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.
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A questionnaire survey was conducted with 106 in-service teacher education students of a university in Hong Kong to study their motives and commitment in teaching. Three motive factors were identified in their choice of teaching as a career, the most influential one is "intrinsic/altruistic motive", the next one is "extrinsic motive/job condition" and lastly "influence from others". Within the intrinsic/altruistic motive, around 80% to 95% teachers considered teaching is meaningful, they desired to teach the subjects they liked, they wished to help others and to work with children/teenagers. Four factors representing the areas or aspects of teaching which influenced the teachers' dedication and commitment were found, viz., "students' learning and school development", "demands on teaching and school practices", "teaching as a career choice", "teacher-pupils interaction and attitudes". Correlational analyses showed that intrinsic/altruistic motive was significantly related to the four commitment factors, suggesting that the motives held by the teachers in joining the teaching profession (in particular, intrinsic/altruistic motive) is influential upon teachers' commitment in teaching. Further analysis of the item responses highlights the elements affecting teachers' commitment in teaching involve school head, colleagues, students, parents and educational changes, which deserve the attention of the education authority to address with appropriate measures.
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Teachers play a key role in curriculum development and reform. One of the major targets of the present curriculum reform in Hong Kong schools is to strengthen and empower local primary school teachers to become change agents. To facilitate the local teachers to become curriculum change agents and action researchers, the Education and Manpower Bureau of Hong Kong has been recruiting experienced teachers for the position of Primary School Master/Mistress (Curriculum Development) (PSMCD) as curriculum leaders for initiating curriculum reforms and to develop local teachers to participate in action research in the local schools. To better equip the PSM(CD)s, a course specifically designed to train them was conducted. This is a study with 200 PSM(CD)s of their expectations and understanding of competence and knowledge needed to perform their duties of curriculum leadership. How much of their expectations have been met in their training? What problems have these curriculum leaders encountered? The results are enlightening for the course provider as well as teacher educators and school curriculum reformers. With a better understanding about the problems they encountered in schools, the education authorities concerned can then provide necessary and appropriate support for these curriculum leaders. Significant implications for school curriculum reforms are drawn.
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This paper reports on, and presents the findings from, an investigation into feedback as a means of formative assessment. Feedback is important to learning because it gives us information about the results or consequences of what teachers do and what learners have achieved or have not achieved. It is as crucial in teaching and learning as in any other activity, forming part of the cycle of teaching and learning. However, general feedback such as 'Good work!' 'Effort shown!', or drawing a smiling face, though holding the acknowledgement effect, is not informative enough to help students advance their learning. This poses a question "What sort of feedback has functional significance in learning?"
The investigation collected data from school teachers through three different phases, namely, questionnaire survey, teacher interviews, and lesson observation. The first phase asked approximately one thousand school teachers to give their views on feedback in a questionnaire survey. Data analysis showed that four particular aspects about feedback were regarded as more significant than others. The second phase and the third phases, which involved a further 94 teachers and 27 teachers respectively, revealed that feedback could take many forms and the quality of feedback could vary tremendously.
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The present paper tries to identify the social and psychological factors that motivate students to have better performance in English as a second language, and to postulate a theoretical model subsuming these socio-psychological variables to explain and predict the performance in English as a second language for Hong Kong students in Australia. Gardner (1959) hypothesized that students would have higher performance in the second language performance if they exhibit the desire to learn the second language in order to integrate themselves with the target culture than when they exhibit the desire to learn the language for pragmatic reasons. The perceived status of language affects the use of and attitude toward a language. Giles, Bourhis and Taylor (1977) defined Ethnolinguistic vitality as structural characteristics such as socio-economic status, demographic representation and institutional support pertinent to a language. Smolicz, Hudson and Secombe (1998) described multicultural policies of Australia as a solution to the dilemma of reconciling the immigrants' love of their homeland and its culture and their desire to adapt to the overarching Australian framework. 247 students of ethnic Chinese in Sydney metropolitan area who were studying in weekend Chinese schools (age 8 to 16 with mean age of 10.1) and 628 Hong Kong students who were studying in primary and secondary schools (age 8 to 16 with mean age 10.5) were sampled. Path analysis was used to determine the relationship between the performance of Chinese and English with ethnolinguistic vitality, motivation, attitudes and use and class anxiety in the learning of English.
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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 survey study was conducted with 251 preservice teacher education students in Hong Kong by administering a questionnaire comprising three inventories to measure their conceptions of learning, culturally oriented achievement motivation and learning strategies. Preliminary correlational analyses of the above three variables showed significant relationships between some subscales, consistent with previous research findings in literature which suggested that conceptions of learning are related to a number of variables such as students' learning approaches and the quality of learning. Further analysis was conducted by testing a structural model on selected categories of conceptions of learning (learning as an increase in knowledge and learning as personal fulfilment), culturally oriented achievement motivation and learning strategies. Satisfactory goodness of fit index was obtained with the proposed model. Path analysis showed that the conception "learning as an increase in knowledge" was positively and significantly related to social oriented achievement motivation, deep strategy and surface strategy; individual oriented achievement motivation was positively and significantly related to deep strategy but negatively and significantly related to surface strategy. The conception "learning as personal fulfilment" was positively and significantly related to individual oriented achievement motivation but negatively and significantly related to social oriented achievement motivation. Implications for learning and teaching were drawn based on the model result.
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Research has pointed out that motivational orientations influence the study strategies students adopt and subsequently influence academic achievement. While achievement goals emphasize the ways in which students think about themselves in learning, intrinsic motivation reflects students' engagement in learning for its own sake. Both have impact on learning strategy and achievement. This paper reports the study of the relationship among intrinsic motivation, achievement goals, study strategies and achievement. The participants were786 male and 595 female students from Hong Kong. Intrinsic motivation, viz. challenge, curiosity and independent mastery, and achievement goals, viz. mastery goal, performance approach and avoidance goals, were examined for their correlation with learning strategies and achievement. The results showed that the three subscales of intrinsic motivation were all positively and significantly related with deep strategy but not with surface strategy. Performance approach goal and performance avoidance goal were significantly and positively related to both deep and surface strategies while mastery goal was significantly related with deep strategy only. Academic achievement was positively and significantly related with deep but not surface strategy. Results of multivariate analysis showed significant differences in gender and level of study for the three variables under study. The results were discussed in relation to the Chinese cultural context and implications were drawn for enhancing motivation to learn.
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The open source learning management system (LMS), Moodle, has been adopted by many people and organisations around the world because it offers a tightly integrated set of tools said to be designed from a social constructivist perspective. However, what advantages does Moodle really offer over other commercially available LMSs such as Blackboard, from the perspective of the lecturer or the student? In this study, Moodle was used in five teacher education classes in Hong Kong in a variety of ways. The experience of these classes was evaluated by institutional evaluations of teaching and a questionnaire specific to the use of Moodle. The results indicated only a partial preference for Moodle over Blackboard. Implications for pre-service teachers are discussed.
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