Although the relationship between the classroom learning environment and academic achievement has been explored in subject-free and disciplinary subject contexts, research into this relationship is still lacking in the context of interdisciplinary subjects. This study investigated the relationship between the classroom learning environment and student achievement in an interdisciplinary subject (i.e. liberal studies) in Hong Kong secondary schools. The mediating role of critical thinking was also explored. The participants were 410 Hong Kong secondary school graduates. The structural equation modelling analyses indicated that (1) the Content aspect of the classroom learning environment had an effect on the achievement in liberal studies, and this effect was not mediated by critical thinking; (2) the Pedagogy aspect predicted critical thinking skills, which in turn predicted the achievement in liberal studies; (3) the Relation aspect had no significant effects on critical thinking skills and student achievement in liberal studies. Suggestions on enhancing students' high-order thinking skills and achievement in interdisciplinary subjects were provided.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge.]

This study examined whether authoritarian parenting, children's negative emotionality and negative coping strategies independently or jointly predict children's aggressive behaviour at school. Participants included the teachers and mothers of 185 Hong Kong resident Chinese children (90 girls and 95 boys), aged 6-8. Teachers rated the children's aggressive behaviour at school, and mothers reported how often they adopted an authoritarian parenting style and rated the children's negative emotionality and coping strategies. A model predicting children's aggressive behaviour with maternal authoritarian parenting and children's negative emotionality affecting children's aggressive behaviour at school through the mediating effect of children's negative coping strategies was examined. Mother's adoption of authoritarian parenting was not related to their perception of the children's negative emotionality. Neither authoritarian parenting nor negative emotionality alone predicted children's aggressive behaviour at school. The mediation model was supported. The results imply that school personnel should take children's emotionality into consideration when offering training programmes on emotion coping strategies for children.
[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/10.1080/03004430902981447]

This study assessed perceptions of self-efficacy and successful intelligence among 220 Chinese prospective and in-service secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Teacher self-efficacy in six domains - teaching highly able learners, classroom management, guidance and counselling, student engagement, teaching to accommodate diversity, and teaching for enriched learning - was related to the three triarchic dimensions (analytical, creative, and practical) of successful intelligence. Each of the three triarchic abilities was found to contribute independently and in combination to the prediction of the six domains of teacher self-efficacy. Practical abilities were the most significant predictor of self-efficacy beliefs in five domains. Teaching teachers for successful intelligence, in strategies to enhance teacher self-efficacy, is discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410802259246]

The two primary objectives of this study were: to identify the preferred teaching styles of secondary-school students and to compare these preferences with those of university students from past research; and to examine the contributions of students' preferred teaching styles to their academic achievement. A sample of 298 students from a Catholic boys' school completed the Preferred Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory and the Self-rated Ability Scale. Participants' achievements in 12 school subjects were obtained. Results indicated great similarities between the preferred teaching styles of the present sample and those of university students in previous studies. Achievement scores in all 12 subjects were predicted by students' preferred teaching styles beyond their self-rated abilities. Some of these predictive relationships were domain-specific, while others were not. The findings' scientific and practical implications 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/10.1080/01443410802004634]