Career and Life Planning Education - Extending the Self-Concept Theory and Its Multidimensional Model to Assess Career-Related Self-Concept of Students with Diverse Abilities

Oct 15, 2026

Purpose: Systematically examine the development of career guidance practices in Hong Kong over the past 40 years, discuss developmental attention to career-related self-concept of diverse learners, and propose a multidimensional self-concept model integrating career-related domains. Design/Approach/Methods: Chart career guidance and counseling trends in Hong Kong for more than 40 years and review key self-concept findings from education and career counseling over 50 years. Findings and value address ongoing challenges and the need to tailor activities for students’ diverse abilities.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

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Abstract

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Career and Life Planning Education: Extending the Self-Concept Theory and Its Multidimensional Model to Assess Career-Related Self-Concept of Students with Diverse Abilities Lan Yang The Education University of Hong Kong Lawrence P. W. Wong The Hong Kong Polytechnic University ECNU Review of Education 2020, Vol. 3(4) 659–677 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/2096531120930956](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120930956)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120930956)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: This article aims to (1) systematically examine the development of career guidance practices in Hong Kong over the past 40 years,(2) discuss developmental attention to the careerrelated self-concept of diverse learners, and (3) propose a multidimensional model of self-concept by integrating the career-related domains with recent advances in self-concept research pertaining to students’ in-school and post-school outcomes. Design/Approach/Methods: This article charts the developmental trend of career guidance and counseling (CGC) over more than 40 years in Hong Kong. The article also examines key findings relating to self-concept research made in the fields of education and career counseling in the past 50 years. Findings: For 50 years, Hong Kong has progressively recognized the importance of CGC. The government’s continued determination to refine its policies and practices in this domain was Corresponding author: Lan Yang, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. Email: yanglan@eduhk.hk Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). succinctly highlighted in the Chief Executive’s 2018 policy address. However, many challenges pertaining the professional competence of career guidance teachers and the ability of school administrators to manage the paradigm shift from informal to formal career guidance and counseling practices (CGCPs) remain. Meanwhile, the effects of these CGCPs on students’ gains of career-related abilities and interests directly and indirectly remain under-researched. Originality/Value: This article integrates research into the developmental trend of career guidance practices in secondary schools and the study of academic self-concept. The article builds upon previous self-concept research by proposing an extended self-concept model that includes the career-related domain, setting a theoretical model for further research to explore. Finally, the article demonstrates the importance of tailoring career guidance activities in secondary education to reflect the diverse career-related self-concepts held by today’s students with diverse abilities. Keywords Academic self-concept, career guidance practices, career-related self-concept, Hong Kong, students with diverse abilities Date received: 11 January 2020; accepted: 8 May 2020 Introduction While the relationship between positive academic self-concept and in-school success has been welldocumented, considerably little effort has been allocated to investigate how students develop career-related self-concepts. Additionally, the interplay among academic self-concept, academic achievement, career-related self-concept, and post-school success has largely been ignored (Sin & Yang, 2018) but deserves in-depth exploration (Lee et al., 201

FAQs

What is the main purpose of this article?

The article systematically examines the development of Hong Kong career guidance practices over about 40 years, discusses attention to career-related self-concept for diverse learners, and proposes an extended multidimensional self-concept model integrating career-related domains.

How does the article study Hong Kong career guidance and counseling?

It charts developmental trends in career guidance and counseling across more than 40 years in Hong Kong and reviews key self-concept research findings from education and career counseling over roughly 50 years.

What challenges are highlighted regarding career guidance and counseling practices?

The article notes remaining challenges in teachers’ professional competence and schools’ ability to manage shifts from informal to formal career guidance and counseling practices, while emphasizing that effects on students’ career-related abilities and interests remain under-researched.

Oct 15, 2026

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