The shift from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching has become the new normal due to the pandemic in 2020. However, little research has been conducted in Hong Kong to investigate pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the immediate adoption and delivery of online face-to-face teaching. In response to this call, the present research conducted a questionnaire survey with 48 pre-service teachers at a Hong Kong university to examine their perceptions of Zoom as a viable alternative to the suspended traditional face-to-face delivery mode of instruction. It also discussed key factors that lead to better online learning outcomes. The results showed that the participants had overall positive perceptions of Zoom-supported synchronous online education. The Zoom feature that most students considered useful was screen sharing on computers. Zoom-supported synchronous online learning benefited students by helping them to attend class meetings remotely, study course materials and content, communicate and collaborate with their instructors and classmates, and develop a sense of community and social presence. Four main factors may influence learners’ perceptions of synchronous online learning: the quality of online communication and collaboration, learning efficiency, learner autonomy and the usability of technology. Copyright © 2023 Laboratory for Knowledge Management & E-Learning, The University of Hong Kong.

Teachers’ emotions and well-being are critical not only for their personal and professional development but also for facilitating holistic development of students. With increasing risks and uncertainties from sociopolitical changes and the global pandemic, teachers are facing tremendous stress which has affected their self-efficacy. This cross-sectional study of 1614 teachers from 50 primary schools in Hong Kong investigates how teachers’ perception of emotional competences and their emotional labour strategies relate to their self-efficacy in moral and character education via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results reveal that both teachers’ emotional competences and teachers’ emotional labour strategies are positively associated with teachers’ self-efficacy in moral and character education. Understanding the relationships among emotional competences, emotional labour strategies and teachers' self-efficacy may be the first step in intervention implementation and effective policy development that could improve teachers’ self-efficacy in their provision of moral and character education. Copyright © 2023 Intellect Ltd.

This study explores the readiness of pre-service primary school teachers in Hong Kong to develop future-ready learners. Societal advances require the education sector to continuously update curricula to prepare young people for the future. Schools must equip students with the flexibility to use technologies that have not yet been invented and solve unanticipated problems. In this qualitative study, we analysed the perceptions of 15 pre-service primary school English language teachers at a university in Hong Kong. The study focused on the knowledge and learning environment necessary for developing future-ready learners. Via semi-structured interviews, the findings revealed that the participants believed it is essential to integrate technology into classrooms to address future digital literacy needs. They also noted that students must develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and soft skills to succeed in the future. The findings also suggest that teachers need to be innovative and adaptable in their pedagogical approaches as the existing primary school curriculum is not cultivating learners’ future-readiness. Copyright © 2023 National Institute of Education, Singapore.

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that autonomous motivation is a critical condition for optimizing human flourishing. In the school context, autonomy-supportive teaching promotes student learning and well-being. In Asian contexts, however, an indispensable part of classroom instruction seems to relate to control, which is conceptualised as the opposite of autonomy-support. While some researchers interpret Asian teachers’ instructional practices as authoritarian, increasingly more studies have argued that children in collectivist societies indeed benefit from teachers’ ‘control’. Some researchers proclaim that autonomy support is more appropriate in Western contexts while control is more important among Asian teachers. However, other studies claim that the need for autonomy-support is universal. This chapter aims to address this debate by reporting a study of the teaching style of two Hong Kong teachers. The mixed-method study was based on classroom observations and interviews of two teachers regarding their teaching styles, and a survey measured the motivation of 67 junior form students who were taught by the teachers. The coding results of classroom observation indicated that the two teachers have largely embodied autonomy support in their teaching, and that minimal controlling behaviour was found in the teachers. Their classroom practice was dominated by fostering student interest, with relatedness support and promoting mastery learning orientation as the dominant features of the two teacher’s teaching styles respectively. The two teachers’ beliefs and practices showed a strong resemblance to Confucian philosophical ideas, demonstrating the characteristics of being altruistic (jen), self as relational, and self-cultivation. Their students’ motivation was almost equally high in terms of students’ relationships with the teachers, perceived self-efficacy, learning goals, and self-handicapping behaviour (reverse score). The results disagreed with the point of view

Students’ beliefs of whether intelligence is innate (fixed mindset) or changeable (growth mindset) vastly influence their learning behavior and willingness to persist in face of academic setbacks. Much research effort has been devoted to examining growth mindset interventions in Western countries, but relatively little is known about the impact of mindset interventions on students in the Chinese cultural context where beliefs regarding effort have already been an ingrained part of one’s cultural heritage. The present study examined the effectiveness of a growth mindset intervention on changing students’ mindsets, and also grit, and behavioural tendency as secondary constructs. A sample of community college students (n = 49) in Hong Kong participated in the study where they were randomly assigned to control or experimental group. Intervention materials used in the experimental group involved a text that introduces the concept of growth mindset, followed by writing tasks to deepen understanding. Instruments measuring mindset, grit and behavioral tendency for remedial actions were used before and after the intervention to track changes. Furthermore, students’ self-perception of academic failure and their actual academic performance were used as covariates in the analysis. Repeated measure MANCOVA (2 groups × 2 time points) for growth and fixed mindset, when self-perception of academic failure was controlled, showed significant interaction effect; in particular, the significant interaction effect on mindset was attributed to a greater degree of decrease of growth mindset in control group when compared to their experimental counterparts; whereas no other significant interaction effects was found in other dependent measures even when covariates were controlled. Results yielded both theoretical and educational implications on the design of ‘growth mindset interventions for specific group of students in the Chinese cultural context. Many practitioners may dismiss the effectiveness

Students’ sense of school belonging (SSB) is linked with many meaningful educational outcomes. Though several studies have been conducted on SSB, most of these have used variable-centered approaches, with few studies examining profiles of students’ SSB using person-centered approaches. To further understand this important concept, this study sought to identify different profiles of students’ SSB by applying latent profile analysis to data from a sample of 1,173 students among 34 local primary schools in Hong Kong. The results revealed six profiles of school belonging (i.e., Low SSB and Moderate Rejection, Moderate SSB and Moderate Rejection, High SSB and High Rejection, High-Moderate SSB and High Rejection, High-Moderate SSB and Low-Moderate Rejection, and High SSB and Low Rejection). This study also investigated the relationship between the identified profile membership and character strength of kindness (i.e., motivation to be kind, recognition of kindness, and kind behaviours) among these students. The results indicated differences in character strength of kindness across the identified SSB profiles. The findings are in line with the view that school environment plays an important role in students’ optimal development and highlight the necessity for a greater emphasis on school intervention programs on building students’ SSB and enhancing their character strength of kindness. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Research reveals that generic skills are essential for supporting students to not only finish school education but also achieve transition to the workplace and adult life. However, a comprehensive literature review found limited studies have been done to develop an assessment tool for examining the generic skills of students with special educational needs (SEN). Based on two sub-studies, the current study aimed to develop a short form of the Generic Skills Teacher-Rating Scale (GSTS) to assess six generic skills (i.e., Collaboration, Communication, Problem-solving, Self-management, Information Technology, Critical thinking) of SEN students. A total of 231 Hong Kong students from six special schools (including primary and secondary levels) participated in the two studies. Both CFA and Rasch analyses support a six-factor solution of the GSTS with reasonably good model fit indices. Researchers and educators may view the GSTS as an assessment tool, adding more information on SEN students’ generic skills beyond classroom settings to understand the daily-life functioning of students in special education and inclusive education settings. Implications of the results and future directions are also discussed. Copyright © 2022 The Special Education Society of Hong Kong Ltd.

This study investigated 14 Hong Kong primary school teachers’ conceptions of and concerns about the implementation of integrated STEM education in primary school. Data were collected through concept maps and interviews with the teachers. Results revealed that in addition to representing STEM as simplistic models (e.g., STEM as an acronym), the teachers mostly seemed to model STEM integration conceptually using integrated disciplines, science as context, or real-world problem solving as context. Not many teachers were found to represent STEM using engineering design progress as context. Results also indicated that the teachers expressed intense concerns regarding personal inadequacy of STEM knowledge or skills (personal), student outcomes of STEM education (consequence), and limited instructional time (management). This study suggested providing sustained teacher professional development, creating supportive school environments, and building a collaborative STEM community as strategies to facilitate changes in teachers’ concerns and to advance STEM implementation in primary schools. Copyright © 2022 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.

Procrastination tendencies are prevalent and are associated with negative psychosocial outcomes. However, how preservice teachers’ procrastination tendencies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic link to their experiences during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have not been investigated. The present study collected data from three time points, examining how preservice teachers’ procrastination tendencies before the COVID-19 pandemic related to their life satisfaction at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their perceived work stress and the COVID-19 impact two and a half years after the outbreak of the pandemic. A total of 385 preservice teachers from Hong Kong were included in this study. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that preservice teachers’ higher procrastination tendencies before the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with lower life satisfaction at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which in turn was linked to higher perceived work stress and a more severe COVID-19 impact two and a half years after the COVID-19 outbreak. The results indicated that preservice teachers with procrastination tendencies may be especially vulnerable to experiencing work stress and life disruption in the face of traumatic events or crises. The findings provide valuable insights to both researchers and practitioners, highlighting the importance of addressing procrastination tendencies among preservice teachers. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.

Fifty-five Chinese kindergarten teachers from Shenzhen (n = 38) and Hong Kong (n = 17) were surveyed to discern their beliefs and reported practices about multiple literacies related to e-learning and knowledge management. Results indicated that: (1) Shenzhen teachers had a better knowledge about multiple literacies and facilitated the development of multiple literacies in their students more than their counterparts from Hong Kong; (2) Teachers' educational attainment and their beliefs did not predict the multiple literacies practice; and (3) after controlling for these variables, child-PC ratio significantly contributed to the variation in multiple literacies practice. Educational implications and challenges associated with teacher education are discussed. Copyright © 2009 Laboratory for Knowledge Management & E-Learning, The University of Hong Kong.