The role of gestures in spatial working memory and speech

Co-speech gestures traditionally have been considered communicative, but they may also serve other functions. For example, hand-arm movements seem to facilitate both spatial working memory and speech production. It has been proposed that gestures facilitate speech indirectly by sustaining spatial representations in working memory. Alternatively, gestures may affect speech production directly by activating embodied semantic representations involved in lexical search. Consistent with the first hypothesis, we found participants gestured more when describing visual objects from memory and when describing objects that were difficult to remember and encode verbally. However, they also gestured when describing a visually accessible object, and gesture restriction produced dysfluent speech even when spatial memory was untaxed, suggesting that gestures can directly affect both spatial memory and lexical retrieval.     

How Teachers Link Ideas in Mathematics Instruction Using Speech and Gesture: A Corpus Analysis

This research investigated how teachers express links between ideas in speech, gestures, and other modalities in middle school mathematics instruction. We videotaped 18 lessons (3 from each of 6 teachers), and within each, we identified linking episodes—segments of discourse in which the teacher connected mathematical ideas. For each link, we identified the modalities teachers used to express linked ideas and coded whether the content was new or review. Teachers communicated most links multimodally, typically using speech and gestures. Teachers’ gestures included depictive gestures that simulated actions and perceptual states, and pointing gestures that grounded utterances in the physical environment. Compared to links about new material, teachers were less likely to express links about review material multimodally, especially when that material had been mentioned previously. Moreover, teachers gestured at a higher rate in links about new material. Gestures are an integral part of teachers’ communication during mathematics instruction.     

Cross‐cultural validation of the counselor burnout inventory in hong kong

This study investigated the cross‐cultural validation of the Chinese translation of the Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI) with a sample of school counselors in Hong Kong. Specifically, this study examined the CBI's factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis and calculated the effect size, to compare burnout scores among the counselors of 4 countries (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States). Results indicated that a 5‐factor model was the most appropriate to accommodate the data. In addition, the results showed that the levels of Hong Kong counselors’ burnout were similar to those of U.S. counselors, but differed from counselors in Japan and South Korea.     

教师资格和职业发展因素对学生数学成绩的影响：一个跨文化比较

采用TIMSS2003中的数据,应用混合模型,比较香港、日本、瑞典和美国四个国家(地区)教师资格因素和职业发展因素对其学生数学学业成绩的影响。结果发现香港教师高学历和常有其他教师听课提高了学生成绩;瑞典教师的性别、专业和参加数学教学方法方面的职业发展活动,以及美国教师的专业和听其他教师讲课显著影响其学生成绩;日本教师资格和职业发展因素对其学生成绩没有影响。     

Young children’s analogical reasoning across cultures: Similarities and differences

A cross-cultural comparison between U.S. and Hong Kong preschoolers examined factors responsible for young children’s analogical reasoning errors. On a scene analogy task, both groups had adequate prerequisite knowledge of the key relations, were the same age, and showed similar baseline performance, yet Chinese children outperformed U.S. children on more relationally complex problems. Children from both groups were highly susceptible to choosing a perceptual or semantic distractor during reasoning when one was present. Taken together, these similarities and differences suggest that (a) cultural differences can facilitate better knowledge representations by allowing more efficient processing of relationally complex problems and (b) inhibitory control is an important factor in explaining the development of children’s analogical reasoning.     

The effects of being spurned and self-esteem on depersonalization and coping preferences in kindergarten teachers: the case of Hong Kong

The primary objective of this study was to examine, based on a model of spurned helpers’ reactions: (a) the degrees to which kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong, China, experienced recurrent rejections of their offers of help (being spurned) by peer teachers; (b) whether being spurned by peers would induce depersonalization; (c) the ways teachers with higher or lower self-esteem coped with recurrent rejection; and (d) effects of coping in reducing depersonalization. A sample of serving kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong participated in the study. Their levels of self-esteem were first measured. Five months afterwards the extent to which they were spurned by their peers and the way they coped with such rejections were assessed. Another 5 months later the degrees to which they experienced depersonalization were measured. The results showed (a) that the teachers were fairly spurned; (b) that the more spurned the teachers were, the more depersonalized they were towards their peers; and (c) teachers with higher self-esteem and teachers with lower self-esteem coped with being spurned in different ways. The findings suggest that kindergarten teachers should be aware of recurrent rejection of their offers of help by peer workers and also the adverse effects of such rejection, and that administrators should provide training to teachers to assist them to deal with recurrent rejection of help by peers.     

The effects of single and dual representations on children's gesture production

Investigations that focus on children's hand gestures often conclude that gesture production arises as a result of having multiple representations. To date, the predictive validity of this notion has not been tested. In this study, we compared the gestures of 82 five-year-old children holding either a single or a dual representation. The children retold a story narrated to them, with pictures, by the experimenter. In one condition the children heard a false belief story and hence, when retelling, held two beliefs—or representations—concurrently. In the other conditions, the children retold a version of the story without the false belief component and therefore held single representations. Children were four times more likely to gesture in the false belief condition than in two comparable true belief conditions, supporting the notion that gestures may function to externalise some of the child's cognitive process, particularly when they hold multiple representations.     

教师课堂教学行为对学生学业成绩的影响:一个跨文化研究

教师一向被认为是影响学生学业成绩的重要因素。本研究采用第三次国际数学和科学研究TIMSS2003中的数据,以学生数学成绩为因变量,教师课堂教学行为为自变量,使用多层线性回归的方法,比较了美国、瑞典、日本和香港这四个国家(地区)教师课堂教学行为对学生学业成绩的影响。研究结果发现,教师特定的行为因素,教学的准备、对作业的重视、对考试的重视、对推理和问题解决的重视、电脑的使用确实能有效影响美国和瑞典的学生成绩,但对两个亚洲国家(地区)没有影响;教师的性别、教龄、教育水平、所学专业和教师资格再次被证实对学生成绩没有显著影响;学生的家庭和自身的因素(如学生年龄、性别、完成作业的时间,对数学的自信和对数学的评价)能够对学生成绩产生重要影响。     

Teacher stress and guidance work in Hong Kong secondary school teachers

Major sources of stress in Hong Kong teachers were investigated, with specific reference to guidance work as a potential source of stress. A survey of 415 secondary school teachers revealed that guidance-related aspects of work constituted a major dimension of stress, with guidance teachers, female teachers, younger teachers and junior teachers perceiving more stress than their counterparts in this dimension. Workload and time pressure were perceived as the most stressful aspects of work for all teachers. Results also showed an association between stress and job satisfaction, and biographical variables. Implications of the findings for teachers doing guidance work in Hong Kong and internationally are discussed.     

Cultural diversification of communicative gestures through early childhood: A comparison of children in English-, German-, and Chinese- speaking families

Previous literature has demonstrated cultural differences in young children’s use of communicative gestures, but the results were mixed depending on which gestures were measured and what age of children were involved. This study included variety of different types of gestures and examined whether children’s use of communicative gestures varies by their cultural backgrounds and ages. 714 parents of children (6–36 months old) from U.S.A. English-, German-, and Taiwan Chinese- speaking countries completed the questionnaire on their children’s use of each gesture described in the survey. We used logistic regressions to examine the effect of children’s culture and age, and the interaction effect (culture × age). Children were more likely to use all gestures except reaching, showing, and smacking lips for “yum, yum” as their age increases. In addition, there were gestures that showed significantly different probabilities across children’s cultural backgrounds. A significant interaction effect was shown for five gestures: reaching, showing, pointing, arms up to be picked up, and “quiet” gesture. Results suggest that the influence of culture on young children’s communication emerges from infancy.     

Do private gestures have a self-regulatory function? A case study

One of the most fascinating phenomena in early development is that babies not only understand signs others direct to them and later use them to communicate with others, but they also come to direct the same signs towards themselves in a private way. Private gestures become "tools of thought". There is a considerable literature about private language, but almost nothing about private gestures. Private gestures pose an intriguing communicative puzzle: they are communicative, but with the self. In this paper we study two types of private gestures (signs) before language: (1) private ostensive gestures and (2) private pointing gestures. We show in a case study of one child between 12 and 18 months of age that both are used with a self-reflexive function, as a way of "thinking" what to do, in order to solve a problem in the conventional use of an object. The private gestures become self-reflexive signs.     

Maternal Child‐rearing Practices in Hong Kong and Beijing Chinese Families: A Comparative Study

The present study aimed to examine the child‐rearing practices in Chinese families in Beijing and Hong Kong. The sample consisted of 89 mothers in Beijing and 45 mothers in Hong Kong. The mothers were instructed to respond to the Child‐rearing Practice Report (CRPR) in Q‐sort format. Some of the item clusters were combined to produce the authoritarian and authoritative disciplinary styles. The results indicated that mothers in Hong Kong were more likely to adopt an authoritarian child‐rearing pattern than mothers in Beijing; however, the two groups did not differ in authoritative child‐rearing style. The results also showed that mothers in Hong Kong controlled their children more than their counterparts in Beijing, and they were less inclined to show affection towards their children; mothers in Beijing emphasized their children's achievement much more than their Hong Kong counterparts. The findings suggest that Chinese parental disciplinary styles may be quite different in various regions of Chinese societies. Such variance across different geopolitical locations within the same cultural background has been ignored in past cross‐cultural research.     

Attitudes toward cosmetic surgery patients: the role of culture and social contact

Cosmetic surgery is increasingly popular globally, but how cosmetic surgery patients are socially evaluated is largely unknown. The present research documents attitudes toward these patients in multiple cultures (Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States). Across these cultures, attitudes toward cosmetic surgery patients were predominantly negative: Participants ascribed more negative attributes to cosmetic surgery patients and found cosmetic surgery not acceptable. Also, participants in Hong Kong and Japan were not willing to form social relationships, particularly intimate ones, with these patients. These attitudes were less negative in the United States than in Hong Kong and Japan, partly because social contact, which reduced negativity in attitudes toward cosmetic surgery patients, was more prevalent in the United States. These findings bear important implications for the subjective well-being of cosmetic surgery patients, who very often expect improvement in their social relationships through the surgery.     

Hong Kong Versus U.S. Negotiations: Effects of Culture,Alternatives, Outcome Scales,and Mediation1

This study investigates the effects of culture, BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), outcome scales, and mediation on negotiation outcomes. Six hundred three subjects from 2 countries (288 from Hong Kong and 315 from the United States) participated in 2-party negotiations that were either mediated or observed by a third party. In these negotiations, the Hong Kong negotiators obtained higher joint outcomes than did their U.S. counterparts. Also, in both Hong Kong and the United States, negotiators with a high BATNA obtained larger individual outcomes than did those with a low BATNA. Finally, mediation resulted in higher joint outcomes than did no mediation and had a stronger effect in US. (vs. Hong Kong) negotiations.     

全员参与学生发展性心理辅导研究

本研究借鉴美国、英国和我国香港地区的一些实践经验,力图发展和形成一种具有综合性的集体心理辅导模式,即学校教师全员参与学生的发展性心理辅导。研究提出了辅导模式的基本理念、操作步骤及主要内容,并采用教育实验的方法在金华南苑小学进行了实证研究,结果证明该模式有助于提高学生的心理健康水平,能促进学生更好地发展。     

Pedagogical issues in the teaching of classroom guidance curriculum—a hybrid Hong Kong case

Unlike many other places in the world, guidance lessons in Hong Kong are taught mainly by class teachers rather than school counsellors. Given the unique educational context of Hong Kong as East meets West and given that guidance is essentially a concept from the West, it is important to investigate what kind of pedagogy is suitable for teaching guidance in Hong Kong. This paper examines what teaching guidance lessons are like in Hong Kong for the researcher and for some primary teachers. A qualitative case study methodology is used. Data are drawn from the author's own experience in a primary school teaching attachment and interviews with guidance professionals, primary school principals, teachers and students in three selected primary schools in Hong Kong. Pedagogical issues for the teaching guidance curriculum are explored and discussed. The researcher argues for a hybrid guidance pedagogy for the teaching of classroom guidance in Hong Kong. Findings are applicable to countries facing similar issues in parallel mixed cultural settings.     

The influence of Confucianism: a narrative study of Hong Kong teachers’ understanding and practices of school guidance and counselling

School guidance seeks to promote the whole person growth of students. It is regarded as an integral part of an educational programme. In Hong Kong secondary schools, a team of teachers are responsible for school guidance. This article examines how guidance teachers made sense of their caring work in general and specifically the counselling services they offered to students. With the use of a narrative analysis and personal experience methods, the study explores the experience of guidance teachers in counselling. Twelve in-service teachers who had enrolled in the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education were interviewed. The influence of the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, emerging as a theme from the data, was prominent, as its key principles were incorporated into the teachers’ personal systems of counselling. The findings illuminate the influence of Chinese culture in Hong Kong schools. Implications for the promotion of culturally responsive approaches to counselling and culturally competent practices for helping are discussed.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN HONG KONG

With the rapid development of cross-cultural psychology, there is a need to provide international centres for research, which can become main focal points for cross-cultural research in specific geographic regions. The development of the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong is being carried out with this broader context in view. In addition to offering excellent university facilities for psychological research, Hong Kong is also centrally located in relation to other Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Cambodia, none of which is more than 1500 miles from Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is therefore to describe the departmental facilities for cross-cultural research in Hong Kong, departmental teaching, psychological research in Hong Kong, and finally the potential of Hong Kong as a natural laboratory for research in a multi-cultural, multilingual, traditional-modern context.