This paper draws on Marcia and Porfeli's identity status models to examine the relationship between adolescent career identity formation and its contextual aspects. Focus group interviews were conducted with 26 students at two Hong Kong senior secondary schools. It was found that most participants exhibited the career identity statuses of achievement, searching moratorium, or moratorium towards the end of school. Influences that were identified from family, school, and social culture varied across individuals with different career identity statuses. By reporting the findings from an East Asian school setting, the paper provides theoretical and practical implications for career development for senior secondary school students.
[Copyright of Journal of Career Development is the property of SAGE Publications.]

School-based pipelines/routes for university and technical engineering education are recognised as important for economic development and the high-school years are critical for shaping students' career aspirations and attitudes. This study examined a range of attitudes/experiences on the aspirations of secondary students to pursue engineering education and vocation. Experiential/attitudinal aspects covered demographic characteristics, family/school support, practical learning experiences, curricular/extra-curricular experiences, attitudes, perceptions and engineering-efficacy that may affect aspirations. A validated questionnaire capturing these variables was administered to respective samples of secondary school students from four Chinese geo-engineering regions (Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and ShanXi; 5965 students) that represent differing degrees of industrialisation. Comparative analyses across regions show 'doing' engineering is key to motivating students' aspirations; while regional variations suggest that schooling and family factors are generally more significant in industrialising Mainland cities, and extracurricular opportunities and personal factors are more significant for students in post-industrial Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Compare is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd.. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2017.1347033]

Liberal Studies was initially introduced as a non-statutory subject in Hong Kong in 1992. It then confronted intense opposition and a bumpy implementation path before securing mandatory status in the new senior secondary curriculum introduced in 2009. Recently, this core subject has been under review. Whilst it is considered to promote students' socio-political participation, the subject has also been accused of triggering antagonism towards the government. In view of these concerns, this article probes teachers' perceptions of the recent development of Liberal Studies and examines the dynamic interplay between the curriculum review and the potential political controversies surrounding the subject in post-colonial Hong Kong. Reporting the results of a study comprising questionnaire-based surveys and follow-up semi-structured interviews, it reveals that whilst teachers are worried about the proposed reduction of socio-political topics in the curriculum, they approve of incorporating additional China-related content. Furthermore, the participating teachers praised Liberal Studies for its notable impact on raising students' social consciousness, which has motivated them to learn about community affairs and fight for justice. Finally, the article also explores the study's profound implications for the further development of Liberal Studies and citizenship education in Hong Kong and beyond.
[Copyright of Oxford Review of Education is the property of Routledge.]

The purpose of the current study was to examine the factor structure and measurement invariance of a scale measuring students' perceptions of need-supportive teaching (Need-Supportive Teaching Style Scale in Physical Education; NSTSSPE). We sampled 615 secondary school students in Hong Kong, 200 of whom also completed a follow-up assessment two months later. Factor structure of the scale was examined through exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). Further, nomological validity of the NSTSSPE was evaluated by examining the relationships between need-supportive teaching style and student satisfaction of psychological needs. Finally, four measurement models--configural, metric invariance, scalar invariance, and item uniqueness invariance--were assessed using multiple group ESEM to test the measurement invariance of the scale across gender, grade, and time. ESEM results suggested a three-factor structure of the NSTSSPE. Nomological validity was supported, and weak, strong, and strict measurement invariance of the NSTSSPE was evidenced across gender, grade, and time. The current study provides initial psychometric support for the NSTSSPE to assess student perceptions of teachers' need-supportive teaching style in physical education classes.

Our research is to compare students’ ability of presenting counter examples between Korean students and Hong Kong students and prospective teachers’ ability of treating counter examples between Korean prospective teachers and Hong Kong prospective teachers. Our analysis suggests the methodological implication for mathematics education of two countries on how to improve teaching methodology dealing with counter examples in classrooms through investigating students’ and prospective teachers’ ability on applying counter-examples.
[Copyright © 2010 Issic K. C. Leung, Hee-Chan Lew & Tae Soen Cheon.]

The present study examines the dynamic relationship between academic performance of high school students and their respective learning and study strategies. Two hundred thirty-six high school students were recruited to participate in this study by completing a Chinese version of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory - LASSI, to probe into the relationship. Results found that (1) there were clear differences to the learning and study strategies used by high school students with high academic performance, and those with low academic performance; (2) all the three components (Will; Self-regulation and Skill) were equally important to differentiate high academic achieving high school students from low academic achieving high school students within the strategic model of learning; and (3) a numbers of learning and study strategies were effectively predicting the academic performance of the high school students. All of these result patterns confirm that learning and study strategies used by high academic achievers and low academic achievers as well as the components used to predict students' academic performance in the high school setting are quite different from the patterns revealed in the tertiary education sector.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.794493]

Objective. The reliability and validity of Stunkard's Figure Rating Scale (FRS) as a measure of current body size (CBS) was established in Western adolescent girls but not in non-Western population. We examined the validity and test-retest reliability of Stunkard's FRS in assessing CBS among Chinese adolescents. Methods. In a school-based survey in Hong Kong, 5666 adolescents (boys: 45.1%; mean age 14.7 years) provided data on self-reported height and weight, CBS, perceived weight status, and health-related quality of life using the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form version 2 (SF-12v2). Height and weight were also objectively measured. Spearman's correlation was used to assess construct validity, concurrent validity and test-retest reliability.
Results. Convergent and discriminant validity were good: CBS correlated strongly with weight and self-reported/measured BMI, but only weakly with SF-12v2. CBS correlated strongly with perceived weight status, showing concurrent validity. Spearman's correlation (r) for CBS was 0.78 for girls and 0.72 for boys indicating good test-retest reliability. Validity and reliability results did not differ significantly between senior and junior grade adolescents. Conclusion. Our findings support the use of Stunkard's FRS to measure body size among Chinese adolescents.
[Copyright of Informa Healthcare. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17477166.2011.575146]