The aims of this study were to examine the factor structure of the attitudinal questionnaire items from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and to investigate low- and high-performing students' mathematics self-concept in East Asian societies and in the USA. The participants were 24,119 eighth-graders, 4856 from Japan, 4972 from Hong Kong, 5379 from Taiwan and 8912 from the USA. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were conducted revealing a same factor structure across the four societies. The MANOVA results showed that (1) the US students reported a statistically significant higher mathematics self-concept than students in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Japan; (2) across the four societies, high-performing students had statistically significant higher self-concept than low-performing students; and (3) the US low-performing students' self-concept was higher than Japanese high-performing students' self-concept. The implications of these findings 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/10.1080/01443410.2010.501102]

A sample of 2,476 Grade 4 to 9 Chinese school children was tested with the new electronic Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests. Among primary students, creativity scores rose from Grade 4 to 5 and then dropped from 5 to 6; and among secondary students, creativity scores rose from Grade 7 to 9. A drop from Grade 6 to 7 was also observed. Apart from these overall trends, different patterns of gender differences were found in primary and secondary grades. In Grade 4 to 6, boys scored higher than girls marginally on most creativity indexes. In Grade 7 and 8, girls excelled boys significantly on figural fluency, flexibility, uniqueness, and unusualness. In Grade 8, girls also scored higher on verbal flexibility. The gender differences were narrowed down again marginally in Grade 9.
[Copyright of Creativity Research Journal is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2010.503543]

This study investigated the contribution of school contextual factors and intrapersonal factors to school satisfaction among a sample of Hong Kong Chinese primary school children. A total of 760 children completed the School Satisfaction Subscale of the Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale for Children along with self-report measures of intrapersonal factors (self-esteem and hope) and school-related factors (teacher support, peer support, peer conflict, peer victimisation and academic performance). Findings revealed teacher support as the most significant predictor of school satisfaction across grades, followed by academic performance. Hope was found to be a statistically significant mediator of school satisfaction across gender, whereas self-esteem did not act as a potential mediator except in sub-samples of girls and Grade 4 students. The findings lend support to using developmental ecological perspective and cognitive mediation models in studying school satisfaction. The implications of the findings for future research and educational practice were discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410903494452]