The authors examined the relationships of cognitive (i.e., memorization and elaboration) and metacognitive learning strategies (i.e., control strategies) to mathematics achievement among 15-year-old students in 4 high-performing East Asian education systems: Shanghai-China, Hong Kong-China, Korea, and Singapore. In all 4 East Asian education systems, memorization strategies were negatively associated with mathematics achievement, whereas control strategies were positively associated with mathematics achievement. However, the association between elaboration strategies and mathematics achievement was a mixed bag. In Shanghai-China and Korea, elaboration strategies were not associated with mathematics achievement. In Hong Kong-China and Singapore, on the other hand, elaboration strategies were negatively associated with mathematics achievement. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Genetic Psychology is the property of Taylor & Francis. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2013.799057]

This study investigates the development of reading in young Chinese learners of English in Hong Kong by comparing the effects of a guided reading intervention to an alternative treatment based on reading from e-books and a no-treatment control group. The key features of the guided reading intervention included: instruction on reading strategies and opportunities for interaction for negotiation of meaning with peers. The e-book reading focused on reading stories from CD-ROMs with embedded instructional features including opportunities to hear the stories and engage in routine word and text games but without any interaction with peers or any guidance from a teacher. Two hundred and five children, aged 9??0 years, from six primary schools in Hong Kong were stratified for gender and reading proficiency in English and randomly assigned to one of the three groups: the guided reading group, the e-book reading group and the no-treatment control group. The treatments were delivered as additional reading sessions on top of normal classroom instruction. Pre-and post-intervention tests revealed that children in the guided reading group significantly improved their reading comprehension and reading accuracy scores compared to the no-treatment control group. The children in the e-book reading group did not improve significantly compared to the no-treatment group in reading comprehension although there was significant improvement in reading accuracy. However, there was no significant difference between the children in the guided reading group and the e-book reading group ineither reading comprehension or reading accuracy scores. The pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed in the context of teaching English in primary schools in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Language Learning Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2011.625214]

This study aims to investigate students' knowledge and interest on adoption of IFRS in Hong Kong, the preferred strategy and pedagogy of introducing IFRS, and the usefulness of learning IFRS. The results show that most Hong Kong students are eager to learn IFRS and they understand the positive impact of learning IFRS. The Hong Kong accounting professionals and educators have to develop relevant materials on IFRS.
[Copyright of Journal of Management Research. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jmr/]

Since the end of the 1980s in the NIE4 - Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore - in Asia, progressive cultural and educational policies have developed along with tremendous economic growth, and a belief in the value of cultivating excellent human resources has provided the fertile ground to plant the seeds for Drama Education and Applied Theatre in schools and community settings. Drama Education and Applied Theatre projects have therefore been implemented in different ways and manners in different policy contexts and funding systems in the NIE4 either through government programmes or Non-governmental Organization (NGO) and civil organisations. They have developed in different directions as well as encountering different problems over 20 years. This essay aims to give a brief survey and investigation into these innovative imaginings and actions in the NIE4 and it ventures to present the issues and concerns that practitioners are seeking to ponder and solve. It also aims to explore the relationship between these praxes and the respective social, cultural and political changes in these areas and investigate the various responses and efficacy these praxes in Drama Education and Applied Theatre have done to their respective societies as well as investigate the challenges they posed to the existing social and educational orthodox ideologies.
[Copyright of Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2012.756182]