This paper directly tests for differences in returns to education between the employed and self-employed in Hong Kong. Using a step-function, we find significantly smaller returns for the self-employed, suggesting that in the highly competitive labor market of Hong Kong education plays a signaling role. This pattern persists for both genders, when accounting for self-selection into employment status and when accounting for self-employed professionals who signal.
[Copyright of Education Economics is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0964529042000193925]

Presents a study which explored the feasibility of doing comparative education research while focusing on a single society. Focus on comparative historical education research in Hong Kong, China; Problems with periodization, agency, and terminology; Discussion on the issues related to colonialism; Conclusions.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305792990290306 ]

In this study, a descriptive quantitative methodology for categorical data analysis that works well with small samples was used to investigate whether Chinese students' conceptions of learning included memorisation as an integral part of understanding, as suggested by phenomenographic studies. Twenty-five Chinese students attending the B. Ed. programme at the University of Hong Kong were asked to rank order six conceptions of learning. Results revealed an interesting multidimensional structure, suggesting that memorislng was seen as clearly distinct from knowledge and understanding. Contrasting conceptions of learning (such as memorisation vs changing as a person) were identified, similar to the previous distinction made between conceptions lacking, or being concerned with, constitutive meaning. These findings suggest multidimensional aspects to conceptions of learning for Chinese students that extend the notion of memorisation-understanding relations. Further inquiry in the areas of context, awareness, and types of memorisation would shed light on Chinese students' conceptions of learning. It is suggested that quantitative methodologies ideally suited to categorical data analysis with small samples could be used to supplement the results of qualitative phenomenographic methodologies on student conceptions of learning.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410303231 ]

This study followed 88 children in Beijing and Hong Kong for three years to investigate the relationships between the early teaching of literacy skills and later literacy outcomes. The children were administered the Preschool and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale at the age of five years, and three years later. Their parents and teachers reported on their involvement in literacy teaching, the home/classroom literacy environment and their beliefs about language learning. Findings showed that the Hong Kong cohort significantly surpassed their Beijing counterparts in literacy attainments at age five and age eight. After controlling for age, site, maternal education and teacher qualification, formal literacy activities in early childhood significantly contributed to literacy attainment at primary school, whereas informal literacy experiences did not. Results suggest that the complicated nature of Chinese orthography may make early instruction particularly valuable in Chinese literacy acquisition. The psycholinguistic, pedagogical and sociocontextual accounts and implications of these findings are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430600789365]

This article analyses the varied characteristics of histories of education in Hong Kong and discusses the perspectives that an acquaintance with them can provide. Such a focus encourages consideration of the use of incomplete sources by historians of education, as well as attempts to make sense of past educational developments through periodization. The author adopts a periodization scheme associated with colonialism, which facilitates the identification of mysteries (questions derived from incomplete evidence) and the explanation of myths (answers based on incomplete evidence). He anticipates that a similar approach to other societies could stimulate similar insights into both mysteries and myths.
[Copyright of History of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00467600600851136]