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.

According to the Hong Kong Education Bureau, the number of students with special education needs (SEN) has been on the rise. In order to cope with an increasing demand for inclusive education, professional training programmes aiming for pre-service teachers to educate students with SEN have increased locally. Guided by the theory of planned behaviour, this study aims to investigate the relations between Chinese pre-service teachers' views and self-efficacy in implementing inclusive education in Hong Kong. A total of 94 Chinese pre-service teachers were recruited at a public university to complete an online questionnaire. Controlling for age, teaching experience, and relevant training, differential effects were found between pre-service teachers' views and self-efficacy. Specifically, teachers' positive attitudes towards inclusion were related to their greater self-efficacy in implementing inclusive instructions and managing students' behaviours. Teachers' fewer sentiments about inclusion were related to their greater self-efficacy in collaborating with parents and professionals. Teachers' fewer concerns about knowledge, workload, and overall feasibility were also related to their greater self-efficacy in collaboration and behavioural management. These findings broaden the literature and inform policy makers the need to strengthen teachers' efficacy by reducing practical barriers and increasing their positive attitudes towards inclusion. Copyright © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This article reports on a mixed-method inquiry into pre-service and in-service secondary school teachers' knowledge about Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and attitudes toward students with this disorder in Hong Kong. The inquiry revealed no differences between pre- service and in-service secondary school teachers concerning their knowledge of ADHD and attitudes toward students with ADHD. It also identified possible sources of participants' knowledge and a variety of factors underlying their attitudes toward students with ADHD including sociocultural beliefs and working conditions. The findings call for teacher educators to develop better education programs to support both pre-service and in-service teachers in undertaking the challenging task of teaching students with ADHD.

The authors report on the development of a brief dyslexia screening measure based on revising the 65-item Hong Kong Behaviour Checklist of Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading and Writing. Teachers' ratings of 1063 primary students aged 614 years on the behaviour checklist provided data for its psychometric evaluation using traditional measurement and Rasch measurement model analyses. Rasch scaling suggested that the revised 36-item checklist could be regarded as a unidimensional scale that assesses global dyslexic dysfunction, and receiver operating characteristics analysis suggested that a score of 18 could be an optimal cut-off score when it is used as a dyslexia screening measure. The validity of this revised checklist was supported by its substantial and significant correlations with external measures of literacy and cognitive skills. Implications of the findings for the use of adaptive testing to provide an effective procedure for screening are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2012.676437 ]

Since the criteria for diagnosis of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) include that the symptoms present in at least two situations, usually home and school, the role of teachers in the identification and diagnosis of this condition is crucial. There is, however, evidence of inter-cultural differences in ratings of AD/HD in children and young people, by teachers and others, though it is not possible to make comparisons between the various studies, because the conditions were not comparable. The focus of this article is the cultural influences on ratings of AD/HD-type behaviour. Evidence is presented of culturally related differences in such ratings, under conditions designed to ensure directly comparable conditions, involving teachers and student teachers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. There was some evidence that the teachers from mainland China rated the behaviour of a "target" child, presented on video, higher on a number of items than either the teachers from Hong Kong or the United Kingdom. There was only limited evidence of differences between the ratings of teachers and student teachers within the same culture.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1034912022000007298]

In Hong Kong, children with special needs who are studying in mainstream schools are struggling for integration amidst the competitive and elitist culture of the educational environment. The purpose of the present study is to examine the accounts of parents of students with special needs and their children's experiences, and also to compare the integration experiences of children with different types of special needs in mainstream schools. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, of which 515 valid examples were returned and analysed. Academic requirements were found to be a great burden to children and parents. Children with intellectual impairment, autism, and hyperactivity encountered more problems in peer relationships. These results suggest there is a need to devise target-specific strategies and supportive measures for children with different types of special needs.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10349120120115343]

Many researchers have stressed that the acoustic environment is crucial to the speech perception, academic performance, attention, and participation of students in classrooms. Classrooms in highly urbanised locations are especially vulnerable to noise, a major influence on the acoustic environment. This study investigates the noise levels in one such urban environment, Hong Kong. The ambient noise level, and its relationship to the speech intensity levels of both teachers and students was surveyed in 47 primary school classrooms. Moreover, the presence of acoustical treatments for noise reduction and the use of classroom amplification systems were documented for each classroom. The survey found that the mean occupied noise level was 60.74 dB (A); the mean unamplified and amplified speech-to-noise ratios of teachers were 13.53 dB and 18.45 dB, respectively; while the mean unamplified speech-to-noise ratio for students was 4.13 dB. Most of the classrooms exhibited insufficient acoustical treatments to provide significant noise reduction. The listening environment in many Hong Kong primary schools was not favourable for optimal classroom learning. Recommendations for improving the acoustical environment in classrooms in highly urbanised locations such as Hong Kong are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10349120500348714]

Background noise poses adverse effects on speech sounds and affects student learning, especially for children with developmental disabilities. Sound-field and public address amplification systems can help to solve this problem by amplifying speech sounds relative to background noise. This study surveyed school classrooms for children with special needs, and compared the performance of a sound-field and a portable public address system in classroom environments. Unoccupied room noise levels and reverberation times were measured in eight classrooms at four Hong Kong schools for children with special needs. Speech levels in each classroom were measured under three conditions: without amplification, with public address system amplification, and with sound-field amplification. Speech-to-noise ratios were calculated for each condition. Noise and unamplified speech-to-noise ratio values exceeded recommended acoustic standards in all classrooms. When sound-field and public address amplification systems were installed, speech-to-noise ratios improved considerably. When either amplification system was used, a uniform sound-field resulted. The applicability of both types of amplification system and their relative merits in special education classrooms are discussed.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10349120600847508]