This article presents the findings of a study hypothesizing that school discipline problems are a maladaptive response to the demand of the school environment as a result of deficits in the area of locus of control and attributional style. The findings indicate that an external orientation of locus of control and a passive pattern of attribution remain significant predictors of discipline problems when other factors are held constant. The findings lend support to the idea of establishing programmes that "induce appropriate attributions" in children and train teachers to become aware of the attributional process in order to effectively deal with discipline problems in school. Cognitive re-structuring is suggested as an effective means of intervention aimed at disputing the irrational beliefs, which leads to positive effects and consequences. This study was conducted on a sample of three hundred and eighty-four students recruited from the junior forms of four secondary schools in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443032000088203]

In this research, we normed the Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests (Wallach & Kogan, 1965) for the school children in Hong Kong. A representative sample of 1418 students (148 1st graders, 155 2nd graders, 159 3rd graders, 163 4th graders, 162 5th graders, 160 6th graders, 162 7th graders, 159 8th graders, and 150 9th graders) was administered a Chinese version of the Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests (WKCT), developed in a large-scale pilot study. There was some preliminary evidence of reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the WKCT. Results of the forming study showed that there was generally an increase with grade level in the mean of various indexes (Fluency, Flexibility, Uniqueness, and Unusualness) of creativity from Grade 1 to Grade 3 (individual administration mode) and from Grade 4 to Grade 9 (group administration mode) for both verbal tests and figural tests, besides a significant drop in the mean of the various indexes of creativity for figural tests in Grade 7. No gender differences in the indexes of creativity were found. The norms of this first norming study of the WKCT not only provide information about the creative potential of the school children in Hong Kong, but also facilitate future cross-cultural comparison of the scores of the WKCT in different cultures and societies.
[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/10.1207/s15326934crj1601_7 ]

Many schools in Hong Kong are concerned with the growing number of enrolments of students from Mainland China. This article examines the immigrant students' constructs of their cross-cultural identities. It reveals how these students experience a journey of transformation in language, culture and identity. Qualitative data were collected from unstructured interviews with 12 immigrant students from Mainland China from six secondary schools. Two cases which are representative of the sample are reported. The study showed the transformation of the cross-cultural identities of these students, in the process of which they adopted the new culture into their lives and made it their reality while they still strongly connected part of their identity to their Mainland Chinese background. Despite some negative experiences of adaptation, they adopted a meritocratic approach to making sense of their cross-cultural experience. It was used as a form of agency to overcome, or at least ameliorate, feelings of discrimination, loss of cultural support and being immigrants in the 'new' society of Hong Kong. Lastly, two implications for the promotion of education for immigrant students will be discussed at school and legal levels.
[Copyright of Ethnography and Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457820802305469]

This study interviewed 53 novice or experienced students enrolled in part-time courses in Hong Kong universities. It was found that the attitudes to and ability to cope with study were influenced by a coherent set of beliefs about knowledge and the process of teaching and learning. This belief set was characterised in two broad orientations as didactic/reproductive or facilitative/ transformative. Novice students holding didactic/reproductive beliefs found it difficult to adjust to higher education if the teaching was not expository, as often happened with distance education tutorials. These students also experienced problems with assignments which went beyond the reproduction of material, since these were incompatible with their epistemological beliefs. The conclusion is that courses should aim to help students make the difficult transition to the belief orientation of the more experienced students as a means of assimilating students into higher education.
[Copyright of Studies in Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070120052116]