Research Findings: This study employed data from the TIMSS 2015 survey to investigate whether parental educational involvement behaviour in early childhood and parental attitudes towards education can enhance children's mathematics achievement in the 4th grade via influencing children's learning interests. Samples from Singapore (N=6237) and Hong Kong (N=3316), which share similar cultural backgrounds, and students demonstrating outstanding mathematical performance were selected to examine whether a hypothesized model fit the data. The overall model fit was found good. As hypothesized, after controlling for gender, immigration status, and family learning resources variables, both parental involvement in learning activities and parental attitudes towards education had positive significant effects on children's mathematics achievement in the 4th grade. However, a variation was also discovered in terms of the influences of parental attitudes in the two samples. Practice or Policy: The current findings shed light on the importance of parents' attitudes on education and their involvement in their children's mathematics activities during early childhood. The importance of family education should be communicated thoroughly to the public, and the government should provide more support for parents to involve more in early learning activities at home.
[Copyright of Early Education and Development is the property of Routledge.]

Differentiated instruction (DI) is nothing new and is believed to be an effective research-based strategy to cater for learner diversity. Differentiation involves finding multiple ways to structure a lesson so that each student is provided with an opportunity to work at a moderately challenging level. Previous studies, however, found that teachers were not well prepared and insufficiently equipped with skills and knowledge about DI. In the recent Hong Kong curriculum reform, DI has been highlighted as one of the ways to catering to learner diversity. The purpose of the study is to examine in-service teachers' readiness for using DI strategies and perceived challenges in its implementation. Using a mixed-methods design, a questionnaire was used to investigate teachers' perceived readiness for and obstacles toward using DI strategies, as followed by semi-structured focus group interviews that were done to in-service teachers of two schools. Qualitative data as obtained from the interviews was used to explain the quantitative data. With the use of factor analysis, two factors were identified in the survey, including Factor 1 Teacher-centred approach and Factor 2 Student-centred approach. Findings indicated that teachers generally tended to be ready for using DI strategies; however, they were more ready for using teacher-centred approach. Three perceived obstacles toward DI were identified: class size and diversity, time, and understanding of teaching strategies. Implications for curriculum development, professional development and research directions will be discussed at the end of the paper.

This research studied how resource-based learning environment (RBLE) with multimedia resources facilitates students to develop understanding of "Hong Kong Economics". The study established an RBLE by creating authentic contexts, selecting appropriate resources and tools, and adopting necessary scaffolds. Three classes of students aged 11-12 were involved in learning of the different sub-topics in various approaches: a learner-centred approach with individual computer; a teacher-centred approach with one single teacher computer; and an interactive approach of group use of a computer. The analysis included video-taped lessons and interview responses, with a finding that deep learning is effected from a more learner-centred approach.