is substantial evidence that poverty and income disparity have many negative impacts on children's psychological well‐being, adversely affecting their quality of life. Methods: A nonequivalent, quasi‐experimental, two‐group, pretest and post‐test, between‐subjects design was conducted with 171 Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children (aged 3–6 years). Participants (n = 100) in the experimental group attended a weekly 1‐hr musical training lesson for 12 weeks conducted by the Music Children Foundation. Participants (n = 71) in the wait list control group received the same training after all data had been collected. Data collection for both groups was conducted at baseline and 12‐week follow‐up. The measured outcomes were happiness level and quality of life. A TREND checklist was completed. Results: Participants in the experimental group reported significantly higher levels of happiness (p = .002) and quality of life (p = .44) than those in the wait list control group. Conclusions: The present study indicates the effectiveness of a musical training programme in promoting happiness and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese underprivileged preschool children. It also demonstrated the feasibility of implementing the programme in a community context. Relevance to clinical practice: This study aids to inform nurses the beneficial effect of the musical training programme in improving underprivileged children's psychological well‐being and quality of life. Indeed, community nurses may act as facilitators to promote the musical training programme to underprivileged children. The involvement of community nurses may greatly enhance the sustainability

講者將介紹香港資優教育學苑的「1+1」小組為介入策略以幫助資優生的情意發展。「1+1」小組是個親子平台，課程設計以創意解難 (Creative Problem Solving) (Isaken, Treffinger, Dorval, & Nollar, 2000) 模式為基礎，在有利學習的互動環境中滲入親子關係、自我認識、價值探索、同儕及體驗式學習等情意元素。是項研究以積極主動、預防性及發展性為導向形式，在三個重要範疇培養正向親子關係，這三個範疇分別是：調整家長期望、正向親子溝通，以及運用創意解難 (CPS) 模式促進資優生的情意發展。研究結果對資優教育（即三層架構中的第一及第二層次）的教育同工有重要的教育意義，並為學校提供了促進資優生情意發展的做法範例和相關資訊。An intervention programme called “1+1” Group is provided by the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education for affective development of gifted students. It is a parent-child group which is designed based on the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model and infused with affective elements such as parent-child relationship, self-understanding, exploration of one’s value system.The research takes a proactive, preventive and developmental approach to foster positive parent-child relationship through working on three important areas, namely parental expectation adjustment, positive parent-child communication, and incorporation of CPS to promote the affective development of gifted students. Copyright © 2018 Learning & Teaching Expo.

兒童天生有好奇心、愛玩、也愛結交朋友，並喜歡主導自己的學習。對兒童來說，遊戲與學習兩者實為不可分割。遊戲驅使兒童學習，兒童也從遊戲中獲得寶貴的成長經驗。因此自由遊戲是超越了教學目標的工具，而且是自我成長的空間。幼稚園教育指引（2017）的推出，鼓勵教育工作者推行自由遊戲。當大家只聚焦於時間及空間不足對推行自由遊戲的阻礙，往往忽略了成人「不當的介入」，會削弱了自由遊戲的成效。智樂與11間種子學校及香港教育大學合作，創設了一個超越時間及空間限制的自由遊戲模式。透過種子學校Playwork培訓計劃的設立，亦有助加強教育工作者實踐自由遊戲的能力。此計劃不單改變教育工作者對實踐自由遊戲的信心，更啟發他們在設計教學模式時，重視兒童的看法及自主學習。Children are born with innate curiosity, playfulness and sociability to direct their own experience. For children, play and learning are inseparable - Play drives children to learn, at the same time children also acquire valuable learning experience through playing. Therefore, play, especially free play should go beyond a learning tool but a self-development space. The implementation of the Kindergarten Education Curriculum (2017) encouraged educators to try out free play. While many teachers believe that “lacking of time and space” is the greatest barrier for free play, not many of them realize that “adulteration” – the inappropriate intervention from adult, would significantly undermine the effectiveness of free play. In partnership with 11 seed schools and the Education University of Hong Kong (EDUHK), Playright has developed a free playtime model with limited time and space. A Seed Schools Playwork Training Program was also developed to strengthen educators’ capacity of the essence of free play. A study indicated that free play opened up new perspectives about children’s abilities and thoughts. It also inspired teachers to reconstruct their understanding about free play. More emphasis on child initiated learning was promoted. Copyright © 2018 Learning & Teaching Expo.

Background: Although an increasing body of research shows the positive relationships between positive achievement emotions (enjoyment and hope) and students’ learning strategies, and academic achievement, the majority of studies were cross-sectional in nature and typically conducted in Western countries[Pekrun, 2006,; Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011; Pekrun, Lichtenfeld, Marsh, Murayama, & Goetz, 2017].Aim: This study extended previous achievement emotions to a sample of Chinese university students by using an experimental design.Method: An intervention approach termed Team-based Learning (TBL) was implemented in four sessions of a general education breath course in Hong Kong Chinese students. Two classes of students were involved (N=80). One class was treated as experimental, the other was control.Results: The results showed that TBL produced significantly positive effects on enhancing students’ positive emotions (learning-related enjoyment and hope), meanwhile significantly reducing students’ negative emotions (learning-related boredom and anxiety) in the experimental class. In the control class, both enjoyment and hope increased, while both boredom and anxiety decreased. However, these changes of emotions in the control class were not significant.Conclusions: TBL may be a promising intervention approach to promote university students’ emotional well-being in terms of their learning-related emotions. Further research by increasing sample size and expanding to other courses and groups is needed. Copyright © 2018 ECPP.