In recent years, many teachers in Hong Kong are reported as dissatisfied, stressful, and burnt out. The literature has suggested the negative emotions affect both teachers’ well-being and teaching quality. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the phenomenon of teachers’ emotional experiences at work in Hong Kong. Since a large number of teachers in Hong Kong are found to be unhappy, their emotional experiences can be regarded as a social issue more so than a psychological one. Thus, this research studies teachers’ emotional experiences from sociological perspective. In order to have an in-depth understanding about Hong Kong teachers’ emotional experiences, this study interviewed 21 Hong Kong secondary school teachers who were selected by maximum variation sampling and snowball sampling, investigated the documents of the informants’ schools, and analyzed the education policy documents and the Hong Kong educational news which were published between 1980 and 2011. The findings show that all the informants were committed to making a difference in students’ lives as their major teaching purpose. When there was a mismatch between how they perceived their work and what in actual the teaching purpose was, they would feel negatively; otherwise, they would feel positively. The study also finds that positive student-matters were the source of teachers’ positive emotions because the positive student-matters signified the informants that they successfully made a difference in students’ lives. On the other hand, workload, especially the administrative or what the informants called “non-instructional work”, tended to signify to the informants that they spent a lot of time on work that was unhelpful in making a difference. Therefore, the teachers were dissatisfied with heavy workload not only because the workload gave them no leisure, but because they perceived their work as purposeless and unworthy. However, when this study took a closer look at the “non-instructional work”, it found that most of the “non-instructional work” suggested by the informants were “instructional” or had “instructional” values in nature. The phenomenon was a result of the power relation between school administrators and teachers which was embedded in and structured by career stage, school administration, and education reforms. Under this relation, the power of school administrators overpowered the teachers in school when it came to the decision-making process. In other words, the teachers often were unable to access the “instructional” values behind their work, school policies and measures decided by the administrators. Under this situation, they might find it difficult to make a difference in students’ lives by doing their work, resulting in a negative self-concept. Therefore, they were inclined to experience negative emotions at work. Nevertheless, it is noted that different groups of teachers enjoyed different levels of power in the power relation. For example, the late-career teachers tended to have more power because they were the members of school administrators, but the early- and mid-career teachers were more powerless because most of them were front-line classroom teachers excluded from many school decision-making processes. In addition, some school administrative practices might favour the overpowering relation, but some school administrative practices might not. Accordingly, Hong Kong teachers’ emotional experiences should be differentiated across different groups of teachers, although they generally feel negatively at work. According to the findings, this study gives different recommendations to school administrators, the government, and teacher education to improve Hong Kong teachers’ emotional experiences at work. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

by Chow Wah. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / by Chow Wah. / Ackowledgments --- p.ii / Abstract --- p.iii / Table of Contents --- p.v / List of Tables --- p.viii / List of Figures --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- Introduction --- p.1 / Background --- p.1 / Student Teachers in the Certificate in Education Courses --- p.1 / Student Teachers in Teaching Practice --- p.3 / Approach to the Study --- p.3 / Purpose of the Study --- p.5 / Significance of the Study --- p.6 / Theoretical aspects --- p.6 / Practical aspects --- p.7 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- Review of Literature --- p.8 / Overview --- p.8 / Goal Orientations --- p.12 / The Goal Theory Perspective --- p.12 / Task Orientation Vs Ego Orientation --- p.13 / Self Concept --- p.14 / "Mutifaceted, Hierachical Nature of Self-concept" --- p.14 / Malleability of Self-concept --- p.15 / Future Tense of Self-concept --- p.16 / Self-regulation --- p.17 / Self-regulation and Self-regulation Strategies --- p.17 / "Task Orientation, Ego Orientation, and Self-Regulatory Strategies" --- p.19 / Possible Selves and Self-Regulation --- p.21 / Research Hypotheses --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- Methodology --- p.25 / Subjects --- p.25 / Pilot Studies --- p.26 / Pilot Study 1 --- p.26 / Pilot Study 2 --- p.28 / Instruments --- p.29 / The Possible Selves Report Form (PSRF) --- p.29 / Possible Selves Rating Scale (PSRS) --- p.31 / Measurement of Goal Orientations (MOS) --- p.32 / The Self-Regulation Report Form (SRRF) --- p.33 / Procedures --- p.35 / Design and Analysis --- p.36 / Operational Definitions --- p.36 / Null Hypotheses --- p.39 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- Results --- p.51 / Characterisitcs of the Sample --- p.51 / Scales Construction --- p.52 / Factor Analysis of the items in MOS --- p.52 / Factor Analysis of the items in PSRS --- p.53 / "Means, Standard Deviations, and Reliabilities of the Scales" --- p.54 / Self-regulation Strategies Measures --- p.59 / Strategy Use --- p.59 / Strategy Frequency --- p.60 / Strategy Consistence --- p.60 / Averaged Strategy Consistence --- p.60 / Correlations Among Variables --- p.64 / Correlations among measures of Self-regulation Strategies and the Other Variables --- p.64 / Correlations among Goal Orientations and Possible Selves --- p.64 / Hierachical Regression Analysis --- p.70 / Interaction of Possible Selves and Goal Orientations on Self-regulation Strategies --- p.75 / Summary of Findings --- p.79 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- Discussion --- p.81 / Major Findings of the Study --- p.81 / Testing of the Hypotheses --- p.81 / Use of Self-regulation Strategies Among Student Teachers --- p.83 / Factos Affecting Self-regulation in Teaching Practice --- p.86 / Measuring Problems --- p.90 / Limitations of the Study --- p.92 / Implications for Improving Teacher Education Programmes --- p.92 / Attention Should also be Paid to Affective Domain --- p.92 / Cultivating Possible Selves that Have Positive Implications in Teaching --- p.94 / Social Comparison May also be Used as a Strategy to Enhance Self-regulation --- p.94 / Recommendations for Future Research --- p.95 / References --- p.96 / Appendix A --- p.104 / Letter to the Subjects --- p.105 / Appendix B --- p.106 / Personal Information Supplied by the Subjects --- p.107 / Appendix C --- p.108 / Possible Selves Report Form --- p.109 / Appendix D --- p.114 / Possible Selves Rating Scale --- p.115 / Appendix E --- p.117 / Motivational Orientation Scale --- p.118 / Appendix F --- p.120 / Self-regulation Report Form --- p.121 / Appendix G --- p.128 / Use of Self-regulatory Strategies in Teaching Practice --- p.129

The present study aims to investigate the effect of emotions on teachers’ ability to cope with educational change and what factors help or hinder their ability to change their practice. Using an ethnomethodological approach, how one group of Hong Kong Secondary English teachers were able to make sense of the first School Based Assessment (SBA) initiative, part of the greater Hong Kong educational reform project, and apply it to their daily teaching practice is explored. The group of teachers is comprised of five Form Four teachers including the researcher. Being a participant-member, the researcher was able to have total access to the study environment and close daily contact with the other participants in the study. Interview data was taken at three intervals, one at the end of the first year of the initial implementation, another upon the completion of the first SBA cohort and then again at the end of the first Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) at which point the original form of the SBA had been conducted six times. Findings show that teachers’ emotions play a very important role in their working lives and are often sublimated to be able to cope with the competing and sometimes conflicting demands of school and society. This emotional management is very difficult to maintain and teachers must find creative ways of coping to lessen its effects, in particular, by a form of emotional banking in which teachers tap into good teaching memories to alleviate feelings of being overwhelmed or inadequate in the face of change. Other findings demonstrate that teachers’ ability to change their practice was greatly restricted by systemic factors beyond their control. While the largescale reform effort seeks to transform Hong Kong’s education system to be more ‘flexible, diversified and integrated’ and increase teachers’ professionalism, the reality is that society clings to the belief that only the high-stakes examinations have value. This factor, coupled with an overloaded administrative workload has made real teacher development and growth in professional practice virtually nonexistent. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

All in all, the research findings had confirmed the hypotheses of this study. Demographic differences among secondary school teachers were related to stress. Self-efficacy, resiliency and school environment in various extents was related to secondary school teacher stress. This study has theoretical and practical contributions to the understanding of secondary school teacher stress in Hong Kong. Lastly, implications, limitations of this study and suggestions for future research directions were also discussed. / Moreover, structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test and compare the goodness of fit of an overall direct effect model, a mediating model and a modified direct effect mediating model. Results indicated that the modified direct effect mediating model provided the best model fit with the data. School environment, self-efficacy and resiliency were found to be all negatively correlated to teacher stress. School environment exerted significant impact on teacher stress. Among the factors of school environment evaluated, affiliation, student support and work pressure had high correlation with secondary school teacher stress in Hong Kong. / Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to test for main effect of demographic variables on teacher stress. Findings revealed that years of teaching and school banding had significant main effect on stress. Teachers with more teaching experience were found to exhibit more stress than teachers with less experience in emotional manifestation and cardiovascular manifestation. Teachers worked in band three schools were found to be more stressful than teachers of band one and two schools in behavioural, emotional, fatigue and gastronomical manifestation of stress. / Reliability test and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the Teacher Stress Inventory, Generalized Self-efficacy Scale, Ego Resiliency Scale and the School-Level Environment Questionnaire and the instruments were found to be reliable and valid. / The purpose of this study are to examine whether demographic variables are related to teacher stress, if individual factors including self-efficacy and resiliency and systemic factor, school environment are related to teacher stress and how the individual factors together with the systemic factor jointly affect stress. The study is comprised of a convenient sample with 390 secondary school teachers. / Hung Oi Ling. / "April 2008." / Adviser: Alvin Leung Seung Ming. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-03, Section: A, page: 0797. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 208-231). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

by Tse Kin-shing. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER 1： --- INTRODUCTION / Background of the Study --- p.1 / The Problem --- p.6 / Purpose of the Study --- p.6 / Significance of the Study --- p.7 / Chapter CHAPTER 2: --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE / Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice --- p.10 / The Four Assumptions --- p.10 / The Six Environment and Personality Types --- p.11 / The Hexagon Model --- p.15 / Consistency --- p.17 / Congruency --- p.19 / Differentiation --- p.22 / Instruments for Measuring Personality --- p.23 / The Relationship between Teaching Performance and Congruency --- p.27 / Literature Related to Teaching Practice --- p.31 / Teaching Practice --- p.31 / The Length of Teaching Practice --- p.32 / Teaching Performance --- p.34 / Defining the Criteria of Performance --- p.36 / Factors Influence Teaching Performance --- p.40 / Evaluating Teaching Performance --- p.42 / Definition of Terms --- p.44 / Student Teacher --- p.44 / Teaching Practice --- p.45 / Teaching Performance --- p.46 / Attitudes --- p.47 / The Different Levels of Congruency --- p.48 / Chapter CHAPTER 3： --- METHODOLOGY / Method --- p.50 / Sample --- p.50 / Procedure --- p.51 / Variables --- p.53 / Null Hypotheses --- p.54 / Data Analysis --- p.54 / Chapter CHAPTER 4： --- RESULTS / Sample --- p.56 / Inter-Judge Reliability --- p.58 / Attitude Questionnaire --- p.60 / Scaling the Scores of Teaching Performance --- p.63 / Analysis of Variance on the Teaching Performance --- p.65 / Analysis of Variance on Attitude towards Teaching --- p.66 / Prediction on Teaching Performance --- p.68 / Chapter CHAPTER 5： --- "SUMMARY, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION" / Summary --- p.70 / Discussion --- p.73 / Limitation of the Study --- p.80 / Recommendation --- p.81 / REFERENCES --- p.84 / APPENDICES / Appendix I --- p.92 / Appendix II --- p.95 / Appendix III --- p.96 / Appendix IV --- p.97 / Appendix V --- p.101

　　Although kindergarten work environments in Hong Kong and overseas have been found to be unfavourable, a smaller than expected number of teachers have displayed a low level of subjective well-being (SWB). This research aimed to investigate how SWB could be predicted by perceived work environment, personality types, and resilience. It also examined the mediating functions of resilience in the relationships of perceived work environment and personality types to SWB. 　　In this research, SWB was represented by job satisfaction, measured by the Job Satisfaction Survey; self-esteem, assessed by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; and mental health complaints, captured by the General Health Questionnaire-12. Perceived work environment comprised psychosocial and non-psychosocial aspects, with the former evaluated by the School Culture Survey and the latter measured by the Kindergarten Ergonomics-Manpower Inventory (KEMI), a new inventory developed in Study 2. Personality types were measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Resilience was represented by hardiness and optimism, which were captured by the Hardiness Scale and the Revised Life Orientation Test, respectively. 　　This research adopted a mixed method design and comprised four studies. Study 1 was the pilot study involving 64 teachers in validating seven inventories and exploring the relationships between perceived school culture, personality types, hardiness, optimism, job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Data analyses using SPSS 17 revealed that perceived school culture and personality types were significantly related to job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Hardiness, but not optimism, mediated the relationships of perceived work environment and personality types to job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. 　　 Study 2 developed a new inventory (i.e. KEMI) to measure kindergartens’ non-psychosocial work environments and comprised two stages. The first stage involved two panels of 10 kindergarten principals in the item pool development and 141 teachers rating the items. The second stage was the cross-validation of the findings and involved 125 teachers. Data analyses using SPSS 17 and AMOS 18 showed that items in the KEMI clustered into five subscales, of which the “Ergonomics” subscale contributed the largest variances. 　　 Study 3 was the main study, involving 371 teachers. It investigated how job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints were predicted by perceived school culture, perceived ergonomics-manpower, personality types, hardiness, and optimism, and how hardiness and optimism mediated the relationships of perceived work environment and personality types to job satisfaction, self-esteem, and mental health complaints. Data analyses using SPSS 17 and AMOS 18 revealed that perceived work environment predicted job satisfaction, but its effects on self-esteem and mental health complaints were fully mediated by hardiness and optimism. Teachers were predominantly sensing-feeling-judging types. Teachers who were extraverted, intuitive, feeling, judging types tended to perceive their work environments more favorably and to show higher levels of SWB. 　　Study 4 aimed to enrich the interpretations of the quantitative findings by interviews with 24 teachers (volunteers from the participants in Study 3) in four focus groups. Five main themes and two sub-themes emerged. 　　Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Recommendations for future research directions are also made. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

"May 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 362-387). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education