Students from a school in Hong Kong (n=199) responded to 22 items asking about their school motivation and aspirations in a survey. Structural equation models found four school motivation factors consistent with the task, effort, competition, and praise scales of the Inventory of School Motivation, one education aspiration factor, one career aspiration factor, and significant relations of the motivation factors with the aspiration factors. Task and effort orientations were found to be stronger than the other orientations and to have relatively stronger associations with education aspirations, whereas task and praise had stronger associations with career aspirations. In examining potential change in students' goal orientations and aspirations through high school years, analysis of variance found that 7th-graders had significantly higher scores in task and effort orientations and career aspirations than 9th-graders, and higher scores in praise orientation than 11th-graders. The apparent drop in motivation scores from Grade 7, especially in task and effort orientations, both pertaining to a mastery orientation dimension that has been assumed to be a major driving force for excellence, calls for urgent attention to student motivation in junior high school classes.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410500046804 ]

In Hong Kong, children with special needs who are studying in mainstream schools are struggling for integration amidst the competitive and elitist culture of the educational environment. The purpose of the present study is to examine the accounts of parents of students with special needs and their children's experiences, and also to compare the integration experiences of children with different types of special needs in mainstream schools. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, of which 515 valid examples were returned and analysed. Academic requirements were found to be a great burden to children and parents. Children with intellectual impairment, autism, and hyperactivity encountered more problems in peer relationships. These results suggest there is a need to devise target-specific strategies and supportive measures for children with different types of special needs.
[Copyright of International Journal of Disability, Development and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10349120120115343]

This cross-cultural study examines relations between parents' socialization goals and child-rearing practices, as well as their impact upon peer competence during early childhood. Participants were sixty-three Hong Kong-Chinese mothers, sixty-one English mothers and their preschool-aged children. Mothers completed questionnaires measuring socialization goals and practices. Their children took part in sociometric interviews. Results indicate both similarities and differences in child-rearing practices and in their impact on children's peer competence across the two cultures. Among both Hong Kong and English mothers, significant correlations were found between (i) socialization towards Filial Piety and Authoritarian practices, and (ii) valuing Socio-emotional Development and Authoritative Parenting. However, Chinese mothers reported stronger emphasis on socialization for Academic Achievement and Filial Piety, as well as greater use of Authoritarian Parenting practices, than English mothers. The use of Authoritarian practices among English mothers was, in accordance with past research, negatively correlated with peer competence among preschoolers. Findings highlight the influence of cultural values upon child socialization and upon the way that these values are translated into practice.
[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/10.1080/0300443022000022486]

Despite emphasis and progress in developing collaborative inquiry in computer-supported collaborative learning research, little attention has been given to examining how collective learning can be assessed in computer-supported collaborative learning classrooms, and how students can have agency in assessing their own collaborative process. We propose that assessments should capture both individual and collective aspects of learning and be designed in ways that foster collaboration. We describe the design of student-directed electronic portfolio assessments to characterize and "scaffold" collaborative inquiry using Knowledge Forum™. Our design involved asking students to identify exemplary notes in the computer discourse depicting knowledge building episodes using four knowledge building principles as criteria. We report three studies that examined the designs and roles of knowledge building portfolios with graduate and Grade 12 students in Hong Kong and Canada. The findings suggest that knowledge building portfolios help to characterize collective knowledge advances and foster domain understanding. We discuss lessons learned regarding how knowledge building may be fostered and provide principles for designing assessments that can be used to evaluate and foster deep inquiry in asynchronous online discussion environments.
[Copyright of Journal of the Learning Sciences is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10508400701193697]