The study examines the reading attitudes and attainment of Hong Kong, Singapore and English primary-school students using data collected in the PIRLS 2001 international reading survey. The results shows that reading attitudes and confidence tend to be significantly related to reading achievement test scores. The results also support the view that English pupils, generally speaking, do well on reading tests, both at 'reading for literary purposes' and at 'reading to acquire and use information' . There is also a clear relationship between gender and achievement. The findings support the view that girls' reading attitudes and achievement are generally better than those of boys at the age levels examined.
[Copyright of Research in Education is the property of Manchester University Press.]

This paper reports data from a study of children's experiences of transition to school in Hong Kong. Hong Kong research into transition to school has been limited to investigation of curriculum issues and teaching practices by the Education Department (1993), a comparative study of skills preschool and primary school teachers believed children needed (Chow, 1993), and a recently released study on primary one students' transition problems in the Shatin area (Chan et al., 1999). In the present study, Hong Kong parents, primary school teachers and children expressed their views on difficulties in transition to school. Two types of primary schools were chosen for the sample: two with preschools attached and two which served neighbourhood preschools. Children and primary teachers were interviewed twice, once in mid October, in the initial "settling in" phase, and again in mid June the following year, at the end of the school year, while parents were surveyed in mid-October. In general, difficulties of "settling in" were overcome at the end of the first or second month. Nearly all children preferred studying in the primary schools during the first interview. However, the second interview revealed that some children wished to go back to the kindergartens where they claimed they had no pressure for examination and study. The results showed that pedagogical discontinuity is a major issue of difficulties in school transition in Hong Kong. The findings echoed those from the Chan et al. (1999) study on the adjustment of primary one pupils in Shatin.
[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/10.1080/0300443022000022440 ]