A study of teachers' psychological capitals and supportive behavior in preschool inclusive education for children with ASD /

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Student Theses

2020

Shi, Yin Ru

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

Inclusive education for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has increasingly received attention nationwide in China. Schools realize the problem that teachers are under stress and lack skills to handle daily interactions with these children. So far, few studies have directed effort to providing a remedy for the teachers to improve their daily work. This study aimed to train and investigate teachers' Psychological Capitals and their supportive behavior by adopting a mixed methods research design. In Study 1, a general survey (n =143) investigating Psychological Capitals was conducted among the targeted preschool teachers in preschool inclusive settings to validate the instrument among the Chinese sample. Study 2 was conducted to provide a 2-hour teacher training on Psychological Capitals in order to boost teachers' supportive behavior. Study 3, follow-up interviews were organized for those who had participated in Study 2. Their opinions and suggestions regarding the teacher training were recorded and their observation of how their learned Psychological Capitals can translate into supports for students, and how those students react accordingly. Results of confirmatory factor analysis supported the validity of Psychological Capitals in Chinese preschool teacher sample (Study 1). Pre- and Post- tests for the teacher training suggested that teachers showed a significant improvement of their perceived Psychological Capitals, and Psychological Capitals showed the positive correlation with their supportive behavior (Study 2). Finally, interview results demonstrated that most teachers provided positive feedback for the training, stating that they learned some useful skills to buffer stress and could consider more approaches to help their students (Study 3). Research findings of this study highlighted the importance to nurturing teachers to be more psychologically resourceful for combating stress, which further led to improved teaching with students in preschool inclusive education

LG51.H43 Dr 2020eb Shiyr

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/AzahfdoK