This study examines the practical and conceptual dimensions of children's play in German and Hong Kong Chinese kindergartens. German (n = 24) and Chinese (n = 24) children (3-6 years) were randomly selected and videotaped during their free play for 5 min continuously on five consecutive days. Play behavior was analyzed by adopting the Parten-Smilansky play scale. Ten teachers were interviewed to elicit their views on play, learning, and play arrangements. The findings indicate that a significant difference was found between all the play categories of Hong Kong and German children. The most frequent behavior in both contexts is non-playing behavior (Non-Play), which includes completing assignments and onlooker behavior. German children show a slightly higher level in the social and cognitive dimensions of play, compared with their Chinese counterparts. Moreover, there is an association between children?s play and teachers' views on play and, to some degree, the curriculum foci. This comparative study has implications for the curricula currently under reform, based on consideration of whether play should be applied to or removed from the curriculum.
[Copyright of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2013.818936]

This paper analyses how the impact of international student achievement studies and the recent economic crisis in Europe are influencing the development of educational policy transfer and borrowing, from East to West. This is contrasted with education reform movements in East Asia, which have long legacies of borrowing from so-called 'progressive' discourses in the West. England and Hong Kong are used as case studies. Since 2010, England's coalition government has prioritised its determination to look to jurisdictions like Hong Kong to inspire and justify reforms that emphasise traditional didactic approaches to teaching and learning. In contrast, Hong Kong's reforms have sought to implement practices related to less pressured, more student-centred lifelong learning, without losing sight of strengths derived from its Confucian heritage culture. Conclusions highlight factors that underpin English interest in Hong Kong education policy, values and practice and point to the need for further attention to be given to these multidirectional and often contradictory processes by researchers concerned with the study of policy transfer.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2014.928508]

A recent review of research identified two Asian societies that represented 'positive outliers' in the production of published knowledge on educational leadership and management: Hong Kong and Israel. These were the only Asian societies that had produced a critical mass of publications in this field in international journals over the past two decades. The current study examined the nature of the publication corpus from Hong Kong and Israel in an effort to understand factors that may have contributed to this capacity for high research productivity. The results suggested that different strategies may have accounted for research capacity development in these two societies. Directions are identified for future research.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Journal of Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2014.934780]

In recent years, large-scale international assessments have been increasingly used to evaluate and compare the quality of education across regions and countries. However, measurement variance between different versions of these assessments often posts threats to the validity of such cross-cultural comparisons. In this study, we investigated the cross-language, cross-cultural validity of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2006 Science assessment via three differential item functioning (DIF) analyses between the USA and Canada, Chinese Hong Kong and mainland China, and between the USA and mainland China. Furthermore, we explored three plausible causes of DIF via content analysis, namely language, curriculum and cultural differences. Our results revealed that differential curriculum coverage was the most serious cause of DIF among the three factors we investigated in this study, and differential content familiarity also contributed to DIF here. We discussed the implications of the findings for future international assessment development, and for how to best define 'scientific literacy' for students around the world.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.946890]

This article summarizes prominent themes found in descriptions of school psychology programs in Estonia (Kikas, 2014), Greece (Hatzichristou & Polychroni, 2014), Hong Kong (Lam, 2014), Romania (Negovan & Dincă, 2014), Sweden (Schad, 2014), United Kingdom (Wood, 2014), and United States (Joyce & Rossen, 2014). This paper summarizes prominent issues found in these and companion descriptions (e.g., Jimerson, Oakland, & Farrell, 2007), with the goal to promote an understanding of prevailing conditions that impact preparation, including those that are external to as well as under the control of school psychology programs. These latter conditions include the academic and professional development components of preparation, including their emphasis on multicultural and international issues. Program content generally is consistent with that promulgated by the International School Psychology Association (e.g., Cunningham & Oakland, 1998) and as discussed more fully in The Handbook of International School Psychology (Jimerson, Oakland, & Farrell, 2007). Regional and national agencies external to psychology and school psychology together with alterations in program funding are exerting a strong and seemingly increasing impact on professional preparation programs in psychology. Knowledge of these and other prevailing conditions together with their impact on school psychology preparation and subsequent services is warranted. Stronger leadership from national, regional, and international associations of psychology and school psychology is needed to counterbalance the effects of external control that pose threats to the specialty.
[Copyright of International Journal of School & Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2014.934638]

The present study investigated multidimensional motivation and engagement among Chinese middle school students in Australia (N = 273), Hong Kong (N = 528), and Mainland China (N = 2106; randomly selected N = 528). Findings showed that a multidimensional model of motivation and engagement fit very well for all three groups. Multi-group invariance tests showed that the number of factors, factor loadings, factor correlations and item uniquenesses were invariant across the three groups - as were inter-correlations with a set of cognate correlates (class participation, school enjoyment, positive intentions, academic buoyancy) - hence no differences of 'kind'. However, differences of 'degree' were indicated through significant mean-level effects between groups, with self-reports favouring Australian Chinese students over Hong Kong and (to a lesser extent) Mainland Chinese students. We propose these findings shed important light on Chinese students' academic motivation and engagement and also on socio-cultural perspectives on motivation and engagement because they assist understanding about effects attributable to context and effects attributable to ethnicity. Given this, the study is a timely contribution to current understanding of the Chinese learner in this, the 'Asian Century'.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.814199]