Background: Students’ positive perceptions of scientists or engineers have been reported to be positively related to their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career aspirations. However, other research indicates that positive perceptions of experts in these fields might not necessarily lead to students’ pursuit of STEM careers. Self-concept, defined as one’s perceived abilities in specific academic domains, likely plays a moderating role in the relationship between perceptions and career aspirations according to the motivational theory of role modelling. Moreover, students’ perceptions of STEM professionals might be sourced from STEM-related media and school experiences. Therefore, through running a moderated mediation model, this study examined whether and how the influences of media consumption and school STEM learning opportunities on career aspirations would be mediated by perceptions of STEM professionals, and whether the mediation effect would be conditional on students’ self-concept. Methods: Data were collected through an online survey of 608 primary and secondary school students from Hong Kong, and were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results: Results revealed that the students’ positive perceptions of STEM professionals were positively associated with their career aspirations, and mediated the links from media consumption and school opportunities to career aspirations. In addition, this mediated pathway depended on STEM self-concept, such that perceptions of STEM professionals were only linked with STEM career aspirations for adolescents with average or high levels of self-concept. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest the need to pay attention to the STEM perceptions and self-concept interaction while designing and implementing learning activities to connect a diversity of students with STEM careers. It is not only important to foster students’ self-concept, but also to enrich their knowledge of diverse occupations

There is an increasing focus on relationship-rich education and relational pedagogies in higher education. Engaging students as partners (SaP) to nurture values-based pedagogical relationships is one such approach, yet it is contested with limited research outside of Anglophone countries. To advance a collective understanding of SaP as a global practice, we interviewed 35 postgraduate students at a research-intensive university in Hong Kong with a hybridised educational setting combining Chinese and westernised strategies and heritages. Reflecting on their learner-teacher relationships as both undergraduate and postgraduate students, they discussed differing senses of student identity that shaped how they perceived their pedagogical relationships: entanglement of positioning themselves as followers, customers, and co-teachers. The influence of neoliberalism, capitalism, and marketisation of higher education in the Hong Kong context was evident throughout the interviews. We discuss the implications for learner-teacher relationships as a pedagogical partnership in the broader hybridised higher education context of Hong Kong. In doing so, we argue that students are navigating an in-betweenness that shapes how they see themselves and the pedagogical relationships they form with teaching staff. Copyright ©2023 Springer.

Purpose: This study empirically investigates the influence of students' brand attitudes and perceptions of brand fit on their study intention vis-à-vis international brand alliances and individual brands after alliance. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used in data analysis, and a questionnaire was administered to a sample of sub-degree business management students recruited from a self-financing higher education institution in Hong Kong. Findings: The results indicate that students' prior attitudes towards the brands of foreign and local institutions and their perceptions of brand fit positively affect their study intention, providing evidence that post-attitudes towards individual brands fully mediate the relationship between attitudes towards international brand alliances and study intention towards individual institutions. Originality/value: International brand alliances between higher education institutions are becoming increasingly important. In Hong Kong, despite the emerging trend of collaboration between foreign and local universities, an evaluation of the effect of international brand alliances on study intention has been seriously overlooked. Copyright © 2023 Emerald.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, emergency remote teaching -- an unprepared distant mode of education became the only possible alternative for schools. The present large-scale survey with 3,672 Grade 3 and 9 students, their parents, and 863 teachers/principals was conducted in the metropolitan city of Hong Kong after half a year of school lockdown. Results showed teachers, principals, and parents were worried about students' inability to concentrate and learn without teachers' explanations. In contrast, students, particularly younger ones, were less affected. They perceived their academic achievement was not worsened and they were more lively. Generally, lack of computers and stable internet was not seen as problems. Notably, socially disadvantaged students were not different in their perceived challenges, affects, life satisfaction, or perceived academic achievement. For cities with adequate provision of computers and internet facilities, the pandemic probably forced a positive and giant leap in using advanced technologies and pedagogies. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

Despite the increasing use of virtual modalities in schools since the COVID-19 pandemic, no systematic tools exist to evaluate the process of online learning. We developed and validated an Online Learning Process Questionnaire (OLPQ) for assessing online at-home learning among 219 Hong Kong primary-school students and 474 caregivers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of caregivers' data classified the 58-item OLPQ into 11 subscales: (1) learning aims, (2) environmental structuring, (3) learning environment, (4) time management, (5) engagement in learning activities, (6) persistence, (7) interaction between teachers and students, (8) interaction among students, (9) feedback from the interface, (10) application of learning, and (11) meaning of learning under three learning phases. Confirmatory factor analysis of students' data further categorized the 11-subscale framework into three learning phases: preparatory, performance, and transfer. The OLPQ demonstrated excellent reliability and discriminant validity across caregiver (Cronbach's alpha = 0.98) and student samples (alpha = 0.98). These findings indicate that the OLPQ is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the online at-home learning process among both students and their caregivers. Copyright © 2023 Springer Nature.

Despite the increasing popularity of online learning in elementary and primary schools, it is unclear to which extent that students' attitudes toward online learning influence their learning progress and outcomes. In this study, the Online Learning Attitude Questionnaire (OLAQ) was developed and validated to measure students' online learning attitudes among 383 caregivers and 172 primary school students in Hong Kong. The caregiver data were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability analysis to establish the factor structure, reliability. and discriminant validity of the OLAQ questionnaire. The student data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis to cross-validate the factor structure and confirm the reliability and discriminant validity of the OLAQ. The final 34-item OLAQ questionnaire comprises five subscales including (1) enjoyment, (2) development, (3) motivation, (4) utilization, and (5) anxiety. These results indicate that the OLAQ is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing primary school students' attitudes toward online learning. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

This study investigates Chinese international students' acculturation strategies and pragmatic intentions to address identity conflicts in Hong Kong study experiences through a developmental lens. We treat conflicts and stressors as indicators of active commitments and the process of engagement as strategic, goal-oriented, intentional investments to become better selves. Undergraduates (N = 95) enrolled in a Hong Kong university participated: 85 completed a Cultural Practices Questionnaire about daily activities; 10 completed semi-structured interviews on their acculturation strategies, identity conflicts, and justifications. Mixed method data analysis highlighted strategies rooted in goals, choices, consistency, and commitment. Several pragmatic intentions were also identified. Participants considered academic study, language learning, club activities, communicating with friends, volunteering, and interacting with diverse people as fundamental active commitments. An alternative definition of "integration strategy" is proposed to better capture students' transcultural choices and decolonize the view that students are expected to conform to the host culture. Copyright © 2023 Comparative and International Education Society.

This paper reports findings of a qualitative study that explored international students' identity negotiation during their cross-border studies against the backdrop of the internationalisation of higher education in Asia. Through a comparative narrative-based case study of two Burmese international students' experiences during their studies in a Hong Kong university, the paper reveals both similarities and differences in their negotiation of (i) identities as 'non-local'/'international' students in the university context and (ii) national identities in relation to the local community and the imagined global/international community. In particular, the findings illustrate the divergent ways in which the two international students negotiate the meanings they attach to the 'non-local' student label, respond to local students' (mis)recognition of their national identities, and perceive the (in)compatibility between their national and global identities. Overall, the findings point to the diversity and heterogeneity in international students' experiences which appear to be variably shaped by differential dispositions and capacities in exercising strategic agency for identity (re)construction. The case study also calls for the need to problematise the reification and over-simplification of the so-called 'international student experience' and argues for the importance of paying attention to the complexity of international students' identity negotiation in the context of international education. Copyright © 2022 Routledge.

Autonomy has been considered both as a precondition and a crucial learning outcome of higher education. Recent research has been focusing on measuring university students’ autonomy or its development. However, whether and how students’ autonomy can be measured quantitatively is still debatable. Although autonomy is known as a changing process and varies among individuals, it is agreed that students’ learning behaviours are largely affected by their perceptions; very few studies, however, have examined students’ own perception of autonomy. This study, therefore, adopts a longitudinal qualitative approach to investigate the changes in students’ own perceptions of autonomy over five different times during their first-year study in a Hong Kong University, and examine the relationship between the perceptions and behaviours of their autonomy. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight first-year students, the study found that although the participants held some common understanding of autonomy, they also demonstrated various interpretations of this concept. They also had a slightly different focus on different dimensions of autonomy, which were affected by their own individual experiences. An individualistic approach is therefore proposed to understand students’ development of autonomy. Copyright © 2022 Taylor & Francis.

This study investigates the relationship between values and academic major in university students in Hong Kong. The study used a survey based on a convenience sample of 645 university students in Hong Kong who responded to a questionnaire comprising Schwartz's Values Survey and Super's Work Values Inventory. Comparison between several majors of study and their counterparts reveals that business, as well as humanities and art, students demonstrated general and work values in accordance with the literature. This gains partial support to the claim that there is a close connection between values and choice of academic majors. Copyright © 2022 SAGE Publications.