Survey study by means of a questionnaire on achievement goal orientations was conducted with four hundred and seventy-three pre-service student teachers of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Two contrasting goals were identified, namely: learning goals and performance goals. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire gave support to its applicability in the local context. Statistical analyses indicated there was no significant difference in achievement goal orientations with courses and electives but sex. Female students were found to be more performance goal oriented than male students. Explanation of the differences in achievement goal orientations within sex group was sought in terms of socio-cultural factors. Implications were drawn for teacher educators to consider in the future planning and development of teacher education programmes.
[Copyright of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Centre at http://www.edb.org.hk/hktc]

Recent studies in the late 1990s have led researchers argued that performance goals can be split up into performance- approach and performance-avoidance goals and that performance goals are not totally maladaptive in learning. Research of the trichotonomous goals framework by Elliot, McGregor and Gable (1999) found that mastery goals are positive predictors of deep processing, performance - approach goals are positive predictors of surface processing and exam performance, and performance-avoidance goals are positive predictors of surface processing and negative predictors of deep performance and exam performance. The present study examined a structural model outlining the relationship of the three achievement goals, learning strategies and achievement of Hong Kong secondary students. The model was confirmed by LISREL with satisfactory goodness of fit index. The results showed that mastery goals were significantly and positively related to deep learning strategy but negatively related to surface strategy. Both performance- approach and avoidance goals were significantly related to surface strategy. Both mastery goals and performance - approach goals were significantly and positively related to academic achievement but performance-avoidance goals were significantly and negatively related to achievement.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

This study examined the interrelationship among achievement goals, study strategies and achievement of 473 students in a Hong Kong tertiary institution by means of questionnaire survey. Correlational analyses showed that performance goal was significantly and positively related to both surface and deep strategies while learning goal was significantly and positively related to deep strategy but negatively related to surface strategy. However there was no significant relation between achievement and goals or achievement and study strategies held by the sample. The results validated the applicability of an adapted instrument developed in western countries to measure achievement goal orientations in the Hong Kong context. It also gave support to the western findings that students who hold learning goals usually adopt a deep approach of study while students who are performance goal orientated tend to be shallow in study approach. Nevertheless, it was interesting to find that achievement was not significantly related to either the goals or study strategies held by students in the sample. The results were in contrast to the usual assumption that students who are performance goal oriented and adopt shallow approach in study would score low in academic achievement. Further investigation would be necessary to verify the effects of these variables on achievement of students.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

A survey study was conducted with 251 preservice teacher education students in Hong Kong by administering a questionnaire comprising three inventories to measure their conceptions of learning, culturally oriented achievement motivation and learning strategies. Preliminary correlational analyses of the above three variables showed significant relationships between some subscales, consistent with previous research findings in literature which suggested that conceptions of learning are related to a number of variables such as students' learning approaches and the quality of learning. Further analysis was conducted by testing a structural model on selected categories of conceptions of learning (learning as an increase in knowledge and learning as personal fulfilment), culturally oriented achievement motivation and learning strategies. Satisfactory goodness of fit index was obtained with the proposed model. Path analysis showed that the conception "learning as an increase in knowledge" was positively and significantly related to social oriented achievement motivation, deep strategy and surface strategy; individual oriented achievement motivation was positively and significantly related to deep strategy but negatively and significantly related to surface strategy. The conception "learning as personal fulfilment" was positively and significantly related to individual oriented achievement motivation but negatively and significantly related to social oriented achievement motivation. Implications for learning and teaching were drawn based on the model result.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

Research has pointed out that motivational orientations influence the study strategies students adopt and subsequently influence academic achievement. While achievement goals emphasize the ways in which students think about themselves in learning, intrinsic motivation reflects students' engagement in learning for its own sake. Both have impact on learning strategy and achievement. This paper reports the study of the relationship among intrinsic motivation, achievement goals, study strategies and achievement. The participants were786 male and 595 female students from Hong Kong. Intrinsic motivation, viz. challenge, curiosity and independent mastery, and achievement goals, viz. mastery goal, performance approach and avoidance goals, were examined for their correlation with learning strategies and achievement. The results showed that the three subscales of intrinsic motivation were all positively and significantly related with deep strategy but not with surface strategy. Performance approach goal and performance avoidance goal were significantly and positively related to both deep and surface strategies while mastery goal was significantly related with deep strategy only. Academic achievement was positively and significantly related with deep but not surface strategy. Results of multivariate analysis showed significant differences in gender and level of study for the three variables under study. The results were discussed in relation to the Chinese cultural context and implications were drawn for enhancing motivation to learn.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

This paper reports the development of performance indicators for measuring primary and secondary students' affective and social outcomes of schooling. Psychometric properties as well as norms for the selected performance indicators for Hong Kong students were developed. The performance indicator system developed in this study has been subsequently used for school self‐evaluation and continuous self‐improvement in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410500344266]