This study extends investigations into 2 areas: Ease of use in the environment and markers' acceptance of On Screen Marking (OSM) in the Hong Kong public examination context. In contrast to previous studies where there was a single focus, this study comprises a heterogeneous approach. The sample contains scripts from three subjects (English, Chinese, and Liberal Studies). Scripts comprised essays and short-answer questions, as well as scripts written in either English or Chinese. Two scales assessing the ease of use and markers' acceptance of OSM were investigated from a Rasch measurement perspective; with both scales showing good psychometric properties. The findings revealed that markers generally had a high level of perceived ease of use in the environment and the overall acceptance of OSM was positive. Differences of person measures across language, question type, and subject were compared, and the implications of the two scales for future research are briefly discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2013.793604]

The purpose of the study is to construct and validate a Chinese self-regulated learning (SRL)-based reading instruction questionnaire (CSRIQ) and to examine the relationship between Chinese reading instruction and Hong Kong students' reading development from the SRL perspective. A total of 339 Grade 10 students completed the initial CSRIQ in Study 1. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analyses were used to assess the psychometric quality of the questionnaire, and the original CSRIQ subscales were then revised. Study 2 comprised 1,121 Grade 10 students. The factor structure of the revised CSRIQ was supported by the findings of confirmatory factor analysis. The findings of structural equation modelling indicated significant relations between SRL-based instruction and various reading-related variables. Among the four aspects of instruction, teacher support was the most positive factor facilitating Chinese students' reading development, whereas student autonomy seemed less favourable. Cultural and curricula factors affecting Chinese reading instruction in Hong Kong were discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2012.689730]

This article reports the results of the first systematic, though only exploratory, study that assesses the effectiveness of the Philosophy for Children (commonly known as P4C) programme in promoting children's critical thinking in Hong Kong. Forty-two Secondary 1 students volunteered for this study, from whom 28 students were randomly selected and randomly assigned to 2 groups of 14 each: one receiving P4C lessons and the other receiving English lessons. The students who were taught P4C were found to show a greater improvement in the reasoning test performance than those who were not, to be capable of doing philosophy, and to have a positive attitude towards doing philosophy in the classroom. It was also found that P4C played a major role in developing the students' critical thinking, and that 10 crucial factors contributed to the success of the P4C programme.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2012.658669]

This study aimed to initially explore the possibility of helping front-line teachers to integrate the principles of self-regulated learning (SRL) into Chinese reading instruction in a 1-year collaborative project. A total of 197 Secondary 3 students and 6 Chinese language teachers from a secondary school in Hong Kong participated in the study. The findings of quantitative and qualitative data in this study generally support the feasibility of incorporating the elements of SRL in Chinese reading instruction. Students improved their comprehension performance, intrinsic motivation, strategic knowledge, and strategy use after this learning experience. Teachers also expressed positive attitudes towards the new instruction and made constructive changes on the instructional materials and activities. However, the study found teachers' traditional beliefs might affect theimplementation of SRL instruction. The implications of these findings for understanding Chinese students' capacity for SRL and planning effective reading instruction to enhance their SRL abilities are discussed.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2011.589985]

This article presents information on 2 international educational effectiveness studies, one completed and the other ongoing. The 2nd study is, to a large degree, a reaction to a methodological problem encountered in the 1st study, the lack of an internationally valid instrument measuring teacher effectiveness. This article presents 4 reasons for conducting the 2nd study (International System for Teacher Observation and Feedback (ISTOF)) and then details the overall work plan for ISTOF-I (2004 - 2006) and ISTOF-II (2006 - 2007). The sample of 20 fully participating country teams in ISTOF is very diverse with representatives from nearly all geographic areas of the world (North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia), many of which have never participated in teacher or school effectiveness research. This article summarizes progress made on the development of the ISTOF protocol, including the generation of components and indicators of teacher effectiveness. In many ways, the study is already a success, due to the diversity of the participating countries and their generation of major parts of the protocol during ISTOF-I. Nevertheless, this article concludes with a discussion of some of the major challenges that the research team will face as it begins ISTOF-II.
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Following up on the general framework of the research study of Yip (2007), this article sets out a similar research question, investigating the differences between high and low academic achieving Hong Kong university students based on their different learning and study strategies. In this study, we recruited 100 university students who pursued their degrees using the distance-learning mode to participate by completing a revised Chinese version of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI; Weinstein, Zimmermann, & Palmer, 1988). Results further confirmed that there were important differences between the different study strategies of university students with high academic achievement and those with low academic achievement, even in a distance-learning context. Finally, we observed that two components within the model of strategic learning (Weinstein, Husman, & Dierking, 2000) - will and self-regulation components - were even more important in differentiating high academic achieving students from low academic achieving students than the other relevant studies.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803610903354718]

This paper describes a study comparing paper-based marking (PBM) and onscreen marking (OSM) in Hong Kong utilising English language essay scripts drawn from the live 2007 Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) Year 11 English Language Writing Paper. In the study, 30 raters from the 2007 HKCEE Writing Paper marked on paper 100 scripts that they had marked on screen 9 months previously. Subsequent to the rating, they completed a questionnaire, from which it was concluded that, technologically, raters had no problems with OSM. Statistical results indicated no bias favouring either form of rating. Attitudinal differences surfaced, however, between new raters who had solely rated on screen as against veteran raters, whose previous rating experiences had only been with paper-based rating. The paper concludes with the prediction that as OSM becomes more prevalent, it will be accepted as the norm, with prejudice about fairness or convenience gradually fading.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803610902972940]

Data from Hong Kong PISA 2003 show that 15-year-old Hong Kong students who have immigrant parents from mainland China are grossly overrepresented in grades below the modal grade attended by most native Hong Kong students. Same-age comparison, when grade level is not taken into account, puts immigrants' children at a disadvantaged position in the mathematics, reading, and science literacy tests. The academic advantage of immigrants' children in Hong Kong is only revealed after grade is statistically controlled. Also, mainland immigrant students who are repeaters outperform native Hong Kong repeaters. Immigrant redshirting is a possible driving force behind these results.
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An outline is given of the context in which The International School Effectiveness Research Project (ISERP) was designed and it is argued that the deficiencies of existing studies and the increased internationalization of education makes the more rigorous approach of ISERP essential. A number of methodological lessons from the study are given, concerning the need for cohort studies, for observational data, for social outcomes data, for mixed methods, and for multiple indicators. The substantive lessons of the study for a strong technology of education, for a taken for granted in educational discussions within cultures, for societal support of education within cultures, and for a radical intellectual orientation are given.
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Using multivariate discriminant analysis and the data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999, this paper made 5 individual comparisons between the U.S. middle school system and 5 Asian middle school systems, which have typically been top ranked in mathematics and science achievement scores. The discriminant analysis was based on variables related to school and classroom environment as well as students' out-of-school life, home background, and self-perceptions about mathematics and science. The results reveal significant differences between American schools and their Asian counterparts. The author explains these differences in terms of the societal difference in the position of schooling in the lives of American adolescents versus the more central position of schooling in the lives of their East Asian counterparts.
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