From September 2009 onwards, a new business curriculum which focuses on three key business disciplines, namely management, accounting and finance, has been implemented in Hong Kong senior secondary schools. A new assessment guide has been also proposed in light of the new curriculum. Such business curriculum and assessment reform move in the direction of preparing pupils to be more adaptive to the fast-changing business society; an innovative school-based pedagogical design will definitely be needed. This paper examines and analyzes the nature of the existing Hong Kong business curriculum and assessment reform from a competence-based perspective, discusses the critical issues in the areas of curriculum design, assessment practices, teaching approaches and teacher development, and suggests innovations in these areas for enhancing pupil competence development in the context of Hong Kong senior secondary education.
[Copyright of Journal of Vocational Education and Training is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636821003605387]

The study compared preferred homework styles of Chinese students-who were characterized by (a) high vs low self-perceived homework achievement and attitude; (b) high vs low teacher-rated homework completion and quality; and (c) high vs low academic achievement in mathematics-and examined gender differences of homework styles in these students. The participants were 329 5th graders (172 boys and 157 girls) and 244 7th graders (130 boys and 114 girls). More distinguishing homework style elements were found with the self-perceived homework achievement and attitude levels than in the teacher-rated achievement levels. Neither gender differences nor gender-achievement interaction effects were indicated. As expected, the motivational elements distinguished the high/low levels of all types of achievement and attitude towards homework. While high teacher-rated achievement was more closely associated with high scores of the teacher-motivated element, the self-perception of work accomplishment at home was more positive in those students who were highly motivated by parents as well as teachers. A number of environmental and organisational elements also distinguished the high from low achievers. The importance of the teacher and parent role in student achievement was discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713663718]

Using multivariate discriminant analysis and the data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999, this paper made 5 individual comparisons between the U.S. middle school system and 5 Asian middle school systems, which have typically been top ranked in mathematics and science achievement scores. The discriminant analysis was based on variables related to school and classroom environment as well as students' out-of-school life, home background, and self-perceptions about mathematics and science. The results reveal significant differences between American schools and their Asian counterparts. The author explains these differences in terms of the societal difference in the position of schooling in the lives of American adolescents versus the more central position of schooling in the lives of their East Asian counterparts.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803610500110810]

The contribution of parental involvement and investment to children's education has been a major topic in current educational reform around the world. The purpose of this study is to identify the parental involvement and investment factors which make the greatest contribution to children's self-esteem in Hong Kong. Data for this study was obtained from questionnaires collected from a sample of about 2100 middle grade students (Grades 6-9) and their parents, as well as parents of first grade students, from 18 schools. The study employed factor analysis and Hierarchical Linear Modeling. First, the different dimensions of parental involvement and investment manifest in Hong Kong were clarified. Secondly, the association between parental involvement and investment and family socioeconomic status was estimated. Finally, whether student self-esteem is related to different types of investment and involvement after controlling the background factors was examined.
[Copyright of School Community Journal is the property of Academic Development Institute.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.adi.org/journal/]

The authors investigated what and how instructional practices are related to students' motivation and performance in writing. The participants were 6 teacher interns and their (N = 209) secondary-school students in Hong Kong. In a 3-session instruction unit, the teacher interns taught their students how to write an expository essay. The students completed the essay and then a questionnaire to report their motivation in the task and their perception of the instruction. Results of structural equation modeling showed that students' motivation mediated the effects of instructional practices on writing performance. The authors found that when the teachers adopted more motivating teaching strategies, the students were more motivated. When the students were more motivated, they, in turn, had better performance in writing.
[Copyright of Journal of Experimental Education is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JEXE.75.2.145-164 ]