The study on which this article is based examined the gender differences in educational achievements based on a longitudinal sample of more than 45,000 secondary school students in Hong Kong who took a public examination in 1997. The results coincided with the findings from recent British studies that boys did less well than girls in all areas of the school curriculum. The multilevel analyses of the effects of schooling, after controlling for initial ability, indicated that schooling did have an effect on gender differences. Girls achieved better results studying in single-sex schools whereas boys achieved better in co-educational schools. Compared with other students, it was those boys studying in the arts stream that did the least well in the public examination. The results are discussed in the context of the methodology of investigating gender differences and of the substantive questions of school effectiveness.
[Copyright of British Educational Research Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141192022000019080]

The two primary objectives of this study were: to identify the preferred teaching styles of secondary-school students and to compare these preferences with those of university students from past research; and to examine the contributions of students' preferred teaching styles to their academic achievement. A sample of 298 students from a Catholic boys' school completed the Preferred Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory and the Self-rated Ability Scale. Participants' achievements in 12 school subjects were obtained. Results indicated great similarities between the preferred teaching styles of the present sample and those of university students in previous studies. Achievement scores in all 12 subjects were predicted by students' preferred teaching styles beyond their self-rated abilities. Some of these predictive relationships were domain-specific, while others were not. The findings' scientific and practical implications are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410802004634]

From 20 primary schools in Hong Kong, a sample of 59 boys and 62 girls in 4th grade and 98 boys and 99 girls in 5th grade (N = 318) responded to a survey about their learning-to-learn capabilities including (a) reading to learn, (b) self-management, (c) desire for knowledge, and (d) originality of ideas, and two facilitating factors for enabling such capabilities, including (e) academic self-concept, and (f) effort goal orientation. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the validity of the six psychological constructs. Analysis of variance found that although boys and girls did not differ in academic self-concept, desire for knowledge and originality, girls scored higher in effort goal orientation, reading to learn, and self-management. There was a gender x grade interaction effect in reading to learn, indicating that 5th grade girls were more willing than 4th grade girls to acquire knowledge through reading whereas 5th grade boys were less willing than 46 grade boys to do so. Advocates of education reform need to consider gender differences when formulating policies to promote students' learning-to-learn capabilities and particularly to encourage boys to read.
[Copyright of Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist is the property of Australian Psychological Society. Publisher's website:
http://www.psychology.org.au/]

The study examined goal orientations, perceived parenting styles, and their relationships in a sample of Hong Kong teacher education students. It was found that students adopted both learning and performance goals but tended to be more performance goal-oriented. Females were more performance goal-oriented than males. As well, students perceived their most influential parents to be authoritative. In terms of gender, authoritativeness was more effective with females and authoritarianism worked better with males. It was found that perceived parenting styles predicted goal orientations. Authoritativeness was significantly and positively related to learning goals, whereas authoritativeness and authoritarianism were significantly and positively related to performance goals. Besides main effects, there were interaction effects between gender and parenting styles on goal orientations. Cultural and contextual factors were considered in interpreting the findings.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410601066636]