Dr Karen Zhoc

Previous studies have found that a growth mind-set was associated with optimal learning and well-being outcomes. However, much of this research has been conducted among adolescents and young adults. Relatively little is known as to whether these associations also apply to young children. The present study aimed to examine whether mind-sets are associated with school engagement and subjective well-being in the early childhood context (i.e. first-grade students). A total of 402 Hong Kong first-grade students (219 boys and 183 girls; mean age = 6.69) were recruited. Self-reported questionnaires were administered to assess students’ growth mind-set, engagement, and subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results indicated that students who endorsed a growth mind-set were more likely to report higher levels of engagement and subjective well-being. Practice or Policy: Our study demonstrates the importance of growth mind-set for optimal functioning among young children. Growth mind-set may need to be nurtured in the early childhood context as a potential pathway to improving students’ academic engagement and subjective well-being.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the world, creating significant impact on people's lives and subjective wellbeing. While previous studies have shown that students’ wellbeing and how they manage their emotions are critical to students’ learning, less research has considered their specific impacts on student engagement in online learning.

Aims: The aim of this study is to examine how students’ subjective wellbeing and emotion regulation strategies (viz cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) are associated with student engagement in online learning during the pandemic.

Sample: A total of 965 students from a university in China participated in the study.

Methods: The data were collected online during the COVID-19 from March to July 2020, which included measures of wellbeing, emotion regulation strategie, and online learning engagement.

Results: Structural equation modelling results showed that wellbeing was positively associated with both the use of reappraisal and suppression. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between wellbeing and all types of online learning engagement (including cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagements). 

Conclusions: The findings provide evidence on the positive relationship between wellbeing and both the strategies of suppression and reappraisal during the pandemic. However, only reappraisal has positive impact on learning, suggesting the importance of effective regulation strategies on students’ online engagement. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is foundational to students’ success in the university. However, past studies on EI in the higher education context have mostly focused on how EI is related to academic achievement neglecting student engagement and other learning-related outcomes (e.g., generic outcomes). In this study, we examined whether and how individual differences in EI influence students’ learning, engagement, and achievement during their first year at university. An explanatory sequential mixedmethods design was used to garner both quantitative and qualitative insights. We recruited and followed up with 560 first-year students in Hong Kong. The quantitative findings revealed a strong EI gradient withmore emotionally intelligent students having higher levels of learning, engagement, and achievement. Qualitative findings corroborated the quantitative results and further showed that emotionally intelligent students are goal-directed, assertive, and self-regulated. Taken together, this study sheds light on the importance of EI for the optimal functioning of first year university students. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The role of emotions in student engagement has been examined in many studies. However, little is known about how emotional intelligence (EI) is related to engagement and other key learning outcomes in higher education. To fill this gap, this study examined how EI is associated with student engagement and how EI and engagement jointly predict key learning outcomes in higher education, including the students’ GPA, generic outcomes, and satisfaction with the university experience. The study adopted a prospective longitudinal design involving 560 first-year students from 10 faculties of a university in Hong Kong. The data were collected at two-time points, namely before the start and after the end of the students’
first year in the university. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the measurement and hypothesized models. Results indicated that EI positively predicted all dimensions of student engagement and promoted key learning outcomes (including GPA, generic learning outcomes, and students’ satisfaction with the university) via the different dimensions of student engagement. The model also explained 16%, 44%, and 38%of the students’ GPA, generic learning outcomes, and satisfaction with their university experience, respectively. This study provides empirical evidence on the positive effect of EI on the students’
optimal functioning in the higher education context. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Research on intrinsic and extrinsic future goals has mostly focused on their impact on wellbeing with relatively lesser attention being focused on key learning outcomes. This study investigates how the pursuit of different future goals (i.e., society-, family-, career-, wealth-, and fame-oriented goals) affects students’ self-control, and whether self-control mediates the relationship between future goals and distal learning outcomes (i.e., students’ affect to school and academic achievement 1 year later). The study adopted a longitudinal design involving 8,354 secondary students from 16 schools in Hong Kong. Students had to complete English and Mathematics achievement tests and answer questionnaires measuring the key variables. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated intrinsic future goals were more adaptive compared to extrinsic ones. In particular, results revealed the importance of society-oriented goal on self-control and distal learning outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study describes the development and validation of the Higher Education Student Engagement Scale (HESES). The psychometric evaluations of the scale included: (i) factor structure, (ii) internal consistency, and (iii) criterion validity. The HESES was developed based on our proposed five-factor model of student engagement, which was evolved from Finn and Zimmer’s ( In: Christenson SL, Reschly AL, Wylie C (eds) Handbook of research on student engagement. Springer, New York, 2012) student engagement model taken into account the distinctive characteristics in higher education. The five main facets of student engagement include: (1) academic engagement, (2) cognitive engagement, (3) social engagement with peers, (4) social engagement with teachers, and (5) affective engagement. The HESES was developed from the 61-item First Year Engagement Scales (FYES). For brevity, it was trimmed into a 28-item scale having regard to the content validity, factor loadings and error variances of the items. The CFA results supported the correlated five-dimensional model with all the dimensions showing high internal consistency
based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. A multi-group CFA also rendered the structure as gender invariant. Its criterion validity was evidenced by its correlations with different student learning outcomes and more importantly, its predictive power in explaining variances of GPA (15%) and satisfaction of the university experience (29%). Different from the dominant behavioral perspective of student engagement in higher education, the HESES is based on a psychological perspective, streamlining student engagement as students’ level of involvement in the learning process and a multi-faceted construct with  academic, cognitive, social and affective dimensions. The implications and merits of the HESES are discussed.

Self-directed learning is recognised as a key goal of higher education. To facilitate self-directed learning, emotional intelligence (EI), which encompasses the ability to regulate one’s own emotions and to generate positive emotions, is important. The present study aimed to examine the effects of EI on self-directed learning and how EI and self-directed learning contribute to key learning outcomes in higher education, including grade point average (GPA), generic learning outcomes (including social, cognitive and self-growth outcomes) and students’ satisfaction with their university experience. The study adopted a prospective longitudinal design with 560 first-year undergraduate students completing different measures at the beginning and end of the academic year. Results of the structural equation modelling showed that EI had a strong effect on self-directed learning, which in turn was positively associated with GPA and various generic learning outcomes that are related to students’ satisfaction with the university experience. To better delineate the relationship between EI and self-directed learning, multiple regression was performed. Results indicated that three key emotional abilities—emotional regulation of the self (ERS), appraisal of emotions in the self (AES) and emotional regulation of others (ERO)—were positively associated with self-directed learning. This study provided empirical evidence that students who are more emotionally intelligent
are more self-directed, leading to higher achievement in both academic and generic development, which in turn results in higher university satisfaction. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) is a popular EI measure. Yet, it has been criticized for an unclear factor structure, and its psychometric properties were mainly examined in the Western context. This study was to evaluate its psychometric properties based on 1,724 Hong Kong undergraduate students, including its (a) factor structure, (b) internal consistency, and (c) criterion validity. We compared different factor structures reported in the literature. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results supported a six-factor structure, which is tallied with Salovey and Mayer’s EI conceptualization. A multigroup CFA also rendered the structure as gender invariant. The scale was internally consistent with high McDonald’s omega coefficients. Significant association between EI and grade point average (GPA) was revealed in the faculties with people-oriented studies. Furthermore, EI was correlated with social, cognitive, and self-growth outcomes and satisfaction of university experience. The study contributes to clarify the factor structure and provides new reliability and validity evidence of the EIS in the Eastern context.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Self-Directed Learning Scale (SDLS) based on 1760 undergraduate students in Hong Kong. The psychometric evaluation included: (i) factor structure; (ii) internal consistency; (iii) criterion validity and (iv) convergent validity of the scale.While Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirmed the uni-dimensionality of the scale, amulti-group CFA supported the structure as invariant across genders. Besides, the Cronbach's alpha result showed that the scalewas internally  consistent.Moreover, its criterion validity was evidenced by its correlations with the university and public examination results (i.e., GPA, HKALE and HKDSE), students' self-evaluation of social, cognitive and self-growth outcomes as well as their satisfaction of the university experience. The study also extended the nomothetic span of self-directed learning by establishing its relationship with emotional intelligence and the different emotional abilities. The positive relationships between self-directed learning and the different student learning outcomes and emotional abilities were discussed.

Quality of life (QOL) is the main consideration in caring for advanced cancer patients, yet little is known about the QOL in the terminal phase. We profiled the QOL of 58 advanced cancer patients during their last 2 weeks of life using the McGill QOL questionnaire—Hong Kong version. The patients provided ratings of QOL an average of 5.6 (median 6) days predeath. Palliative care services were successful in maintaining the total QOL score during the dying phase. The mean score was 7.0 of 10. Among the various domains, the physical and existential domains scored relatively poorly at 5.9 and 6 of 10, respectively. The worst physical symptom and meaning of life were the individual items with the poorest scores (4.8 and 5.4 of
10, respectively). Compared with admission, there was statistically significant improvement in the worst physical symptom (P=0.02) and eating item (P=0.002), but deterioration in physical well-being (P=0.03), meaning of existence (P=0.007), and satisfaction with oneself (P=0.04). In conclusion, QOL evaluation during the terminal phase identifies important aspects requiring improvement during the last two weeks of life. Physical and existential domains of dying cancer patients needed more attention.

The main focus of palliative care services is to improve patients’ quality of life (QOL). The potential value of assessment of QOL in palliative care is being increasingly recognized. The McGill Quality of Life questionnaire (MQOL) is designed specifically for palliative care patients, but its cross-cultural validity needs to be determined before it can be applied in populations of different cultures and ethnic groups. The cross-cultural validity of MQOL was investigated using a translated and modified version in Chinese –
the MQOL-HK – in 462 palliative care patients in Hong Kong. Results show that the MQOL-HK is acceptable, valid and reliable. There is good acceptability, construct validity, convergent and divergent validity, test–retest and inter-rater reliability. Our study confirms that QOL does have cross-culturally robust constructs. Principal components analysis shows that the domains of physical, psychological, existential and support are all relevant and applicable in Chinese culture. Multiple regression analysis reveals that existential domain is the most important domain in predicting overall QOL. ‘Face’, eating and sex
are additional facets of QOL that also need to be considered. The worst physical symptom on admission is the item of QOL with the lowest score, which need more care and attention by palliative care workers. A cross-culturally validated QOL instrument cannot just help ensure an accurate evaluation of profile, determinants, and changes of QOL, but is also a valuable asset for future comparison and evaluation of palliative care services and interventions across the world.