香港的鄉村學校，歷史悠長，曾在香港的教育發展扮演重要的角色 1；隨著近年出生率下降，鄉村學校正面臨結束，然而，香港少數村校，在政府不准招收小學一年級的影響下仍有能力繼續接收從別校轉過來的「插班生」。本文將以兩所村校的經驗為個案，探討學生為何轉校？以及家長為何會選擇鄉村學校？調查發現村校的「學習的環境」和學生的「自尊感」是村校學生成績進步和個人成長的重要因素。本文指出：在香港的情境脈絡裡，傳統的「成本」、「效益」觀念需要進一步檢視和省思。
As the birth rate in Hong Kong declines constantly in recent years, many villages are going to be closed. However, many of them have played an active role in the educational development of Hong Kong. It is difficult to understand why some village schools still can enroll students from P.2 to P.6, although they have not been permitted to enroll P.1 students under the primary school enrolment policy of the government. The article, which takes two village schools as case study, intends to explore the questions that: Why students left their primary schools while studying? Why parents take village school as their own choice? Our survey finds that "learning environment" and "student self-esteem" are two main factors that have effects upon both academic results and personal development of the students in the village schools. It is purposed that the "cost-benefit analysis" needed to be revised in the local context in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

本論文就家長的參與和支持，包括出席音樂會、聆聽音樂、在家中觀看音樂節目和整體財政支持等進行研究，亦調查學生在家長參與和支持其器樂學習上的觀感。於2007年10月至11月期間，本研究以自行填寫問卷方式，收集了香港10所中學共1,493位中一至中七學生意見的數據，發現家長對學生音樂活動的參與和支持總體屬低水平，家長的參與僅流於財政上支持。這裡值得關注的，是如何使學生和家長對音樂產生興趣並感到雀躍，從而一起參與音樂活動。
This paper examines various aspects of parental involvement in and support for musical participation, including concert attendance, music listening, watching music programmes at home, and overall financial support. It also examines students' perceptions of parental involvement in, and support for, their instrument learning. Data are drawn from self-completed questionnaires administered in school from October to November 2007 to 1,493 Secondary 1 to Secondary 7 students attending a total of 10 Hong Kong secondary schools. The survey finds low overall levels of parental involvement in and support of students' musical participation, with students reporting that financial assistance from their parents accounts for the majority of parental involvement. The results suggest it is important to determine how to make both students and parents interested in and excited about music, and how to get them to enjoy participating in music together.
[Copyright of Journal of Youth Studies is the property of The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups at http://yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/]

This study draws upon an ecological perspective to examine parental involvement in homework and its relationship with primary school children's educational outcomes within the Chinese sociocultural context of Hong Kong. Data were collected using homework diaries and questionnaires administered to 1,309 pairs of students and parents spanning all six primary grade levels in 36 primary schools in Hong Kong. Results show that primary children across grade levels devote a substantial amount of time each day after school to homework assignments and revision, while parents' involvement in the homework process varies. Such variation in parental involvement is found to relate to the child's grade level as well as the parent's educational attainment. Gain in children's academic efficacy with higher parental involvement level is observed among junior primary students as well as those with parents of lower educational attainment. Implications for the school's role in involving parents in the homework process are discussed.
[Copyright of School Community Journal is the property of Academic Development Institute.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.adi.org/journal/]

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine parenting style in the domain of emotion socialization through studying the relationships among parenting styles, emotion-related parental practices, and parental goals of Hong Kong-Chinese mothers. Data were collected from 189 Hong Kong-Chinese mothers of 6- to 8-year-old children. Hong Kong-Chinese mothers reported that among authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles, they adopted an authoritative style most often and an authoritarian style least often. They valued both relational and individualistic emotional competence of their children as parental goals but regarded the former as more important than the latter. Structural equation modeling results indicated that parental goals mediated the influences of parenting styles on parental practices. Authoritative mothers who held individualistic emotional competence goals adopted different parental practices (a coaching or an emotion-encouraging approach) from those who held relational emotional competence goals. When mothers adopted authoritarian parenting and endorsed relational emotional competence as a parental goal, they responded to children's expression of emotions in a dismissing way.
Practice or Policy: Parenting styles play an overarching role in emotion socialization, influencing both parental practices and goals. The results imply that school personnel, counselors, or social workers should take into account parenting styles, parental goals, and cultural values of participants when they offer training programs to parents.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10409280802541973]

Vygotsky speculated that parents play an important role in the intellectual development of their children, and that this role includes the transfer of expectations related to their children's academic achievement. Consequently, different parents can produce different contexts of academic achievement for their children. The participants were 215 Primary 5 and 6 students from four primary schools in Hong Kong, and their parents. Students were administered a test of working memory and their academic achievement was indicated by their schoolassessed mathematics and language achievement scores. Parents reported their expectations of their children's academic achievement, the extent of their home and school involvement, and their educational and income levels. Correlational and sequential regression analyses showed that different schools yielded different contexts of academic achievement. The results support the hypothesis that parents, and especially parental expectations, play an important role in children's academic achievement, and that within Hong Kong different schools can be characterised by different contexts of achievement.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410903059024]