Despite the crucial importance of teacher impact for a wide range of student and teacher outcomes, it is not clear whether any individual-level factors precede teacher passion and if so how. Drawing on self-regulation theory and the self-regulatory strength model, I propose a theoretical reciprocal model in which teachers’ sleep quality predicts their work enjoyment and engagement in cooperative interaction with others in school, both of which lead to greater work passion. In turn, higher levels of work passion have a reciprocal effect on the teachers’ sleep quality. The model is tested using experience sampling method (ESM) data collected from 137 teacher leaders in Hong Kong and 79 teacher leaders in Shanghai. Teacher leaders responded to short ESM questionnaires three times a day for ten consecutive working days. The results of cross-lagged path analysis support the hypothetical model. The results are interpreted as that nurturing teacher passion is partly a within-person process; teachers’ passion can stem from their own work enjoyment and positive interaction with others in schools, for both of which good quality sleep is helpful. Copyright © 2019 De La Salle University.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education is vital for incubating future scientists, engineers, and inventors. Teaching and learning in STEM education require teachers and students to employ design thinking and multi-disciplinary knowledge to formulate new solutions for emerging problems. School teachers are facing multiple challenges in implementing STEM education. With the application of the Self-efficacy and stages of concern theories, this quantitative study (with 235 teacher respondents) aims to unearth Hong Kong teachers’ responses regarding STEM education. The results show that 5.53% of the respondents regard themselves as “well prepared” for STEM education. On the other hand, the respondents have intense “information”, “management”, and “consequence” concerns about implementing STEM education in schools. The findings reflect that there is an urgent need to provide teachers with articulated professional development, pedagogic support, and curricular resources for empowering them to implement STEM education in practice.
[Copyright of The Asia - Pacific Education Researcher is the property of Springer Science & Business Media. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40299-018-0414-1]

Building on Carey and Smith’s work on epistemology of science, this study characterized elementary students’ scientific epistemology from the role-of-idea and theory-building perspective. The participants included 102 elementary students in Hong Kong. Open-ended questions and coding schemes were developed to examine and characterize their epistemic understanding of science. Four key dimensions were identified: role of idea, theory-fact understanding, theory revision and creation, and social process of scientific progress. The general pattern showed that students’ views of scientific inquiry ranged from seeing it as a mechanical process involving concrete materials and sets of scientific skills, to viewing it as an idea-driven process comprising collective theory-building and knowledge creation. The analysis showed that these students generally had a limited understanding of the role-of-idea and theory-building in science. Quantitative analysis indicated that this conceptualized epistemology of science was an important predictor of students’ academic performance in science. Implications for science education and future research are discussed.
[Copyright of The Asia - Pacific Education Researcher is the property of Springer Science & Business Media. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40299-018-0411-4]

In many settings a perplexing scenario is unfolding in which school systems claim to move towards whole-person development while students and parents run in the opposite direction of narrowly defined academic achievement enhanced by private supplementary tutoring. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education because much of its content mimics that of regular schooling. It has long been clearly visible in Asia, and is now increasingly visible elsewhere. This study focuses on school teachers' perceptions of shadow education in the context of a flourishing sector that parallels and to some extent contradicts progressive education reforms. Drawing on 47 in-depth interviews with teachers from 12 secondary schools in Hong Kong, the research found ambivalent views towards private tutoring. This ambivalence reflected intrinsic contradictions between the educational ideals of whole-person development and the function of schooling in social stratification. Such tensions are likely to become increasingly evident elsewhere as commercialised forms of private supplementary tutoring expand.

An interdisciplinary subject, liberal studies, was introduced as a compulsory and core subject into the New Senior Secondary Curriculum in Hong Kong in 2009 with the purpose of expanding students’ knowledge base and increasing their social awareness through investigation into a variety of issues. However, transforming curricular innovations into real classroom settings and maintaining them is a complicated process. This study aimed to investigate, during its first round of implementation, teachers’ pedagogical practices in 21 local schools through in-depth interviews and documentary analysis. The results reveal that the school administrators and teachers were more likely to adapt their teaching approaches and teaching materials than their teaching content and assessment. Both good practices and examination-oriented practices in the process of curriculum implementation were evident in this study. These findings contribute to our understanding of the implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum in examination-oriented systems and inform the practitioners of school-based practices of curriculum implementation.
[Copyright © 2016 De La Salle University.]

A core goal of inclusive education worldwide is to maximize the learning potential of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream educational settings. However, little research attention has been paid to SEN children's social and emotional gains from inclusive education compared to their academic performance. This study included social, emotional, and academic variables in a single research design, not only to test their relationships but also to explore the predictive roles of social and emotional factors in academic performance for SEN students. Participants were 515 SEN students in grades 1–6 in mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. The results showed that the social and emotional competences of children with SEN were significant predictors of their academic performance (p < .001), with emotional competence having the larger impact. Although SEN students' relationships with peers and teachers were not found to be direct significant predictors of academic performance as reported in previous studies; they positively and significantly predicted emotional and social competences of SEN students (p < .001). Implications for establishing a caring campus, as well as developing educational interventions which will increase SEN students' positive emotional experiences and foster and maintain their adaptive social and emotional competences are discussed.
[Copyright © Springer].

Although the importance of practicum for preservice teachers goes almost unchallenged, specific empirical evidence of growth in language teachers’ practical knowledge in the under-researched context of preservice language teacher education is limited. Informed by both the reflective approach to teaching and an activity theory perspective, this qualitative case study examines what types of classroom practices a group of ESL student teachers learned in practicum experiences, and what pedagogical strategies they appropriated to achieve their learning of those goal-oriented classroom practices. The study is different from the previous teacher reflective thinking studies in that the study participants reflected on their practice teaching experiences, and such reflections were further tested in real-classroom situations and resulted in transformational learning. The results show that the student teachers’ learning of effective classroom practices was essentially prompted by reflection of the challenges and dilemmas encountered in the learning-to-teach process. The study points to the importance of foreign and second language teacher preparation programs promoting and sustaining a culture of reflection to empower preservice language teachers to anticipate or cope with the uncertainties and challenges they will encounter in the practicum experience, which is essential to meaningful learning and knowledge construction.
[Copyright © 2015 De La Salle University.]

A questionnaire was administered to 231 teacher education students of a university in Hong Kong to examine their epistemological beliefs, conceptions of learning, and learning strategies. The three variables were measured respectively using the Epistemological Beliefs Scale (EBS) (Chan & Elliott, 2002), Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) (Purdie & Hattie, 2002) and Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) (Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001). Correlation and path analysis showed significant relations between epistemological beliefs and conceptions of learning and learning strategies. The results suggest the significant roles of epistemological beliefs in learning, through their impact on and relations with the conceptions of learning and strategies adopted by the students. Implications were drawn with suggested ways for further research on their relationships and other metacongitive variables in learning such as achievement or motivation goals. The research findings would provide significant and valuable knowledge in this area and enable a better understanding of the nature and process of learning.
[Copyright © 2007 De La Salle University, Philippines.]

This study aimed to identify the four key dimensions of epistemic beliefs that concern the nature of knowledge and knowing and examine their relationship with cognitive constructs, study approaches, and academic performance among Hong Kong college students. A 14-item scale was developed in three studies with independent samples of Hong Kong college students (n = 250, 466, and 373, respectively). Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the hypothesized four-factor model of epistemic beliefs consisting of Certainty, Complexity, Source, and Justification. Results indicated that all four dimensions of epistemic beliefs were associated with Effort Regulation; students with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs were less likely to employ the Surface Approach; and epistemic beliefs predicted both coursework and examination performance, whereas both Surface and Deep Approaches did not. The present study supported a model of epistemic beliefs focusing on the nature of knowledge and knowing that pertains to Certainty, Complexity, Source, and Justification. Implications of the findings in relation to understanding epistemic beliefs in cross-cultural contexts are discussed.
[Copyright © 2014 De La Salle University.]