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Macau Special Administration Region (Macau SAR) is in the process of revising legislation concerning special and inclusive education. While the institutional discourse revolves around establishing inclusive education, it is unclear as to how the proposed changes will enable or depress this from occurring. This research, therefore, examined teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion as an indication of how well the new legislation may be received. Specifically, it investigated the interplay between 508 teachers working in private schools in Macau, that identified themselves as being inclusive schools, and teachers’ sentiments and attitudes towards the acceptance of inclusion and the role that Confucian values might play in shaping these attitudes. Discussion focusses on four key outcomes that need to be addressed if a significant improvement in including all children in regular schools in Macau is to be achieved. These include the need (1) to clarify the concept of inclusion at government, school, and teacher levels as it currently has ambiguous meaning; (2) to provide teachers with more opportunities to have systematic contacts with students with SEN, as this is crucial to improving their sentiments and attitudes toward people with disability; (3) to provide professional learning about inclusive education with better partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools to bridge theory and practice; and (4) to review the hidden influence of the subtle levels of time-honoured Confucian beliefs in Macau, which are not manifest nor easily detected but possibly have a deep impact on day-to-day practices.

This paper reports findings of a mixed methods study examining private school teachers’ perceptions of efficacy in dealing with the challenges presented by inclusive education in Macao. This is highly pertinent after the Government invited consultation to propose changes to amendments of the Decree Law of 1996 concerning the education of students with Special Education Needs (SEN) which will likely see private schools being required to accept these students in the future. Within the context of teacher preparedness for inclusive education, the study found that a number of teachers felt that they were not at all prepared to teach students with SEN. Whilst some teachers suggested that they lacked skills and knowledge in teaching in inclusive classrooms, some felt overwhelmed with the challenges. The teachers proposed that they would need to know how to provide instructional adaptations and modifications to support students with SEN. Implications for continuous development of teacher training and education are discussed within the context of improving teacher efficacy and how private school teachers could better respond to the challenges of inclusive education in Macao.

In Macao, the government has initiated a debate regarding revisions in the Decree Law in order to promote a more inclusive schooling system. In this Special Administrative Region of China, inclusive education is one of three possible types of special education that are likely be legislated in the future. The way the teachers perceive the different aspects related to inclusive education, namely the principles, concepts and law, is essential for its full implementation. The aim of this study is to understand teachers’ perceptions about the proposed amendments in the consultation document for changes in the special education regime. In particular, we focus on teachers’ acceptance of the recommended role of parents, the proposed placement models and expectations for teacher training. A mixed-methods approach with a survey of a sample of 500 teachers in private schools and interviews to a sub-sample of 20 provide the data. While agreeing in principle with the majority of the proposed changes in the Decree Law, there were several reservations made by the teachers, especially regarding the extent of parental choice, placement decisions and teacher training. Recommendations to continue the pathway for a more inclusive education system in Macao and for further research are made.

O estudo das estratégias que as crianças usam na leitura de palavras e a análise dos erros que tipicamente ocorrem ao longo do processo de aprendizagem numa dada ortografia são da maior importância para a compreensão do processo de aprendizagem da leitura. O objectivo deste trabalho foi perceber como se processa a aquisição da leitura no início do ensino fundamental no português europeu. Procurou-se saber se haveria diferenças na frequência de erros fonológicos e lexicais e no padrão de erros fonológicos entre os dois primeiros anos do ensino fundamental. Participaram 175 crianças do 1º ano e 137 do 2º ano de seis escolas. Foi aplicada uma prova de leitura oral de palavras. Os erros foram categorizados em fonológicos, com diversas subcategorias, e lexicais. Encontraram-se diferenças na frequência dos erros fonológicos e lexicais entre os dois anos, assim como nos subtipos de erros fonológicos que tipicamente ocorreram. Os erros de substituição foram os mais frequentes, tendo ocorrido mais nas consoantes e nos dígrafos. Seguiram-se os erros de adição e de supressão, que ocorreram sobretudo em sílabas complexas. Tais resultados, contribuindo para uma caracterização dos erros típicos nessa fase de aprendizagem, revelam-se um instrumento importante na detecção de dificuldades precoces na aprendizagem da leitura e na adequação de estratégias de ensino-aprendizagem. Este estudo permite uma melhor compreensão dos processos usados pelas crianças na resolução dos problemas que as características da língua portuguesa lhes coloca, assim como poderá permitir uma intervenção educativa que conduza a um maior sucesso na aprendizagem da leitura.Leitores principiantes; Aprendizagem; Leitura de palavras; Padrão de erros

Examining why individuals engage in gambling is important in understanding the development of gambling behaviors. Numerous studies have investigated the underlying factor of gambling motivation. However, there is a dearth of evidence showing the latent dimensions of gambling motivation among individuals who are exposed to gambling in daily basis (i.e., casino employees). To address this gap, 817 casino employees were administered the Chinese version of the Gambling Motivation Scale (GMS) and other related measures. Results revealed that of the four models tested, a first-order model with seven factors achieved better fit in contrast to all other models. The seven factors include intrinsic motivation (IM) for knowledge, IM for accomplishment, IM for stimulation, extrinsic motivation (EM) due to identified regulation, EM due to introjected regulation, EM due to external regulation, and amotivation. However, the seven-factor model did not reach the conventional fit indices for good fit. After some post hoc modifications, the revised model achieved adequate fit. Moreover, the revised seven factors were related to frequency of gambling and amount spent for gambling. Generally, results showed that modified GMS with seven factors can be used with Chinese population, more specifically with Chinese casino employees.

Abstract: This study examines how specific variables such as age, first language, nationality, school grade and socioeconomic status (SES) affect the comprehensibility of second language (L2) speech in 92 second/non-native language learners. Comprehensibility refers to the degree of speech understanding. Fluency, rhythm, grammatical features and word stressing are concurrent factors for the listening comprehension (and the listener comprehensibility) mainly in L2 context. Research evidence focused the quality and differences of speech samples produced by the L2 learners and the comprehensibility rated by native speakers. In reverse scenario there is less evidence on the judgment of L2 learners for speech samples produced by native speakers. In this study we analysed if the comprehensibility ability of 92 young Portuguese L2 learners differ in the following conditions: age, nationality, home language, school grade, proficiency and socioeconomic status. Speech (one text) was recorded by a native speaker and was judged by L2 speakers using 1-5 Likert scale for comprehension difficulty. Main results showed that neither age nor home language had influence for comprehensibility, but socioeconomic, nationality and grades accounted for statistical differences between the groups tested. Also, data suggested that phonetic features are more likely important for the beginner in second language learning compared to the semantic features of speech that heavily depend on vocabulary domain. Keywords: Speech comprehensibility, nationality, grades, socioeconomic status, second language. Read more →

OBJECTIVE: A wide range of factors can influence help-seeking attitudes when individuals experience a mental disorder. The current study investigated the relationship between traditional Chinese beliefs related to the aetiology of mental disorders and help-seeking attitudes among elderly participants in Macao. METHODS: In order to ensure the suitability of participants for inclusion in this study, the participants were required to complete an initial screening test using the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ). Participants who successfully passed the test (n = 183) completed a questionnaire that included the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS), a set of 9 items related to traditional Chinese beliefs about aetiology of mental disorders and demographic items. RESULTS: The IASMHS scores were higher for female participants and for participants who had completed high school compared with those who had never attended school or who had only completed primary education. Endorsement of traditional Chinese beliefs about the aetiology of mental disorders was higher for male participants. There was a negative correlation between traditional Chinese aetiology beliefs related to mental disorders and help-seeking attitudes. CONCLUSION: Traditional Chinese beliefs related to the aetiology of mental disorders are a negative factor that inhibits help seeking. Implications for efforts to increase the utilisation of mental health services by the elderly are discussed.