This study aimed at exploring kindergarten teachers’ perceptions and usage of digital devices in their classrooms. A multiple case study (n = 4) was conducted to investigate how in-service experienced (n = 22) and novice (n = 24) kindergarten teachers interpreted the functional significance of digital devices, including the needs and challenges faced when applying digital devices in visual arts activities in their classrooms. A non-randomised convenience sampling strategy was used to recruit four local kindergartens in Hong Kong, whose teachers were invited to participate in focus group interviews. In total, 540 min of interview data were collected. We examined the in-service teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of digital devices in terms of (1) transparency, (2) challenge and (3) accessibility. Based on the teachers’ responses in the interviews, the findings indicated issues related to the use of digital devices in terms of these three areas here. The informants shared how their understandings of film language limited their intentions and usage patterns (including frequency of use) with respect to digital videos. Nevertheless, they admitted that digital videos were important tools for facilitating children’s learning and communication with their parents. This study reflects the current situation of technology education in Hong Kong, including how teacher educators perceive the usage and roles of digital videos in early arts education. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Dialogue journals are written conversations in which two partners communicate regularly. When practiced between a teacher and student, dialogue journaling has the potential to engage students in writing, and can lead to improved teacher-student rapport. In this "Innovations in Practice" article, we evaluate the use of structured dialogue journals between a student teacher and his English as a Second Language (ESL) students during a seven-week teaching practicum at a local secondary school in Hong Kong. The aim of this practice was for the teacher to engage with students on a personal level, thereby enhancing teacher--student rapport -- an otherwise challenging goal during short-term school placements. The dialogue journals were designed to elicit students' learning experiences, other out-of-class life experiences, and personal interests, which, when reciprocated with teachers' comments, created a dialogic context for improving open and honest teacher-student communication in English. In this practice, a total of 11 rounds of dialogue journals were administered and completed throughout the teaching practicum period. An evaluation of the practice was based on an analysis of the dialogue journal entries, semi-structured interviews with students, and the student teacher's own reflection. Implications of this practice are discussed in terms of the possibilities for ESL/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to use dialogue journals for enhancing teacher-student rapport. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

This qualitative study investigates how two dance teachers (one in Toronto and the other in Hong Kong) shifted issues of pedagogy and autonomy in virtual dance classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reveals that participants quickly adapt to new environments and utilize available technologies in both teaching and learning. The study shares insights and practical strategies for dance educators to adapt and apply in regular dance classes even after the pandemic. In addition to teachers' perspectives on virtual teaching, selected student works highlight how the shift of autonomy fosters creativity and boosts confidence. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

This study aims to explore the specific contributions of derivational, inflectional, and compounding morphological awareness to reading comprehension through decoding and syntactic awareness. A total of 181 Grade 3 and 4 Chinese primary school children learning English as a second language in Hong Kong participated in this study. The results of structural equational modeling show that all the three types of morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension through decoding and syntactic awareness, and they explained about 66% of the variance in decoding and 47.2% of the variance in syntactic awareness. Derivational and inflectional morphological awareness affected decoding more strongly than compounding morphological awareness. Derivational and inflectional morphological awareness had stronger effects on decoding than on syntactic awareness, whereas compounding morphological awareness had stronger effect on syntactic awareness than on decoding. In addition, derivational and inflectional morphological awareness had unique direct effects on reading comprehension beyond decoding and syntactic awareness. The unique effect of inflectional morphological awareness was stronger than that of derivational morphological awareness. These results advance our understanding of the multiple roles of the three types of morphological awareness in reading comprehension. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Prior research on classroom interaction has investigated how the teacher's feedback turn following students' responses can be used to transform students' turns into academic expressions during whole class discussions. Nevertheless, more empirical studies are needed to explore how teachers' translanguaging practices can play a role in shaping students' contributions into pedagogical opportunities for introducing academic terminologies in English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) classrooms. Adopting translanguaging as an analytical perspective, this study explores how an EMI history teacher deploys available linguistic and multimodal resources to connect students' responses with academic concepts and terminologies. The study draws its data from a larger linguistic ethnographic project that took place in an EMI secondary history classroom in Hong Kong. The classroom interaction data is examined using Multimodal Conversation Analysis, and this analysis is further triangulated with video-stimulated-recall-interviews that are analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. This paper argues that the EMI teacher's translanguaging practices facilitate the process of transforming student contributions into academic terminology and concepts. The process of deploying translanguaging for transforming student contributions highlights translanguaging as an important component of the teacher's classroom interactional competence for constructing new configurations of language practices and achieving specific pedagogical purposes. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Background: Recognizing the declining interest of school students in Physics, this study sought to explore the situation in England, Hong Kong and Singapore. Purpose: To ascertain students’ views about various aspects of physics. Sample: A total of 2719 students participated in this study. Design and methods: A survey approach was used to ascertain the views of students. It was earlier validated in one of the countries. The Rasch model was used to treat the survey data. Results: On the utilitarian factor, the students from Hong Kong and Singapore held significantly negative attitudes towards career prospects for physics graduates. To them, obtaining a degree in physics would not, as compared to other subjects, appreciably assist them vocationally, which was in contrast to the view held by the students in England. On the intrinsic factor, while the students from all three countries found physics to be interesting, it did not appear to significantly motivate them to want to continue with physics at tertiary level. Nevertheless, they asserted that good grades do motivate them to study physics. On the social aspect, the students from the three countries endorsed significantly positively on the influence of their physics teachers in inspiring them to study physics, with the students from Singapore and Hong Kong endorsing slightly higher agreement. The former group also reported that their close friends generally think that physics is ‘uncool’ while those from England felt otherwise. Students’ views were similar in terms of parental influence, with parents significantly discouraging them from studying physics at tertiary level. They did not exhibit significantly different views on subject matter. Enrichment activities and laboratory work were important to them in nurturing and maintaining interest in physics Conclusion: The survey data has provided useful insights on students’ views of various aspects of Physics in the three countries. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Background: Previous research has indicated that placing emphasis on communal goals within the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education can yield beneficial learning outcomes. However, there remains a relative dearth of investigation into the factors that contribute to the success of STEM education programs integrating communal goals. In the present study, we sought to explore the roles of two constructs that prioritize the interests of others, namely empathy and citizenship, in promoting STEM learning perseverance within the context of a STEM-based community service learning (CSL) program. Specifically, we proposed that empathy would be associated with STEM learning perseverance through its relationship with citizenship, within a sample of 275 secondary school students from Hong Kong who participated in the said program. Results: Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the results revealed that empathy is significantly and positively associated with STEM learning perseverance, both directly and indirectly, through citizenship. The results held even after controlling for the demographic variables of school membership, gender, and age. Conclusions: This research highlights the association between understanding the needs of the community (empathy) and students' desire for community involvement (citizenship), which subsequently influences their perseverance in STEM learning. This relationship is particularly pronounced in educational settings where communal goals are emphasized. Copyright ©2024 Springer.

Perusall, a collaborative reading tool, was introduced in an advanced reading and writing skills course in Hong Kong to increase engagement with texts and encourage critical discussion during the COVID-19 face-to-face class suspension. Students were asked to use the Perusall platform to complete pre-class readings, highlight and annotate text and critically discuss and answer questions. In this innovation in practice article, we describe why we adopted Perusall and the pedagogical implications of doing so. We aim to assist L2 teachers in encouraging active reading and critical discussion to enhance motivation in language learners. Copyright ©2024 SAGE Publications.

Considerable research on university undergraduates’ struggles to master English for academic purposes (EAP) has been undertaken, yet little attention has been paid to the motivational needs of this specific learner group, or the fulfilment of such needs in university EAP courses. This study examines motivational strategies used by teachers of undergraduate EAP classes, student-perceived ineffective characteristics of the strategies, and students’ suggestions for better strategy implementation, together with the relationships between the strategies and the ineffective characteristics/suggestions. Reflective journals were collected from 69 first-year undergraduates who were enrolled in EAP courses offered by a Hong Kong university. The major findings are: 1) The adopted motivational strategies correspond closely to those endorsed in an influential framework; 2) the student participants reported ineffective characteristics pertinent to difficulty, relevance, expected learning outcomes, fairness, and interest; 3) the main suggestions were increased strategy use and provision of more assistance, encouragement, and examples; and 4) most of the suggestions appear to be non-strategy-specific, so they can supposedly be applied to a wide range of motivational strategies. The findings confirm the overall effectiveness of motivational strategies in undergraduate EAP courses, as well as informing university EAP teachers of possible ways to further improve their motivational techniques. Copyright ©2024 Routledge.

Background: Parents' high academic expectations are positively associated with young children's mathematical abilities. However, minimal attention has been devoted to whether, and how, different ways of conveying the performance targets would result in different outcomes. Aims: The current study investigated whether and how parents' perfectionistic strivings and concerns were associated with young children's mathematical abilities through home mathematical activities, children's approach motivation to learn mathematics, and children's avoidance motivation to learn mathematics. Sample: Participants included 211 kindergarteners in Hong Kong and their parents. Methods: Data were collected through individual child tests and parent questionnaires. Results: Structural equation modelling revealed that parents' perfectionistic strivings had a direct positive link with children's mathematical abilities, an indirect link via approach motivation to learn mathematics, and an indirect link via home mathematical activities, and then approach motivation. Parents' perfectionistic concerns had a direct negative link with children's mathematical abilities, an indirect link via approach motivation to learn mathematics, and an indirect link via avoidance motivation to learn mathematics. Conclusions: Early childhood practitioners are recommended to raise parents' awareness of how to communicate high‐performance targets to children in a constructive manner. Copyright ©2024 Wiley.