This study is concerned with the attribution of secondary students. Causal interpretations for academic success and failure were analysed to investigate the effect of gender, year level and achievement level on students' academic attributions in Hong Kong, a Confucian Heritage Culture. The sample for the study comprised 14,846 students currently enrolled in Secondary 1 to Secondary 6 in Hong Kong. Multivariate analyses of variance found significant gender differences in ascriptions to ability, effort and strategy use reasons for school performance of students who shared a common cultural background. These effects remained after controlling for achievement and year levels. Chinese females in this sample were more inclined than Chinese males to explain their academic failure in terms of their lack of ability and strategy use. Females were also more likely to explain their academic success in terms of their effort or strategy use. Nevertheless, the study found secondary students of both genders and across all achievement and year levels, consistently ascribed to effort as the most important reason for academic outcomes. Secondary 4 students were significantly more inclined than students of lower levels to attribute their academic outcomes to effort and strategy use. Cultural influences are discussed in interpreting the findings.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2010.518596]

This article presents some findings of a small-scale research study carried out in 1 kindergarten in Hong Kong. The study looked at the problems associated with the transition of families from one culture (mainland China) to a new culture (Hong Kong), concentrating on the children's development of a sense of belonging in Hong Kong. Specific issues that children may face were identified. The study also suggests some strategies for early childhood teachers to use when implementing a play-based curriculum that gives immigrant children opportunities to express their emotions through play. The study found that a sense of belonging can be enhanced if teachers understand the difficulties inherent in cultural transition and respond accordingly.
[Copyright of Diaspora Indigenous and Minority Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595691003635864]

The present study explored motivation and engagement among Chinese and Australian school students. Based on a sample of 528 Hong Kong Chinese 12-13 year olds and an archive sample of 6,366 Australian 12-13 year olds, achievement motivation was assessed using the Motivation and Engagement Scale-High School (MES-HS). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling using LISREL found that, across Chinese and Australian students, there was similar factor structure, reliability, correlations with educational outcomes, and gender and age effects—suggesting there are no fundamental differences of kind between the two cultures. There were, however, differences of degree in that Australian students reported significantly higher levels of adaptive achievement motivation and significantly lower levels of maladaptive achievement motivation. It is concluded that although Australian students have higher levels of reported achievement motivation than Chinese students on a number of dimensions, the two groups' fundamental orientation does not appear to be markedly different in terms of motivation structure, profile, and relationships. This holds implications for cross-cultural motivation assessment, data analysis, and programmatic intervention aimed at enhancing (and sustaining) students' achievement motivation in different cultural and national contexts.
[Copyright of International Journal of Testing is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15305058.2010.482220]

This article reports on the results of a questionnaire and interview survey on Cantonese ESL learners' preference for bilingualised dictionaries or monolingual dictionaries. The questionnaire survey was implemented with about 160 university English majors in Hong Kong and three focus group interviews were conducted with 14 of these participants. The results of the study showed that learners' own perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of the two types of dictionaries were largely in line with previous research findings, but some learners had mistaken beliefs about bilingualised dictionaries, especially about the alleged lack of definitions and usage information. Misconceptions such as these could be dispelled by ESL teachers who, by designing programmes which incorporate the use of bilingualised dictionaries, alert their learners to the bank of information such dictionaries can provide. Editors of bilingualised dictionaries could also adopt more eye-catching special features or highlighting techniques to attract users' attention to the usage information included. When encountering difficulties, learners should be encouraged to use both types of dictionaries.
[Copyright of Language, Culture and Curriculum is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2010.510196]

This study investigates the transition from kindergarten to primary school through the experiences of the teachers, parents and children involved. Emphasis is given to the transitional activities participated in by the stakeholders and the effectiveness of these activities. These experiences of children's transition to school will inform further research into the design of effective transition programmes in the local context. The means of investigation in this study include questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations. The results show that the teachers and parents generally believed that the children performed quite well academically, although the primary school teachers reported that they were average in discipline. The findings from both the questionnaires and the interviews show that most of the respondents agreed that strong connections between kindergarten, primary school and parents could facilitate a smoother transition to school. However, in reality, both kindergarten and primary school teachers showed ignorance of each other's teaching practices and curriculum.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430802586130]

該研究表明，北京、廣州、香港和台北的大學生在對創造力和創造力人才的內隱認知甚為一致。其中北京和廣州大學生的內隱認知更為接近，而香港和台灣大學生的內隱認知更為接近。在對高創造力特徵的內隱認知上，四地大學生一致看重的條目有：有創造力、有創見、創新、有觀察力、有思考力、願做嘗試、靈活性、有自信、有想象力、有好奇心、有個性和有獨立性等。而在對低創造力表現的內隱認知上，四地大學生的一致認同的條目有：、呆鈍、保守、跟隨傳統和願做讓步。在對創造力人才的認知上，四地的大學皆首推政治名人，次推科技界名人。四地大學生最不看重的創造力人才是藝術界和音樂界名人。這說明，兩岸三地的中國人雖然分離長久，但其對創造力的認知上仍相當一致，都甚看重政治與科技人物的影響。
This study was intended to examine how much Chinese people in Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei and HK might share or differ on their view of creativity or creative figures. Specifically, it examined the implicit conception of creativity and creative people among a sample of 451 undergraduates in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei. A Likert style questionnaire consisting of 60 adjectives was administered to the undergraduates and in addition, each respondent was required to nominate up to three most creative historical modern figures in China as well. The results showed that (a) the core characteristics of creativity identical in all the samples were: originality, innovativeness, thinking and observational skills, flexibility, willingness to try, self confidence, and "imagination"; (b) the Taipei sample, unlike the other three samples, do not associates wisdom, assertiveness, and individualism with creativity; (c) in all Chinese populations the three factors labeled innovative, dynamic, and intellectual were distinguishable in the concept of creativity; (d) a number of specifically Chinese personality traits were identified as not beneficial for creativity ; (e) artistic and humorous were consistently missing in the Chinese perception of creativity. In short, the respondents in the four cities shared much more than they differed in their implicit conception of creativity. Additionally, politicians were unanimously nominated by all four samples as being the most creative people in the past and at present. Scientists and inventors ranked second in position. Taken together, they occupy over 90 percent of the total number of nominations. Thus, it may