Post-secondary admission and community college (CC) transfer are two common routes of entry to baccalaureate study. Previous studies comparing the academic performances of native and transfer students have generated inconsistent findings and, furthermore, they were largely conducted in Western educational contexts. This study compared the workloads, grade point averages (GPA) and attrition rates of native and transfer students in an Asian educational context. Various measures related to GPA, credit load and attrition rate were collected from the institutional dataset of a Hong Kong university in 2019; this dataset contained records of 14,141 native students and 7308 transfer students enrolled between 2012 and 2018. Results show that the transfer students experienced transfer shock and had heavier study loads but lighter non-academic loads than the native students. Despite the transfer shock, they attained a higher award GPA and had a lower attrition rate than their native counterparts. Discussion and implications are presented, in relation to transfer shock and transfer student success. In particular, this article argues that CC education does not necessarily produce academically inferior degree-seeking students and that CC transfer is a viable pathway to baccalaureate study.
[Copyright of Higher Education Research & Development is the property of Routledge.]

Approximately 6% of the population are estimated to have difficulties with learning about numbers and arithmetic, generally regarded as dyscalculia (or mathematics learning disability). As no standardized procedure for identification of dyscalculia for primary students is currently available in Hong Kong, this study aimed to develop a math achievement test in identifying at-risk Primary students for dyscalculia, as a first step to serve this purpose. A sample of over 1000 Grade 1 to 6 students were invited to complete a comprehensively designed math achievement test, and items were selected based on their functioning. The finalized scales had good reliability and validity. The test provides psychologists and teachers a tool to assess students’ math achievement and may potentially serve as a diagnostic tool of at-risk Primary students for dyscalculia in Hong Kong. All rights reserved.

The purpose of this study is to examine students’ creative thinking skills in STEAM-based activities by using the Makey Makey invention kit in designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs). Human-centred design is a process of designing for people (IDEO, 2011). This research aims to investigate the application of students’ creative thinking skills in developing solution to problem in human perspectives in everyday life through designing the human-centred designed instruments with the combination of creative exchange of knowledge and personal experiences between the designers (students) and users in different age group.Data were collected from 264 adolescent females (n = 264) in the age between 11 and 13, who had participated in the STEAM-based activities in a Hong Kong local secondary school. The STEAM project was provided through the school curriculum to examine the students’ level of creative thinking across disciplines in designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs) with Makey Makey to match the actual needs of different age groups, including children (aged 3-6), adults and elderly (aged over 65). The research objectives are concerned with the students’ involvement and attitude in participating the STEAM-based activities as well as their application of their creative thinking skills in the real-world context. The students’ experiences of thinking creatively were investigated through the five stages of creative thinking under the framework of “Creative Learning Spiral” by Mitch Resnick (2007) in STEAM-based activities in Hong Kong context.Pre- and post-treatment attitudinal questionnaires, two class observations and four interviews with both teachers and students were conducted to examine the change of students’ attitude towards creative thinking. Data findings revealed that 1) a slight increase in the students’ level of attitude change towards creative thinking through designing the human-centred design instruments (HCDIs) with the invention kit

This study aimed to examine the role and process of reflective assessment supported by the Knowledge Connections Analyzer in helping low academic achievers to develop epistemic agency in knowledge building. The participants were 33 ninth-grade low achievers from a visual arts course in Hong Kong. A comparison class of 33 students, taught by the same teacher and studying the same topics in a regular knowledge-building environment, also participated. Qualitative tracing of students' online discourse showed that reflective assessment can help low achievers develop high-level epistemic agency. Qualitative analysis of the students' prompt sheets revealed that reflective assessment encouraged low achievers to set knowledge-building goals, collectively and continuously analyse and reflect on their inquiry and ideas, and generate actions to address identified gaps, thus helping them engage in high-level epistemic agency. The study results have important implications for designing technology-rich environments that support learners and offer insights into how teachers can help learners develop epistemic agency.
[Copyright of Journal of Computer Assisted Learning is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.]

The practice of documentation has been a "hard to reach place" for many preschool teachers despite the fact that it has largely been encouraged and used as a tool in early childhood settings to assess young children's learning. Recent policy changes in Hong Kong have also called for the continuous documentation and authentic assessment of children's performance to replace traditional examinations in preschools. In this study, 62 preschools in Hong Kong were surveyed to determine the current situation of documentation as a tool for assessment of children's learning in Hong Kong preschools in the face of the new governmental requirements and interventions. The results showed that (1) preschools generally recognized the importance and necessity of using documentation to assess children's learning, (2) governmental influences were clearly demonstrated in the learning areas documented and assessed, and (3) there was a dissonance between the practice and belief of preschools, and various concerns related to the implementation were also reported. Implications for policies, professional development, and research are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Childhood Education Journal is the property of Springer.]

While assessment for learning (AfL) has gained increasing international prominence, and has been strongly promulgated by an increasing number of education systems, current instruments designed to measure students' assessment for learning experience show a number of methodological shortcomings, such as lacking construct validity and low internal consistency of scales, or structural confirmations of the dimensionality of AfL constructs captured in the questionnaires have not been tested. This paper presents the development and validation of a psychometrically robust measure of assessment for learning experience in the Chinese higher education-the Assessment for Learning Experience Inventory (AFLEI). Two independent samples of 201 and 163 higher education students responded to the AFLEI. The data were then subjected to Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFAs) and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs), respectively. Results from both EFAs and CFAs provided support for a five-factor AfL experience inventory with a strong psychometric basis. The five clusters of AfL experience perceived by the Chinese university students are Teacher formal feedback and support, Interactive dialog and peer collaboration, Learning-oriented assessment, Active engagement with subject matter, and Students taking responsibility for their learning. The correlations between the five clusters of AfL experience and the 'deep learning approach' of the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) supported the concurrent validity of the AFLEI. The AFLEI can be used both as an evaluation tool to evaluate the extent to which university students experience AfL practices in university curriculum, and as a research tool to explore more deeply the relationships between AfL experience and student learning.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Education Researcher is the property of Springer.]

Children from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to experience lower academic achievement than children from middle-SES families. This discrepancy can be attributed to a range of parental factors. The present study tested: (1) the extent to which academic achievement in three core subjects differs between children from low- and middle-SES backgrounds; (2) the differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement across the two groups; and (3) the mediating role of parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement in explaining how SES influences children's academic achievement. The sample consisted of 184 primary students with low SES and 165 primary students with middle SES from mainstream primary schools in Hong Kong. Results revealed significant differences in parental expectation, parental involvement, child engagement, as well as academic achievement in Chinese and English subjects between the low-SES and middle-SES groups. Our findings also suggest that parental expectation, parental involvement, and child engagement may be important mediators in the relationship between SES and academic achievement. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

E-portfolios have been adopted by higher education institutions as assessment for learning tools to develop students' reflective thinking and their ownership of learning. This paper examines how e-portfolios are integrated in an undergraduate course at a Hong Kong university to develop students' reflective thinking. Based on the qualitative data collected and analysed from both the teacher and students in the course, this paper first discusses the different levels of reflective thinking that the students developed as they were working on their e-portfolios. It then identifies the factors that facilitate and hinder students' development of reflective thinking, how the facilitating factors are enabled and what the hindering factors need to be addressed. These key findings highlight the pivotal role of the teacher as a learning facilitator and guide, the scaffolding role of the toolkit to support both teachers and students, and the necessity of the technical capacity building and support in the implementation of e-portfolios in higher education. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature.

This article introduces the use of public exam questions in fishbowl debate to engage highly exam-oriented secondary students with communicative language teaching (CLT). The practice aims to address the issue that many teachers of English as a second language (ESL)/English as a foreign language (EFL) in Asian contexts either teach to the test or implement CLT without catering for the students' pragmatic needs to pass external assessment. A series of activities was implemented in a secondary school in Hong Kong to promote positive washback from the public exam. The author's experience and reflections informed by ongoing dialogue with the stakeholders in the school and data collected from student focus group interviews suggest that the fishbowl debate encouraged students to use English for authentic and meaningful purposes, while appreciating its relevance to the writing exam. An important pedagogical implication is for teachers to balance CLT and exam preparation and help students to reach both their mastery and performance goals. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s).

語文歷來是高考受關注最多的科目,不論是內地還是香港、臺灣,專家們都在努力探索合適的語文能力評估方式,近年來各地的高考改革,語文試題的變化及重要程度更加明顯。自2013年北京市教委向社會廣泛徵求提高語文高考分值意見開始,內地進入“大語文”時代,2017年被稱為“新高考元年”,語文高考愈發重視對語文學科核心素養的考查。香港地區高中新課程的實施始於2009年,課程變動導致香港中學文憑考試(HKDSE)應運而生。首屆香港中學文憑考試於2012開始,其中中文科作為四項核心考試之一,在中學文憑試上佔有重要地位。臺灣地區自2002年起全面實施大學多元入學方案,語文科試題尤其體現出重視對傳統國學文化傳承。共同作為三地母語的語文科高考顯然需要更深入的研究,這不僅可以幫助了解各地語文教育的特點,也可以讓我們了解當前內地語文教育發展的現狀,融合眾家之長,為今後語文試題命制和語文教學提供參考和建議。在本研究之前,文獻大多是對內地與香港,或大陸與臺灣高考試題的比較研究,且年代較為久遠,鮮有對內地、香港、臺灣近些年語文高考試題的三地比較研究。本研究基於當前內地、香港、臺灣語文高考的大背景,以2012-2017年大陸語文全國I卷、香港中學文憑試(DSE)語文卷和臺灣學測語文卷為研究對象,採用文本分析法和比較分析法,首先對三地六年語文試題的試卷結構和內容分別進行梳理分析,在此基礎上進行試卷異同點的比較研究,分析三地高考語文試卷各自的特色和可相互借鑒之處。論文主要研究結果發現:第一,各地語文試卷體現不同的語文教育目的;第二,對“語文素養”的考查各有偏重;第三,閱讀材料不同程度地體現出與現實生活的聯繫;第四,試卷結構及試題題型靈活多樣。在此基礎上得出五點主要結論:第一,課程標準或文件的指導功能突出;第二,試卷都充分照顧“一綱多本”的影響;第三,對語文能力的考查體現出不同形式的探索;第四,對閱讀能力考查要點的安排同中有異;第五,三地語文高考試卷的編制處於不斷調整變化之中。綜合這些結論,對試題的命制提出了四點建議:第一,要進一步強化試卷對傳統文化的考查;第二,加強語文試卷與當下社會的聯繫;第三,閱讀能力考查要點宜增加鑒賞、表達應用和探究能力;第四,增強語文試卷寫作的選擇性和自由度。