Vygotsky speculated that parents play an important role in the intellectual development of their children, and that this role includes the transfer of expectations related to their children's academic achievement. Consequently, different parents can produce different contexts of academic achievement for their children. The participants were 215 Primary 5 and 6 students from four primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents. Students were administered a test of working memory and their academic achievement was indicated by their schoolassessed mathematics and language achievement scores. Parents reported their expectations of their children's academic achievement, the extent of their home and school involvement, and their educational and income levels. Correlational and sequential regression analyses showed that different schools yielded different contexts of academic achievement. The results support the hypothesis that parents, and especially parental expectations, play an important role in children's academic achievement, and that within Hong Kong different schools can be characterised by different contexts of achievement.
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The aim of the present study is to explore a causal model of academic achievement and learning-related personal variables by testing the nature of relationships between learned hopelessness, its risk factors and hopelessness deficits as proposed in major theories in this area. The model investigates affective-motivational characteristics of students such as prior academic failures, academic attributional style, self-efficacy, thoughts about intelligence, school values, learned hopelessness, self-esteem, learning strategy effectiveness and academic achievement, and the relationships among them. A sample of 741 Hong Kong secondary students completed a series of scales over a school year. As expected, prior achievement was the best predictor of subsequent achievement. The next best predictors were perceived learning difficulties and learned hopelessness. This in turn leads to disengagement from schooling and students taking on most responsibility for their failing. Recommendations for teachers and schools to ameliorate these beliefs may redress the move towards hopelessness.
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The study compared preferred homework styles of Chinese students-who were characterized by (a) high vs low self-perceived homework achievement and attitude; (b) high vs low teacher-rated homework completion and quality; and (c) high vs low academic achievement in mathematics-and examined gender differences of homework styles in these students. The participants were 329 5th graders (172 boys and 157 girls) and 244 7th graders (130 boys and 114 girls). More distinguishing homework style elements were found with the self-perceived homework achievement and attitude levels than in the teacher-rated achievement levels. Neither gender differences nor gender-achievement interaction effects were indicated. As expected, the motivational elements distinguished the high/low levels of all types of achievement and attitude towards homework. While high teacher-rated achievement was more closely associated with high scores of the teacher-motivated element, the self-perception of work accomplishment at home was more positive in those students who were highly motivated by parents as well as teachers. A number of environmental and organisational elements also distinguished the high from low achievers. The importance of the teacher and parent role in student achievement was discussed.
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The relationship between thinking styles and personality types is investigated within the contexts of Sternberg's theory of mental self-government and Holland's theory of personality types. A total of 600 university students from Hong Kong responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) and the Short-version Self-directed Search (SVSDS) that was specially designed for the present study. A major finding of this study is that thinking styles and personality types overlap to a degree. A secondary finding is that the SVSDS is sufficiently reliable and valid for assessing Holland's personality types. Implications of both findings are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713663742]

This paper describes the development and initial validation of a Chinese reading motivation questionnaire (CRMQ) which was designed to assess Chinese students' reading motivation in Hong Kong. The development of the CRMQ consisted of two steps. In the first study, groups of items were constructed based on achievement motivation theories and existing instruments. The initial version of the CRMQ was administered to a small group of Grade 7 students in Hong Kong and exploratory factor analysis, item-total correlation, and reliability analyses were carried out to assess its psychometric quality. The CRMQ was then revised and administered to a larger sample of Grade 7 students in the second study. Findings of confirmatory factor analysis provided further validation for the proposed factor structure of the revised questionnaire. In addition, findings indicated that students' reading motivation was positively related to their strategy use, reading comprehension, and academic achievement. The findings of this study could enrich our understanding of Chinese reading motivation among Hong Kong students. Implications of these findings for implementing effective reading instruction in Chinese language teaching are also discussed.
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The present study examined the effects of Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) under two conditions--with reinforcement (CWPT+ R) and without reinforcement (CWPT-- R)--on 77 students' spelling performance and intrinsic interest in lower secondary school Integrated Science. The students displayed educational attainments in the average range. Both CWPT approaches led to significant improvements in spelling test performance. Both groups also evaluated the programme positively. However, the CWPT+ R group made significantly greater learning gains than did the CWPT-- R students. These appeared to be related to higher levels of academic responding. Despite their impressive spelling gains, students in the CWPT+ R group displayed significantly lower intrinsic interest in Integrated Science after involvement in CWPT. However, great caution should be exercised in interpreting this last result, as statistically significant effects werenot found when group differences at post-test were examined by way of t-test and analysis of covariance methods. In summary, the data from this study suggest: (a) that the CWPT method of instruction is useful for helping lower secondary school students, (b) that reinforcers may increase learning gains by encouraging higher rates of responding, but (c) that there is an indication, subject to caution, that these reinforcers may possibly depress intrinsic interest in an academic activity (science in the case of this study).
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The reciprocal relationship between mathematics achievement and self-concept is examined in this study to expand the existing knowledge to a cross-cultural setting. Based on analyses of educational data two years before and after Hong Kong's sovereignty switch in 1997, this investigation shows a weak reciprocal relationship among the eighth-grade students across gender categories. With the introduction of a new policy to promote Chinese instruction, changes in the perceived importance of English have been assessed by education stakeholders, and the results are used to indicate a latent factor of "English push" behind the learning process. In the context of cross-cultural transition, gender differences have been found in path coefficients toward mathematics achievement and self-concept. Limited by the four-year research period, one may speculate whether it would take longer to demonstrate a large effect size in the reciprocal relationship.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410500390863]

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between thinking styles and the big five personality traits. One-hundred-and-fifty-four (mean age 20 years) second-year university students from Hong Kong participated in the study. Participants responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory based on Sternberg's theory of mental self-government and to the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI, Costa & McCare, 1992). Although significant relationships were identified between particular thinking styles and certain personality traits, it was concluded that it is premature to claim that a personality measure, such as the NEO-FFI can be used to measure thinking styles.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410120101224]

This study examined the association between students' approaches to learning and stages of reflective thinking. The revised version of the Study Process Questionnaire was used to measure deep and surface approaches to learning and the Reflection Questionnaire was used to distinguish four stages of reflective and nonreflective thinking. Both questionnaires were completed by 402 undergraduates from all years of study from a health science faculty in a university in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test possible associations. The results showed that only the habitual action scale correlated significantly to surface approach to learning. Understanding, reflection and critical reflection correlated with deep approach but had no correlation to surface approach. Understanding, reflection and critical reflection correspond to the use of a deep approach with increasing levels of meaningful personal assimilation. These findings provide evidence of close association between approaches to learning and stages of reflection upon practice. The results also provide evidence for the convergent validity of both questionnaires.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014434022000022933]

This paper reports the development of performance indicators for measuring primary and secondary students' affective and social outcomes of schooling. Psychometric properties as well as norms for the selected performance indicators for Hong Kong students were developed. The performance indicator system developed in this study has been subsequently used for school self‐evaluation and continuous self‐improvement in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410500344266]