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BACKGROUND: Individuals pursue teaching careers for numerous reasons, such as for instrumental or prosocial purposes. AIMS: This study examined the personal (instrumental motivation) and social (prosocial motivation) utility of teaching as predictors of teaching quality in terms of clarity of instruction, classroom management, and cognitive activation. SAMPLE: We used data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018, which included 50,595 teachers from 1252 schools in 10 countries and regions. METHODS: We performed a series of regression analyses to test a model of instrumental and prosocial motivation to predict three indicators of teaching quality (clarity of instruction, classroom management, and cognitive activation) while controlling for demographic characteristics (age, sex, educational level, and teaching experience). We examined this model in countries and regions from Eastern (Japan, Korea, Singapore, Shanghai and Taipei) and Western (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America) cultures. RESULTS: Results demonstrated that instrumental motivation predicted clarity of instruction in the East and classroom management in both the East and West; prosocial motivation, however, was a more consistent predictor of all indicators of teaching quality, except classroom management in the West, across cultures. CONCLUSION: Teachers' prosocial motivation to benefit others and contribute to society must be considered to understand teaching quality across various cultural contexts. Implications for theory, practice and policy are discussed.

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BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status (SES) and motivation are both important predictors of student achievement. However, most studies have investigated these factors separately, and very few have looked into the interplay between SES and motivation as determinants of student reading achievement. AIMS: We intend to bridge this gap by examining a model of SES predicting reading achievement through motivation (i.e., expectancy and value) at both student and school levels. SAMPLE: We used the data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 of 26,281 students from four regions in Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taipei). METHODS: We used multi-group multilevel path analysis to test whether SES would predict reading achievement mediated by expectancy and value in student and school levels across four regions, with gender as a covariate. RESULTS: Results showed that at the student level, SES significantly predicted reading achievement indirectly through both expectancy and value across four regions. At the school level, the relationship between school SES and school reading achievement was mostly direct. CONCLUSION: The study was able to demonstrate the motivational gap as a pathway in which economic inequality can contribute to students' reading achievement gap.

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Most studies on migrant domestic workers (MDW) focus on their problems and vulnerabilities, whereas not much is known about their positive attributes and character strengths. Hence, this study intends to deviate from the usual deficit-based view of MDW, which portrays them as victims, to a strengths-based perspective, which highlights their character strengths. In this study, we examined MDW's character strengths (i.e. positive human attributes that contribute to the thriving of oneself and others) and work-related factors associated with it. The participants of the study were 631 Filipino female MDW in Hong Kong. We examined how work-related factors (employer support and working conditions) predicted different character strength domains (courage, humanity, justice, moderation, transcendence and wisdom) through strengths use. Results of structural equation modelling revealed that employer support consistently predicted all six domains of character strengths through increased strengths use. These findings highlight the important role of employer support on MDW's character strengths. More importantly, it can raise critical awareness on MDW's strengths and well-being, and provide a platform for future strengths-based programmes and policies.

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Polyculturalism is the lay belief that cultures are dynamically interconnected and mutually influencing each other historically and in contemporary times. Belief in polyculturalism is associated with various positive intergroup outcomes in intercultural social contexts, but it has never been studied in relation to intergroup attitudes in postcolonial societies. Two studies with participants from four postcolonial Asian societies (total N = 1,126) explore whether polyculturalism will also be associated with positive attitudes toward the continuing presence of former colonizers. The historical colonial experience may be socially represented positively or negatively in different societies, and in this context, the studies inquire into whether current attitudes toward former colonizers are positively associated with the belief in polyculturalism. In two studies (after controlling for belief in multiculturalism, genetic and social constructivist lay theories of race, and national identity) polyculturalism was positively associated with favorable attitudes toward continuing presence of former colonizers in Hong Kong, Macau, and Jakarta, but not in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and Wonosobo, Indonesia. The positive association with polyculturalism was found only in the three societies with a high degree of intercultural contact, where the core beliefs of polyculturalism may be more meaningful. The results are discussed in terms of how intergroup relations between former colonizers and colonized peoples are forms of between-society intercultural contact that are also influenced by intergroup lay theories.

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This one-year longitudinal study examined the developmental trajectories of English reading in Chinese children learning English as a second language (ESL) and identified cognitive profiles of children who are at risk for English reading disability. One hundred and eighty-four Chinese ESL children from eight Hong Kong kindergartens were measured four times during their last year of kindergarten for phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary and English word reading. Growth mixture modeling was applied to classify the children based on their growth trajectories in English word reading. Four subgroups of word reading growth were classified, namely high-achieving, fast-growth, slow-growth and low-achieving groups. The cognitive-linguistic skills were compared across different groups with age, non-verbal intelligence and receptive vocabulary in L1 controlled. The results showed that low-achieving groups, who were expected to be at-risk for L2 reading disability, showed deficits in letter-name knowledge, phonemic awareness, and receptive and expressive vocabulary. Fast-growth and high-achieving groups were not distinguishable on the measured cognitive-linguistic skills. Children in the low-growth groups were significantly weaker in phonemic awareness, receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary than children in the high-achieving group. Our findings identified specific cognitive-linguistic deficits that were associated with children who are at-risk for reading disability. Implications for the early identification of L2 reading disability were discussed.

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BACKGROUND: Learning to read is very challenging for Hong Kong children who learn English as a second language (ESL), as they must acquire two very different writing systems, beginning at the age of three. Few studies have examined the role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels, oral language proficiency, and L1 tone awareness in L2 English reading among Hong Kong ESL kindergarteners. AIMS: This study aims to investigate L1 and L2 phonological awareness and oral language proficiency as predictors of English reading among children with Chinese as L1. SAMPLE: One hundred and sixty-one typically developing children with a mean age of 5.16 (SD=.35) selected from seven preschools in Hong Kong. METHOD: Participants were assessed for English reading, English and Chinese phonological awareness at different levels, English oral language skills, and letter naming ability. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both oral language proficiency and phonological awareness measures significantly predicted L2 word reading, when statistically controlled for age and general intelligence. Among various phonological awareness units, L2 phonemic awareness was the best predictor of L2 word reading. Cross-language transfer was shown with L1 phonological awareness at the tone level, uniquely predicting L2 word reading. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings show the important role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels (rime and phoneme) and oral language proficiency in the course of L2 reading development in Chinese ESL learners. The significant contribution of L1 tone awareness to L2 reading suggests that phonological sensitivity is a general competence that ESL children need to acquire in early years. The findings have significant implications for understanding L2 reading development and curriculum development.

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This study investigated the effects of a 12-week language-enriched phonological awareness instruction on 76 Hong Kong young children who were learning English as a second language. The children were assigned randomly to receive the instruction on phonological awareness skills embedded in vocabulary learning activities or comparison instruction which consisted of vocabulary learning and writing tasks but no direct instruction in phonological awareness skills. They were tested on receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness at the syllable, rhyme and phoneme levels, reading, and spelling in English before and after the program implementation. The results indicated that children who received the phonological awareness instruction performed significantly better than the comparison group on English word reading, spelling, phonological awareness at all levels and expressive vocabulary on the posttest when age, general intelligence and the pretest scores were controlled statistically. The findings suggest that phonological awareness instruction embedded in vocabulary learning activities might be beneficial to kindergarteners learning English as a second language.

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We investigated the long-term effects of an information and communication technology (ICT) training programme for people with intellectual disabilities (ID). A community-based ICT training programme was designed to enhance the computer skills of people with ID and prepare them to make use of ICT in their daily life. Of the 100 who had participated in the original ICT training programme, 59 of them and their caregivers agreed to participate in the follow-up interview. A computer skills checklist was used to assess the ICT competence of the participants before training, after training, and at the 6-month follow-up assessment. All caregivers were interviewed at the 6-month follow-up session to explore the use of ICT by people with ID and their needs for further training. Results from repeated measures ANOVA showed that participants maintained at the 6-month follow-up the basic ICT skills that they acquired during training [F=13.86, p<0.001]. Caregivers reported that participants spent more time in using the computers, but still needed occasional guidance. They also reported a need to advance their ICT skills beyond the basic computer training. We concluded that ICT training for people with ID would help them in maximizing the benefits of information technology via computers.

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