Sex work and students: an exploratory study

Available evidence suggests that changes in the funding of higher education have led to some students entering the sex industry in order to make ends meet. The current study comprises a sample of undergraduates (N = 130) in the south of England, who completed a cross‐sectional survey of their financial circumstances, health, psychological well‐being, substance use and lifestyle. A response rate of 74% was obtained. Data indicated that over 10% of all respondents knew of students engaged in sex work (defined as prostitution, escorting, lap dancing or stripping) in order to support themselves financially. Poor psychological well‐being, drinking problems and financial circumstances were associated with sex work, and although no direct evidence was found linking this to an earlier history of sexual abuse, there was an indirect relationship through the impact of abuse on mental health. A logistic regression model incorporating General Health Questionnaire scores, alcohol problems and hours worked outside of study strongly predicted whether respondents knew of students engaged in sex work. For lap dancing in particular the model was very strong. This study provides further evidence of students' participation in sex work and its association with economic circumstances. Further longitudinal work is required to clarify the nature of these relationships.     

An investigation into the academic acculturation experiences of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong

Over the past few decades, Mainland China has witnessed a massive outflow of students to higher education institutions in Hong Kong. In the context of an up-surge in Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong, this research aims to explore (1) why Mainland Chinese students choose to study in Hong Kong over other higher education systems, (2) perceptions about the advantages and disadvantages of studying in Hong Kong, and (3) challenges in the process of acculturation from their homeland to Hong Kong. Five key themes are identified: education, finance, learning culture, language, and discrimination/labelling. While Mainland Chinese students often struggle to blend into the new environment, most gradually become accustomed to the local way of life. What remains a challenge is (perceived) discrimination following political tensions over the “one China, two systems” framework. This paper identifies the expectations and dissatisfactions of the participants with regard to studying in Hong Kong, ultimately offering higher-education administrators an insight into how to better cater for the expanding share of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong’s universities. This research is significant because it extends the literature by examining acculturation and cultural adaptation issues in an increasingly globalized context.     

Practice into Pedagogy into Practice: Collaborative Postcards from Hong Kong

A collaborative postcard project completed by 22 students as part of a drawing course conducted at a university in Hong Kong is introduced. The project entailed inviting students into an art practice in which the author was herself engaged as a practitioner as well as a researcher. After introducing the educational context in which the project took place, the author provides an account – informed by ‘participant‐observer’ feedback from students – of how the project unfolded and was experienced. In the second section of the article the creative and pedagogic efficacy of the project is considered with reference to the experience‐centred and dialogic principles expressed in the educational philosophies of John Dewey, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt and Paulo Freire. The third section draws on insights from scholars working in a range of disciplines – cultural history, anthropology, sociology and psychology – to argue that a particular set of organisational and collaborative dynamics catalysed students’ levels of engagement, creativity and motivation. The article argues that the collaborative postcard project is an example of an experience‐centred and practice‐based pedagogy that is founded on dialogue, mutual generosity and experimental play, and engenders in students the ‘quality of mental process’ that is, for John Dewey, ‘the measure of educative growth’.     

Class differentials in getting parental assistance for seeking a second chance of getting into university: an illustration of community-college students in Hong Kong

While a class gap remains in obtaining a degree despite an expansion of higher education, a variety of second chances have become available. How class matters in receiving parental assistance for seeking a second chance is of increasing importance to understanding educational inequality in an altered context of higher education, but it is under-researched. This article seeks to fill this gap by referring to a qualitative study of 85 community-college students in Hong Kong for illustration. First interviews with respondents recruited from a community college were conducted between the year 2006 and 2009 where they discussed how they desired a second chance option by studying an associate degree in community college. Encouragement and emotional support to seek this new, costly, and risky second chance was provided by parents of most respondents. And yet, as a deficit approach would have us believe, middle-class respondents received more relevant information and academic advice with financial support from their parents than working-class respondents. In spite of that fact, it seems to remain whether the middle class are indeed better able than the working class to get transferred to university through the transfer of an associate degree in Hong Kong. This illustration suggests that the availability of a second chance does not immediately imply that the middle and the working classes are equally capable of taking advantage of it to rectify their previous educational failure. This article will be concluded by discussing the implications of this study for educational inequality.     

Teacher stress in working with challenging students in Hong Kong

This article first illustrates how recent social, economic and educational development in Hong Kong contributes to teacher stress. It then presents data from an international study on teacher stress with respect to working with challenging students, i.e. students with behavioural problems. Teachers were asked to report on the perceived behavioural incidence, associated stress and the impacts of the most challenging student in their classes. The relationships among the various perceptions of teachers were examined using bivariate correlation, canonical correlation and one-way ANOVA. To account for the associated stress and impacts on teachers, negative affect, self-critical attitude and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers were found to be more important than the school characteristics. Compared to their counterparts, Hong Kong teachers were found to be subjected to highest negative impacts from the challenging students and have most negative beliefs in working with them. This study concludes with a discussion of the findings and remedies that might relieve the stress among teachers in Hong Kong.     

Goal orientations and achievement among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong

This study examined four goal orientations and their relationships to achievement among 1041 Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong. These students endorsed learning and social goals over performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goals. The endorsement of learning goals emerged consistently as the significant predictor predicting achievement in academic, non‐academic, and social/leadership areas. Implications of the findings for coordinating different goal orientations for enhancing achievement in different areas are discussed.     

Teaching writing to middle school students in Portugal and in Brazil: an exploratory study

Learning how to write is a challenging process, typically developed in schools. Teachers’ practices in teaching writing, however, have been under researched. The aim of this study was to survey a sample of teachers from Portugal (n = 96) and Brazil (n = 99) about their practices for and perceptions about writing instruction. Teachers reported on time devoted to student writing and the teaching of writing, on their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing, adaptations for less skilled writers, and their perceptions about writing and the teaching of writing. Findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of writing instruction in both countries. Teachers reported little time devoted for writing and the teaching of writing in their classes. The majority of the teachers rarely used practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing or applied explicit teaching methods for writing instruction. Both Portuguese and Brazilian teachers perceived writing as a shared responsibility. Brazilian teachers, however, agreed with this perception more strongly. Portuguese teachers’ perception of the importance of writing for students’ academic and professional success was higher than the perceptions held by Brazilian teachers. A positive correlation was found between teachers’ preparation to teach writing and their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

让学生在主动探索中学习数学

在数学教学中让学生主动探索数学知识是发挥学生的积极性、自主性、创造性的重要途径 ,对全面实施素质教育具有重要意义。在小学数学教学中教师要做到 :创设情境 ,激发探索动机 ;转化知识 ,明确探索方向 ;展示思维 ,提高探索能力 ;及时反馈 ,保证探索质量 ,让学生真正成为数学知识的发现者     

以学习者为中心的教学模式中外语教师角色的定位

文章通过传统教学模式和“以学习者为中心”的教学模式中教师角色的对比,探讨“以学习者为中心”的教学模式中外语教师角色定位的转化问题,并指出在转化过程所需要面对的挑战。     

香港国际法律地位的嬗变

香港与世界各国、各地区和各有关国际组织的法律关系和香港的国际法律地位,主要是通过适用于香港的各种国际条约和协定体现出来。由于“一国两制”构想的成功实现,香港的国际法律地位也发生了重要和显著的变化。我们应当从适用于香港的国际条约关注这一变化并考量其影响。     

Listening to students about the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong

Abstract

This article gives voice to student activists who participated in the 2014 Hong Kong pro-democracy Occupy movement, also known as the Umbrella Movement. It provides an alternative perspective from which to view those events. We want to examine how the activism impacted students’ understanding of their involvement and identity. We argue that it is necessary to interpret the experiences and voices of the leaders of the movement in light of other Asian student movements. We start by establishing parallels with various student movements across Asia over the last century: the May Fourth student movement (1919); the Beijing student movement preceding the Tiananmen incident (1989); the Sunflower Movement of Taiwan (March 2014) and its rejection of the very notion of ‘Cross-Strait’; and the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement. We argue that civil disobedience by Hong Kong students existed before the street barricades of the Umbrella Movement, and already constituted a public, in a Deweyan sense. We further argue that the Umbrella Movement brought about a deep change in the self-image of Hong Kong students, and other education stakeholders’ political culture, and that its impact was felt beyond local boundaries.     

Multivariate prediction of academic performance by Hong Kong University students

Verbal intelligence, English-language skills, personality, and attitude scales were used as predictors of academic performance in 230 male and female arts students at the University of Hong Kong. A series of bivariate, multiple, and canonical correlation analyses were performed. The results showed that verbal intelligence and attitudes, excepting study orientation, were not predictive of performance. English-language skills had the most predictive value, accounting for about 10% of the variance of performance measures. Personality variables failed to predict performance when composite criterion measures (GPAs) were used; however, they proved to be of predictive value when results of individual academic subjects were used as criterion measures. The study points to the importance of using noncomposite criterion measures in prediction and of considering the cultural context of achievement.     

香港经济结构转型与创新科技产业的发展

自从二次世界大战以来,香港的经济结构先后经历了几次转型,不仅使其经济结构不断优化,而且推动了香港经济的繁荣和发展,伴随新世纪及全球知识经济的来临,香港要完全亚洲金融危机的影响,提高其国际竞争力,发展创新科技产业,就成为香港经济结构高速和转变的必然选择,同时也是香港经济的长期发展战略。     

British degrees made in Hong Kong: an enquiry into the role of space and place in transnational education

The fundamental logic of transnational education programmes is a one-to-one transfer of institutional capital across space and an unimportance of place. This article interrogates these presumptions and argues that space and place play an important role in transnational education. Drawing on research that examines the experiences of students and graduates of British degree programmes offered in Hong Kong, we conclude that institutional capital does not always travel wholly and smoothly due to a combination of policy-related, social, cultural and economic factors. Our findings also underline the importance of place in students’ experiences, which are not sufficiently recognised by the providers. This, in turn, affects the ability of students to cultivate institutional and other forms of social capital, with implications for subsequent employment opportunities and social mobility.     

Thinking styles and preferred teacher interpersonal behavior among Hong Kong students

This study investigated the relationship between thinking styles and preferred teacher interpersonal behavior based on the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behavior (MITB, Wubbels, Créton, & Hooymayers, 1985) among 247 Hong Kong secondary school female students. The Thinking Style Inventory Revised (TSI-R, Sternberg, Wagner, & Zhang, 2003) and the Questionnaire for Teacher Interaction (QTI, Wubbels et al., 1985) were used to measure students' thinking styles and their preferred teacher interpersonal behavior. Research results showed that Type I global and liberal styles positively and negatively predicted student-centered teacher interpersonal behavior respectively, while Type I legislative and judicial styles negatively and positively predicted teacher-centered interpersonal behavior respectively. Type II conservative and executive styles positively predicted teacher-centered interpersonal behavior, while Type II executive and conservative styles positively and negatively predicted student-centered interpersonal behavior respectively. Implications of the research findings are discussed.     

重构历史与反省身份——试论香港文学中关于“香港历史”的书写

1984年中英联合声明的签订,激发了"香港意识"的诞生。香港作家在思想界的呼吁下开始回顾香港历史,反省自我身份特征并找寻定位。在20世纪80年代末的怀旧潮中,他们重现了历史片段并进行了寻根尝试;以"妓女"形象为媒介,他们隐喻了香港的身份实质及变迁轨迹。对这些香港作家而言,他们要立足香港,写出表达港人声音的历史故事。     

Compliment-Giving among filipino college students: An exploratory study

For this paper, a total of 270 Filipino compliments was collected from college students enrolled in six universities in Manila. Analysis gave results similar to those found by Herbert (1990) and Holmes (1994): use of syntactic patterns that seem formulaic in nature; tendency of female students to give more compliments; and tendency of both genders to compliment the females more than the males. Females ’ and males ’ inclination to employ Non-acceptance and Non-agreement responses at a high frequency may be a reflection of these students ’ adherence to the Filipinos ’ conservative culture and of their desire to establish and maintain solidarity with each other. Their employment of Acceptance responses on an almost equal frequency, on the other hand, seems to be a manifestation of their regard for the preservation of their interlocutors ’ “face” needs. Another point observed is the interaction between gender and compliment-giving in terms of frequency of use. Finally, while males seemed to be interested in maintaining solidarity, females tended to continue showing their power to communicate, as reflected in the number of compliments they uttered. I wish to thank the following for their being instrumental in the completion of this paper: CED-CRC of DLSU, Manila for funding this research; the student research assistants and their friends; some DLSU staff for their technical assistance; and my colleagues for their valuable input. I value my friends ’ comments, but the interpretations and mistakes in this paper remain my own.     

Teaching as a career: a perspective from Hong Kong senior secondary students

This study examined the views of teaching as a career choice held by Hong Kong students in their final year of upper secondary school (Secondary Seven). Significant differences were found between students' interest in teaching and demographic characteristics such as gender, religious beliefs, household income and parents' education levels, as well as their public examination scores and streams of study. Three attractive and three deterrent factors were identified among the reasons influencing students' choice of teaching as a career, respectively. Among 20 listed occupations, teaching was ranked relatively high by the students both as the occupation they ‘most wanted’ and ‘most respected’. The paper discusses the implications of these findings and draws conclusions which may be helpful to teacher education providers and policy makers on measures to recruit prospective students to initial teacher education.     

Gender differences in instrumental learning among secondary school students in Hong Kong

This paper examines the extent of gender differences, and discusses the role of gender in musical instrument learning. It focuses on the collective instrumental experiences of 1493 Chinese students (774 boys and 719 girls attending grades 7–13) within Western and non‐Western musical traditions in Hong Kong. The discussion draws attention to gender differences in the learning of Chinese and Western musical instruments, in musical interest and instrumental learning, and in the reasons why students learn or do not learn musical instruments. The paper argues that, while female and male students exhibit different attitudes towards the types of instruments learnt, significant correlations exist between their interest in music and parental support for their instrumental learning. Gender is brought to the fore by the pedagogical actions of the teacher, the mass media and by parental efforts to reduce gender bias and stereotypes through school, public and family education.