A total of 575 students from the Associate Degree Foundation Program and the Associate Degree Program participated in this study. The two purposes of this study were to use the time series between/within experimental design to examine whether participation in co-curricular activities could (1) enhance student learning effectiveness and (2) have positive effects on the academic performance of self-funded sub-degree students in Hong Kong. It was found that participation in cocurricular activities could not enhance student learning effectiveness. Associate degree students were too preoccupied by the need to attain good academic results in the first 2-3 terms of study. Rather, this study suggests that student learning effectiveness is affected by the time factor. High learning effectiveness was observed in the middle of the academic year but relatively low learning effectiveness at the end of the year.
[Copyright © 2011 International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The journal web site is located at: http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/]

In the 2011 Hong Kong population census, 26.4% of domestic households were in the poverty category, and one in every four children (26.4%) lived in low-income households. Children in low-income families face financial and material barriers, and these barriers leave them trapped in a cycle of disempowerment. The present study has invited 1,622 children aged three to six and 152 teachers in ten kindergartens in the top five child-poverty-rated districts in Hong Kong to participate in the study (a) to validate the psychometric properties of the culturally and developmentally appropriate Preschool Play Behavior Scale (PPBS) with a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) model, (b) to assess social withdrawal in three subtypes – reticence, solitary-passive, solitary-active and social play among preschoolers in low-income families, (c) to investigate gender difference in social withdrawal and social play, (d) to investigate age difference in social withdrawal and social play, and (e) to inform early childhood intervention to children in low-income families. The PPBS has adopted 18 items assessing five factors: reticence, solitary-passive, solitary-active, rough play, and social play. The “back-translation” procedure – a commonly used procedure in the translation of cross-cultural research instruments – was adopted. Results indicated that the five-factor model of the PPBS statistically fits the results of the Hong Kong samples. Girls exhibited greater social competence (social play) less socially withdrawal behavior. Social play behavior increased with age, while social withdrawal decreased with age. Cultural contexts (emic consideration) on scale items were received attention in future research. Recommendations for cultural understandings on shyness, social withdrawal and social disinterest, and concurrent validation of the PIPPS (Hong Kong version) were made in the study.
[Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.]

This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument, the Early Childhood Creative Pedagogy Questionnaire (ECCPQ), which can be used to understand preschool teachers' beliefs about creative pedagogy as a means of fostering creativity. Items were initially constructed from a review of the literature and interviews with 27 preschool teachers in Hong Kong regarding their beliefs about creative pedagogy. A sample of 564 Hong Kong preschool teachers completed the initial survey. Exploratory, followed by confirmatory, factor analysis resulted in a 22-item, 4-factor scale reflecting self-initiated pursuits, interpersonal exchanges, possibility thinking, and teacher-oriented pursuits. Although the first 3 domains align relatively well with the Western literature, the teacher-oriented pursuit factor seemed to be related to the Hong Kong educational context. These preliminary results suggest that the ECCPQ can be used for revealing Hong Kong preschool teachers' beliefs about creative pedagogy, and they provide a general framework for further research on the important aspects of fostering creativity in preschool classrooms. The findings also have implications for early childhood teacher education programs and professional development in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Creativity Research Journal is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.843334]

Play is a primary context for fostering young children's positive peer interactions. Through play, children develop the social, emotional, cognitive and language skills that contribute to the ability to establish effective relationships with peers. The Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS) was first developed by Fantuzzo to assess the quality of peer interactions among low-income preschoolers in the USA. The present study invited 1622 children aged three to six and 152 teachers in 10 kindergartens in districts with high child poverty rates in Hong Kong to participate in the study (a) to validate the psychometric properties of a culturally, developmentally and linguistically appropriate version of the PIPPS using confirmatory factor analysis, (b) to investigate gender and (c) age differences in peer play, and (d) to inform early childhood intervention for children in low-income families. Translation and back-translation - a commonly used procedure in the translation of cross-cultural research instruments - was adopted. Results indicated that the three-factor model of the PIPPS (play interaction, play disruption and play disconnection) statistically fit the results in the Hong Kong sample. Girls exhibited greater play interaction and less play disruption and play disconnection. Peer interactive play behaviour increased with age. The cultural and linguistic contexts of scale development should receive attention in future research. Recommendations are made regarding lexical access in non-alphabetical language systems like Chinese; cultural understandings of shyness, withdrawal and social disinterest as they relate to the interpretation of play behaviour; and establishing the concurrent validity of the Hong Kong version of the PIPPS.
[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/10.1080/03004430.2013.773990]

This book investigates relationships between parenting practices and achievement variables for students from both Confucian Heritage Cultures and non-Confucian Heritage Cultures.