This small-scale exploratory study identified strategies used by three intellectually very able university students with specific learning difficulties for maintaining motivation on their path to achievement. All three participants were located in Hong Kong. The research questions were: (a) What coping strategies are used by intellectually very able university students with specific learning difficulties? (b) What are the critical influences driving and supporting their motivation to achieve? A narrative inquiry method was used to obtain and analyze data. Two gifted university graduates and one undergraduate, all with specific learning difficulties, were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and open discussion. Data indicated that they developed strategies to cope largely in response to adverse learning environments. The support of significant persons, such as parents and teachers, were also seen to be essential for sustaining their motivation to achieve. Implications for supporting university students with specific learning difficulties are briefly discussed.
[Copyright of Gifted Education International is the property of SAGE Publications]

The present study explored motivation and engagement among Chinese and Australian school students. Based on a sample of 528 Hong Kong Chinese 12-13 year olds and an archive sample of 6,366 Australian 12-13 year olds, achievement motivation was assessed using the Motivation and Engagement Scale-High School (MES-HS). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling using LISREL found that, across Chinese and Australian students, there was similar factor structure, reliability, correlations with educational outcomes, and gender and age effects—suggesting there are no fundamental differences of kind between the two cultures. There were, however, differences of degree in that Australian students reported significantly higher levels of adaptive achievement motivation and significantly lower levels of maladaptive achievement motivation. It is concluded that although Australian students have higher levels of reported achievement motivation than Chinese students on a number of dimensions, the two groups' fundamental orientation does not appear to be markedly different in terms of motivation structure, profile, and relationships. This holds implications for cross-cultural motivation assessment, data analysis, and programmatic intervention aimed at enhancing (and sustaining) students' achievement motivation in different cultural and national contexts.
[Copyright of International Journal of Testing is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15305058.2010.482220]

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]

Survey data from 15 lecturers in a tertiary education institution and 39 teachers in a secondary school in Hong Kong were analyzed to investigate their work motivation and its relationship with job-related stress and satisfaction. The relationship between job-related stress and job satisfaction was negative. However, both levels of stress and job satisfaction were high. In terms of work motivation, for both groups, achievement and affiliation orientations were high but power orientation was not. These results indicate that the job nature of teaching itself may have a driving force that makes teachers strive for professional development that is stressful yet satisfying and fulfilling. Analysis of variance found that the two groups (lecturers vs. teachers) did not differ in work-related psychological outcomes (job stress and satisfaction), nor did they differ in their power orientation. For both groups, the achievement and affiliation orientations were higher than power orientation whereas between-group comparisons found that achievement and affiliation orientations were significantly higher for lecturers in the tertiary institution. The relatively high stress level of both the lecturers and teachers warrants attention. Further work should focus on effort to reduce teacher stress and increase job satisfaction.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]

This research investigates the complex relationships between the motivational and learning processes of university students in a distance learning mode. Research on why and how Chinese distance learners engage in learning has been limited. Using the achievement goal theory as a research framework, the current study explores the motivational and learning characteristics of a group of distance learners. It is hypothesized that the nature of distance education will lead to specific goal profiles in the students involved, which will subsequently affect their use of various learning and self-regulating strategies, and subsequently their learning outcomes. This paper reports the findings from a survey study, which is part of a larger longitudinal study investigating the learning processes of Chinese distance learners studying at the Open University of Hong Kong 549 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course completed a questionnaire assessing their achievement goals, learning strategies, self-regulatory strategies and attitudes towards the course.
The results revealed that achievement goals operated as a frame affecting how these distance learners approached their learning and how they perceived the course. The significance of this study lies in that it provides an initial understanding of the motivational and learning processes of the Chinese distance learners. It also extends the research of achievement goal theory by exploring the effects of certain goals often found among distance learners.
[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]

Over the past several decades of research, consistent differences in academic achievement among students of various racial groups and of different nations have been well-documented. More recent models in accounting for cross-national differences in academic achievement centered on the importance of cultural values (Chen & Uttal, 1988; Stevenson & Lee, 1990). Chen, Stevenson, Hayward, and Burgess (1995) advocated that cultural values and beliefs would be important antecedents affecting students' motivation and learning behaviour, subsequently lead to the academic achievement.
Hau and Salili (1996) asserted that: "Cultural values of collectivism and emphasis on hard work, effort and perseverance have important implications on Chinese achievement orientations. There is some converging empirical evidence from a number of researches suggesting that Chinese are learning goal oriented and attribute their performance more to their effort than to their ability" (p. 129). Based on these speculations, it appears that cultural values such as collectivism and individualism may have influence on the motivational orientations adopted by the students. Recent researches on achievement goals had identified two goals: learning goal and performance goal. There are quite a number of researches that linked achievement goals and the learning strategies/cognitive engagement endorsed/spent by the students. Nolen's (1988) study implicated that task orientation (learning goal oriented) was positively correlated with use of strategies requiring deep processing of information. Greene and Miller's (1996) study had its significance in identifying that performance goals are positively correlated with shallow cognitive engagement. Kong and Hau's (1995) study implicated learning goal orientation is more adaptive in Chinese students. Therefore, with respect to the above findings, converging and significant conclusion can be drawn that achievement goal orientations have direct influences on the learning

A total of 712 students of the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) - sampled from high achievers and low achievers, as defined by their performances in their overall course scores in four consecutive semesters--participated in the study. An instrument, the Survey of Students' Study Preferences and Habits, developed and validated for the study was also used to collect data from the students who participated. The data collected through this instrument were complemented with in-depth telephone interviews using a sub-set of 32 from the main study sample.The analysis of the data, using both qualitative and quantitative methods which included descriptive and inferential statistics, showed very interesting patterns of differences in locus of control and the use of mctacognitivc strategics by low achievers and high achievers. For instance, high achievers rated themselves significantly higher than low achievers (p<. 01) in a number of scales such as confidence with studies, ability to cope well with studying in distance learning mode, and motivation by the need to avoid failure. High achievers indicated a significantly higher use of effective learning strategies than did low achievers (p <.01).
[Copyright of Distance Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158791990200206]