Recently (March 31, 2026) I delivered a presentation on "Teacher Well-being" at a CUHK with an audience of educators, and have recorded a version to share with CLE colleagues here.

This talk brings together both research and practice, with a focus on what teacher well-being means in our current Hong Kong context and why it matters for student learning. It begins by outlining the local landscape, where increasing workload, emotional demands, and structural pressures are contributing to sustained strain on teachers (Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, 2024; Ip, 2025; Lau & Chan, 2025). This framing highlights that teacher well-being is not only an individual issue, but a broader systemic concern.

The second part draws on a systematic review of 14 studies examining teacher burnout and student outcomes. Across studies, higher levels of teacher burnout were generally associated with lower student academic achievement, with effects observed across cross-sectional, longitudinal, and a small number of experimental designs (Madigan & Kim, 2021). In contrast, findings for student motivation, well-being, and classroom relationships were more mixed and primarily based on cross-sectional evidence, suggesting that these outcomes are less conclusive and require further investigation. Overall, the review indicates that teacher burnout is most consistently linked to how students perform, reinforcing the importance of teacher well-being as part of effective teaching and learning.

The third section draws on large-scale international data from PISA 2018, including over 90,000 students across 19 countries/regions, linked with teacher data at the school level. The findings show that teacher well-being is positively associated with students’ life satisfaction and positive affect, and negatively associated with negative affect, even after controlling for background factors such as socioeconomic status and gender (Nalipay et al., 2024). This provides evidence that teacher well-being may extend beyond the individual, shaping students’ emotional experiences through classroom climate and daily interactions.

The final part of the session shifts toward application, offering a set of practical, research-informed strategies that can be integrated into everyday teaching. These focus on building small, sustainable habits, engaging in intentional forms of rest that support recovery, and establishing boundaries that protect time and energy over time (Lemon, 2022).

I’m sharing this recording as a resource for colleagues who are interested in both understanding the evidence and reflecting on how it might translate into their own teaching practice.

Thank you for reading and watching!

References:

Ip, Y. (2025). Hong Kong must care for its teachers before it’s too late. South China Morning Post.

Ip, Y. (2025). Stress facing Hong Kong teachers and students is a collective problem we cannot ignore. South China Morning Post.

6,500 teachers quit Hong Kong schools in last academic year, bringing total to nearly 12,000 since 2021. (2024). South China Morning Post.

Hong Kong’s overworked preschool teachers clock median of 55 hours per week: Survey. (2025). South China Morning Post.

Lemon, N. (2024). Habits, boundaries and you. In The 'how' of self-care for teachers: Building your teacher wellbeing toolkit. Routledge.

Madigan, D. J., & Kim, L. E. (2024). Does teacher burnout affect students? A systematic review of its association with academic achievement and student-reported outcomes. International Journal of Educational Research.

Nalipay, M. J. N., King, R. B., & Cai, Y. (2024). Happy teachers make happy students: The social contagion of well-being from teachers to their students. School Mental Health, 16, 1223–1235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-09688-0

Abstract 

Studies of positive psychology have been developing rapidly in applied linguistics and foreign language education, especially positive psychology interventions (PPI) to facilitate L2 learning and students’ well-being. The wide range of designs and results makes it hard to see a clear general picture. Therefore, we conducted a systematic and meta-analytic review synthesizing current empirical studies examining the practices and impacts of PPIs in L2 learning contexts. Data were extracted from 26 papers with 32 independent samples and 113 effect sizes, including 2717 participants who are L2 learners. Results revealed that 1) PPI can be defined, designed and delivered in different ways, in terms of its content, instructional design and delivery mode. 2) The pooled effect sizes of the difference between experimental groups and control groups at posttest were statistically significant. More specifically, post-test PPI had a moderate to strong effect on three types of outcomes among L2 learners (i.e., L2 achievement, L2 learning process, and general well-being). 3) Further moderator analysis showed that some features could significantly shape the effects of PPI on these three outcomes, respectively, including mean age, grade level, country, first language, language similarity, PPI element number, PPI content, intervention duration, PPI integration, and outcome domain. These findings have practical implications for language researchers and educators in designing and evaluating their future positive psychology interventions.

Keywords: Positive psychology, positive psychology intervention, second/foreign language learning, well-being

Ugruntowane od dawna przekonanie, że język nie jest jedynym dostępnym<br/>środkiem komunikacji, przyczyniło się do wzrostu zainteresowania multimodalnością w komunikacji, którą można zastosować również w egzaminowaniu w szkolnictwie wyższym. Tradycyjnie, kursy językowe w szkolnictwie wyższym opierają się na egzaminach opartych na esejach pisemnych i prezentacjach. Jednakże pojawienie się mediów społecznościowych i sztucznej inteligencji wprowadziło wyzwania dla tych konwencjonalnych metod egzaminowania, zwłaszcza w kontekście przenoszenia nabytych kompetencji. W celu udoskonalenia<br/>egzaminowania w szkolnictwie wyższym ten artykuł proponuje wprowadzenie komponentów multimodalnych, które łączą różne tryby semiotyczne. Chociaż badacze zajmowali się już integracją multimodalności w komunikacji w projektowaniu kursów akademickich, niewiele<br/>badań dotyczyło jej praktycznego wdrożenia w egzaminowaniu i projektowaniu tychże kursów. Artykuł ten analizuje wpływ egzaminów multimodalnych na 86 studentów uczestniczących w kursie komunikacji w języku angielskim oraz przenoszenie nabytych kompetencji na inne<br/>kursy i dziedziny życia. Jako wstępne badanie w ramach dwuletniego projektu na dużą skalę, wykorzystując dane z analizy treści wywiadów jakościowych ze studentami oraz wyniki ilościowych badań ankietowych, badanie ocenia implikacje dla egzaminowania komunikacji w języku<br/>angielskim i przenoszenia nabytych kompetencji w oparciu o samoocenę studentów. Wstępne wyniki pokazują, że studenci, którzy uczestniczyli w kursie i egzaminach multimodalnych, skutecznie przełożyli różnorodne kompetencje miękkie na inne kursy uniwersyteckie i inne dziedziny życia. Badanie to wykazało również, że projekty multimodalne oparte na współpracy sprzyjają rozwojowi i transferowi kompetencji miękkich.<br/><br/>The long-established notion that language is not the only available means of communication has led to a growing interest in diverse communication modalities, which can be extended to higher education assessment. Traditionally, language courses in higher education rely on written essays and presentations for assessment. However, the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence has introduced challenges to these conventional assessment methods, because students can complete these tasks with some simple prompts for ChatGPT. To enhance higher education assessments, incorporating multimodal components that merge various semiotic modes has been proposed. While scholars have addressed the integration of multimodality into course design, few studies have explored its practical implementation in assessment and course design. This article examines the effects of multimodal assessments on 86 students enrolled in an English communication course and the transferability of assessment skills to other courses and domains. As an initial exploration of a two-year large-scale project, by utilizing data from content analysis of qualitative student interviews along with quantitative survey results, the study assesses the implications for English communication assessment and skill transferability based on students’ self-perception. Initial 4ndings reveal that students who engaged in the course and multimodal assessment effectively translated a variety of so skills into other university courses and other domains. is study also showcased that collaborative multimodal projects are conducive to so skills development and transfer.

Authors: Maisie Glofcheski and Rosita Cheng

Presentation Context:

Now that our pilot project is complete, we are currently testing some materials and ideas in the LANG4030 course, which will no longer be offered after this year. Moving forward, our current plan is to create short 1-2 credit courses with an innovative structure. Our plan is to start with in-class lessons during the add/drop period to help students understand how the course works, followed by out-of-class learning through microlearning modules, scaffolded by student peer-review activities, and face-to face consultations with the instructor. Students will then be invited back to the classroom at the end of the course. The timing will be strategically aligned with their needs during major final year project deadlines.

Based on the feedback and recommendations from the discussion and survey conducted during our Wednesday session, here is a summary of the comments:

Short Report Writing Courses:

• Course Structure: The majority of colleagues (83%) believe that writing courses should be 1 credit, discipline-specific (for Engineering only), and graded on a pass/fail basis.
• Consultations: Many colleagues suggested integrating one-on-one consultations midway through the course as a scaffolding measure, inspired by the LANG4030 design.
• Workshop Offerings: Some colleagues recommended that the CLE also offer some general writing workshops for students looking to build foundational skills, as indicated by CSE faculty in the student needs analysis survey.
• Microlearning Modules: There was unanimous support for combining discipline-specific microlearning modules with face-to-face elements.

Short Oral Presentation Courses:

• Discipline Specificity: Colleagues were divided on whether these courses should be discipline-specific (40% in favour, 60% against). Many noted that essential presentation skills and techniques are common across disciplines.
• Course Offerings: Some colleagues suggested that both discipline-specific and general courses should be available in the future, although FYP presentation skills should be prioritized in the short term.
• Instructional Methods: There was a consensus that microlearning modules are more suitable for written reports, while a heavier emphasis on face-to-face instruction is necessary for oral presentation courses to facilitate instant feedback. Suggestions included using pre-recorded videos and authentic student video examples, as mentioned by CSE faculty in the student needs analysis survey.

Additional Suggestions

• Multimodal Video Courses: Several colleagues highlighted the need for 1 credit short courses on designing multimodal videos, as video creation has become a replacement for poster presentations in CSE/CPEG and potentially other sub-departments in Engineering and related disciplines. This course may not need to be discipline-specific, so we will investigate which departments require videos for their final year projects.
• Resource Reutilization: It was proposed that many resources from the retired LANG1403 course could be repurposed for this initiative, maximizing the value of existing materials.