Because most previous studies on college student performance have focused on conventional learning environments in Western cultures, in this study the authors evaluated factors related to student performance in the open and distance-learning environment in Hong Kong. Using two-way cross-tabulations with chi-square testing and equality of academic performance by proposed factors, the authors examined 168 students in a distance-learning business communication course. Results show that tutorial attendance, gender, relevant academic background, previous academic achievement, and relevant learning experience were related to student performance. The results are mostly similar to those of prior studies despite differences in culture, teaching mode, and subject.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Business is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320209599674 ]

Education is so strongly emphasized in the Chinese culture that academic success is widely regarded as the only indicator of success, while too much physical activity is often discouraged because it drains energy and affects academic concentration. This study investigated the relations among academic achievement, self-esteem, school conduct and physical activity level. The participants were 333 Chinese pre-adolescents (aged 8-12) in Hong Kong. Examination results and conduct grades were obtained from the school records. Global self-esteem was measured with the "Physical self-description questionnaire" (PSDQ), while physical activity patterns of the children were assessed with the "Physical activity questionnaire for children" (PAQ-C). Results showed that high academic achievers consistently attained better school conduct marks. However, physical activity level was quite an independent entity that was related neither to academic achievement nor school conduct. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that only academically high-achieving boys and physically active boys had higher self-esteem.
[Copyright of Educational Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690600850016]

The assumption that increased autonomy and responsibility at the school site-level will result in enhanced performance of schools is often problematic. Cheung and Cheng (1996) suggested that in order to ensure school effectiveness, self-management practices at the individual teacher, group, and school levels are necessary. This article reports the findings of a case study of multilevel self-management in 3 Hong Kong primary schools. It revealed that the practices of multilevel self-management were associated with enhanced school performance at multilevels. Further, teachers' self-management practices determined largely the success of the school's self-management and demonstrated significant influence on the practices of work groups and the school.
[Copyright of School Effectiveness and School Improvement is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/sesi.13.3.253.3428 ]

Ability grouping is supposedly undesirable because it leads to deficits in academic self-concept and academic achievement. However, it appears to be justifiable for its improvement of teaching and learning in schools, perhaps more so in a collectivist culture. In view of the paucity of data examining the controversy in Hong Kong, the authors collected data from 2,720 junior high school students with a random sampling procedure and obtained teachers' reports about the students' subsequent academic achievement, ability grouping, and the ability level of the class. The authors maintained students' past academic achievement as a control variable in predicting their subsequent academic achievement and self-concepts. Results revealed no significant detrimental effect caused by the ability-grouped class and the ability level of the ability-grouped class. Rather, students in classes that were more homogeneous according to past academic achievement tended to have significantly higher subsequent academic achievement and self-esteem. Results revealed no variation attributable to each student's gender and IQ in the effects of ability grouping.
[Copyright of Journal of Educational Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220670309598813 ]

Previous studies have suggested that Western constructs of academic motivation may operate in different ways in Asian contexts due to differences in the cultural environment. In the present study, the integrative effects of achievement goals, strategy orientations, and effort expenditure on achievement outcomes were examined among 1950 seventh-grade Chinese students in Hong Kong. Participants completed separate questionnaires for mathematics and English. Results for the two subjects were largely similar. There were significant positive relationships between mastery and performance goals, between cooperative and competitive orientations, as well as between understanding and memorizing strategies. Regression analyses further revealed that goals and strategies were highly predictive of effort expenditure, but only goals and effort significantly predicted achievement outcome, with strategies being barely significant. The need to further investigate how Chinese students reconcile the apparently antithetical orientations in learning as well as the effective strategies contributing to their learning is indicated.
[Copyright of International Journal of Psychology is the property of Psychology Press . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207590701836323]

The aim of the present study was to test the hypotheses that parents' academic expectations, their perception of children's cognitive ability, and their degree of involvement at home and school would predict children's academic achievement, and that there would be important differences in this achievement as a consequence of differences in culture. A sample of 158 parents of students from three primary schools (two Chinese and one of Anglo-Celtic origin) in Hong Kong participated in this study. The three groups of parents differed in terms of both culture and socio-economic status. Parents completed a questionnaire about their perceptions of their children's memory ability, their involvement in their children's activities, and expected and satisfactory scores for their children's achievement in mathematics and language. Unstandardised achievement scores in mathematics and language were obtained from school records. Parents' expected scores in these two subjects were found to be the consistent predictors of achievement for all children. Parental belief in children's episodic memory and involvement at school were predictors of language achievement in one school.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410601104130]