Based on the data of the normative study of the Hong Kong test of specific learning difficulties in reading and writing, and the Test of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor) - Revised, 99 children aged between 6 and 10½ years were identified as children with dyslexia out of the normative sample of 690 children. By excluding 12 children known to score below average in IQ, 87 children, including 20 children not tested for IQ, could be regarded as children with dyslexia, yielding a prevalence rate of 12.6% and a boy:girl gender ratio of 1.6 to 1. The figures would become 9.7% and 2.0 to 1 if the 20 children were omitted from computation. However, gender imbalance could not be readily explained by gender differences in reading-related cognitive abilities, as there were only minor and subtle differences. Regression analyses to evaluate the relative contribution of different cognitive abilities to reading and writing suggested that orthographic knowledge and naming speed were most important among children with dyslexia. Implications of the findings and the need for early intervention are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690601068535]

From 20 primary schools in Hong Kong, a sample of 59 boys and 62 girls in 4th grade and 98 boys and 99 girls in 5th grade (N = 318) responded to a survey about their learning-to-learn capabilities including (a) reading to learn, (b) self-management, (c) desire for knowledge, and (d) originality of ideas, and two facilitating factors for enabling such capabilities, including (e) academic self-concept, and (f) effort goal orientation. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the validity of the six psychological constructs. Analysis of variance found that although boys and girls did not differ in academic self-concept, desire for knowledge and originality, girls scored higher in effort goal orientation, reading to learn, and self-management. There was a gender x grade interaction effect in reading to learn, indicating that 5th grade girls were more willing than 4th grade girls to acquire knowledge through reading whereas 5th grade boys were less willing than 46 grade boys to do so. Advocates of education reform need to consider gender differences when formulating policies to promote students' learning-to-learn capabilities and particularly to encourage boys to read.
[Copyright of Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist is the property of Australian Psychological Society. Publisher's website:
http://www.psychology.org.au/]

The responses of 712 high achieving and low achieving students at the Open University of Hong Kong were analysed to investigate gender differences in factors that contribute to successful achievement in distance education. The analysis indicated a number of gender differences, including in the areas of organisation and use of study materials, confidence about studies, and independent versus collaborative study. Based on these, some questions have been raised about the need to develop some different treatment for male and female students in order to maximise the achievement of both groups.
[Copyright of Open Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680510120050307]