Children from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to experience lower academic achievement than children from middle-SES families. This discrepancy can be attributed to a range of parental factors. The present study tested: (1) the extent to which academic achievement in three core subjects differs between children from low- and middle-SES backgrounds; (2) the differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement across the two groups; and (3) the mediating role of parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement in explaining how SES influences children's academic achievement. The sample consisted of 184 primary students with low SES and 165 primary students with middle SES from mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. Results revealed significant differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, child engagement, as well as academic achievement in Chinese and English subjects between the low-SES and middle-SES groups. Our findings also suggest that parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement may be important mediators in the relationship between SES and academic achievement. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

E-portfolios have been adopted by higher education institutions as assessment for learning tools to develop students' reflective thinking and their ownership of learning. This paper examines how e-portfolios are integrated in an undergraduate course at a Hong Kong university to develop students' reflective thinking. Based on the qualitative data collected and analysed from both the teacher and students in the course, this paper first discusses the different levels of reflective thinking that the students developed as they were working on their e-portfolios. It then identifies the factors that facilitate and hinder students' development of reflective thinking, how the facilitating factors are enabled and what the hindering factors need to be addressed. These key findings highlight the pivotal role of the teacher as a learning facilitator and guide, the scaffolding role of the toolkit to support both teachers and students, and the necessity of the technical capacity building and support in the implementation of e-portfolios in higher education. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature.

Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study aims to examine the relationship between the personal, communal, environmental, and transcendental domains of spiritual well-being of university students in Hong Kong and their academic performance measured by Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The study is guided by two research questions. Research Question One: What are the relationships between university students’ spiritual well-being and their academic performance as measured by CGPA?Research Question Two: If there are any relationships between university students’ spiritual well-being and their academic performance, how are the background demographic variables, including major discipline, family socio-economic status and religious beliefs related to spiritual well-being and academic performance?The quantitative part of the study consists of a survey that collects data from a random sample of 1,130 Year 2 and Year 3 students from three universities in Hong Kong. The questionnaire used is adapted from the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) developed by John Fisher. The quantitative findings indicate a moderate positive relationship between the spiritual well-being of the respondents and their academic performance; the results also demonstrate that students’ academic performance corresponds with their levels of spiritual well-being. The qualitative part of the study is comprised of 11 focus group discussions. The findings of this support the quantitative findings and contribute to the exploration of the background variables that mediate the abovementioned positive relationship. The study also involves data triangulation.The findings suggest that the resulting positive relationship can be explained by three demographic features, namely, family social-economic status, major disciplines, and religious beliefs. Thus, these demographic features are used to delineate and analyze the positive relationship and the various patterns of the relationship

This article analyses an assessment initiative known as the Basic Competency Assessment (BCA) in Hong Kong using Bernstein's performance and competence models of pedagogic practice. On the one hand, BCA is aligned with a competence model through its official projection as a low-stakes, student-focussed and formative assessment. However, an examination of the public perception of and context for BCA reveals its high-stakes, disciplines-centred and summative nature; it is argued that BCA reflects a performance model with strong classification, strong framing and visible pedagogies. The example of Hong Kong illustrates the usefulness of Bernstein's theory and extends the existing research on the interactions between local culture and pedagogic practices.
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Adopting a phenomenographic approach, Learning Study utilises diagnostic approaches to identify students’ ways of understanding before teaching to tailor-make teaching to cater for students’ needs and after teaching to evaluate the effectiveness of pedagogical designs in research lessons. Yet in the existing publications, there was little discussion on the methodology of designing and analysing pre- and post-tests in Learning Study to ensure the test validity and reliability. This paper reports a study that attempted to fill the knowledge gap by analysing the pre- and post-tests adopted in 16 Learning Study projects in Hong Kong (4 from each of the four key learning areas, i.e., Chinese, English, mathematics and science, 2 from primary schools and 2 from secondary schools respectively in each area). It reviewed the frameworks of test validity and reliability by Heffner (2014) and designed a comprehensive checklist of test validity and reliability for analysing the 16 sets of pre- and post-tests in terms of purposes, contents, structures, types of questions and ways of test analysis. It was found that the application of Variation Theory helped identify the critical features and their structure, which enhanced construct and content validity of the tests. The use of pilot tests and team meetings promote Inter-Rater Reliability. Observations of teaching and pre- and post-lesson interviews were often employed to triangulate with test data to increase the credibility of evaluation. The paper concludes with recommendations for developing valid and reliable pre- and post-tests for diagnostic purposes in schools. Copyright © 2017 World Association of Lesson Studies.

Assessment as learning (AaL) puts students at the centre of learning and is considered a powerful alternative assessment approach that can maximize student learning. How it can be applied as a pedagogical and assessment tool in writing classrooms, however, is not clearly understood. Research on the implementation of AaL as a unitary concept in L2 writing classrooms is scant, particularly at the primary level. To fill these gaps, the study investigates the implementation of AaL in two Hong Kong primary writing classrooms from teachers' and students' perspectives, focusing specifically on the perceived benefits and problems. Using data gathered from interviews with two participating teachers and six selected students, as well as classroom observations, the findings show that the teachers' very first attempt to put AaL into practice reaped benefits for themselves and the students, but a few problems were noted too, which provide useful implications for practice and further research. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study was conducted in a Hong Kong secondary school and investigated teachers' views of a nontraditional reporting system referred to as "the narrative student report." The report facilitates delivery of descriptive feedback to students to encourage their development as self-regulated learners. A single location case-study was used with ethnographic components (long-term observation in natural setting, interviews, discussion). Information was collected mainly from observations and individual interviews with 15 teachers. The school is an "inviting school" that has adopted the Invitational Education model as a way of energizing students to realize their full potential. The findings here confirmed data from a previous study that examined students' views of the same system. The students identified four crucial influences that affect the success of the system. To this list, teachers here have added three more influences — teachers' shared beliefs, various learning opportunities, and teachers' professional development. The findings are interpreted from the perspective of invitational education. Copyright © 2013 The Hong Kong Professional Counselling Association.

This qualitative study, conducted in Hong Kong between September 2009 and August 2011, explored the contextual factors that may influence the effectiveness of a well-established but atypical reporting system utilized in an inviting secondary school. An inviting school is intentionally adopting policies and practices that are compatible with the Invitational Theory (Purkey & Novak, 1996). In this investigation, information gleaned from fieldwork observations was compared to factors that had emerged from a previous study (Chung & Yuen, 2012), which used interviews with students. The findings confirmed the factors from this previous study, namely the importance of constructive comments and teacher-student relationships, as well as revealed additional influential factors—teachers' beliefs, professional development and communication strategies. These factors appeared to connect strongly with the basic beliefs of invitational education. The findings enrich invitational theory in relation to the value of reporting systems as a major adjunct to the curriculum. Inviting schools may preoccupy the advantages to transform their existing reporting system into an individual Education Program for more diverse needs in msainstream schools. The study also revealed difficulties of a contextual nature that the school was encountering while implementing the reporting system. 這次質性研究於零九年九月至一一年八月在香港一所啟發潛能中學裡進行，探討該校一個建立已久卻又非傳統的成績報告系統，嘗試找出什麼情境因素會影響著這樣一個系統有效地推行。一所啟發潛能學校是刻意推行一些與啟發潛能理論相配合的政策與實踐 (Purkey & Novak, 1996)。在這次研究中，實地視察所蒐集的資料與之前透過與學生面談而浮現的因素作比較 (Chung & Yuen, 2012)。這次發現確定了之前研究所指出的因素，這包括建設性評估、師生關係的重要性，並且發現一些新的因素，包括教師的信念、專業發展，以及溝通策略。這些因素明顯跟啟發潛能理論中的基礎信念有很多強的關鍵。這些發現豐富了啟發潛能理在有關成績報告系統的範疇上的意義，這是與課程有重要關連的部份。啟發潛能學校可能具備優勢把現有的成績報告系統轉化為「個別化學習計劃」以照顧主流學校中的多元需要。這次研究亦揭示墦推行這種成績報告系統時，學校在真實情境中面對著的不同困難。
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One of the key aims of formative assessment in higher education is to enable students to become self-regulated learners (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). Based on Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick's (2006) framework, this exploratory study investigates which formative assessment practices proposed by them were used by one college EFL writing teacher to facilitate learner self-regulation in a Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) setting (i.e. Hong Kong) and student perceptions of these practices in relation to self-regulation. Five formative assessment practices were found to be implemented by the teacher to support learner self-regulation. The students seemed to be more positive about teacher-and-student-directed practices than student-directed ones. Suggestions have been provided to maximize the potential of these practices in facilitating learner self-regulation.

Hong Kong has been implementing a policy of assessment for learning to counter-balance the strong, high-stakes, summative, and examination-oriented practices of the territory. While the purposes teachers have for various classroom assessment tasks are devoted to this learning premise, their views are bounded by the social expectations of assessment for accountability. This paper reports on a study of the types of assessment tasks used by four primary school curriculum leaders, the nature of assessment for learning in Hong Kong primary school context, and their views of how the tasks could support learning improvement in the accountability era. Results indicate that, consistent with official policy, “improvement” was the dominant reason for using the eight assessment tasks discussed in interviews. However, these tasks also met the functions of “accountability,” consistent with the dominant use of assessment in the Chinese context. It appears that assessment for learning in Hong Kong practice is still bounded by the need to demonstrating school quality through the preparation of students for examinations, which raises questions about the policy’s validity. This paper concludes with factors that hinder a formative learning practice and recommends some follow-up strategies under this improvement-accountability tension.
[Copyright © 2017 Education Research Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.]