Students’ beliefs of whether intelligence is innate (fixed mindset) or changeable (growth mindset) vastly influence their learning behavior and willingness to persist in face of academic setbacks. Much research effort has been devoted to examining growth mindset interventions in Western countries, but relatively little is known about the impact of mindset interventions on students in the Chinese cultural context where beliefs regarding effort have already been an ingrained part of one’s cultural heritage. The present study examined the effectiveness of a growth mindset intervention on changing students’ mindsets, and also grit, and behavioural tendency as secondary constructs. A sample of community college students (n = 49) in Hong Kong participated in the study where they were randomly assigned to control or experimental group. Intervention materials used in the experimental group involved a text that introduces the concept of growth mindset, followed by writing tasks to deepen understanding. Instruments measuring mindset, grit and behavioral tendency for remedial actions were used before and after the intervention to track changes. Furthermore, students’ self-perception of academic failure and their actual academic performance were used as covariates in the analysis. Repeated measure MANCOVA (2 groups × 2 time points) for growth and fixed mindset, when self-perception of academic failure was controlled, showed significant interaction effect; in particular, the significant interaction effect on mindset was attributed to a greater degree of decrease of growth mindset in control group when compared to their experimental counterparts; whereas no other significant interaction effects was found in other dependent measures even when covariates were controlled. Results yielded both theoretical and educational implications on the design of ‘growth mindset interventions for specific group of students in the Chinese cultural context. Many practitioners may dismiss the effectiveness

Emotional intelligence (EI) is foundational to students’ success in the university. However, past studies on EI in the higher education context have mostly focused on how EI is related to academic achievement neglecting student engagement and other learning-related outcomes (e.g., generic outcomes). In this study, we examined whether and how individual differences in EI influence students’ learning, engagement, and achievement during their first year at university. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used to garner both quantitative and qualitative insights. We recruited and followed up with 560 first-year students in Hong Kong. The quantitative findings revealed a strong EI gradient with more emotionally intelligent students having higher levels of learning, engagement, and achievement. Qualitative findings corroborated the quantitative results and further showed that emotionally intelligent students are goal-directed, assertive, and self-regulated. Taken together, this study sheds light on the importance of EI for the optimal functioning of first year university students. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between theories of intelligence and goal orientations, and their joint connections to students' academic achievement in the Chinese cultural context. A total of 418 university students in Hong Kong participated in the present study. The survey was administered to collect information on students' beliefs about their goal orientations, theories of intelligence and their college grade point averages. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results suggest that beliefs in the incremental theory of intelligence contribute to students' academic achievements by facilitating their endorsement of mastery goals and performance-approach goals. Students' performance-avoidance goals have a negative association with academic success. Cultural factors and considerations are addressed to clarify further the culture-specific findings.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.893559]

This paper reports an investigation of Chinese-speaking and English-speaking children's general visual perceptual abilities. The Developmental Test of Visual Perception was administered to 41 native Chinese-speaking children of mean age 5 yr. 4 mo. in Hong Kong and 35 English-speaking children of mean age 5 yr. 2 in. in Melbourne. Of interest were the two interrelated components of visual perceptual abilities, namely, motor-reduced visual perceptual and visual-motor integration perceptual abilities, which require either verbal or motoric responses in completing visual tasks. Chinese-speaking children significantly outperformed the English-speaking children on general visual perceptual abilities. When comparing the results of each of the two different components, the Chinese-speaking students' performance on visual-motor integration was far better than that of their counterparts (ES = 2.70), while the two groups of students performed similarly on motor-reduced visual perceptual abilities. Cultural factors such as written language format may be contributing to the enhanced performance of Chinese-speaking children's visual-motor integration abilities, but there may be validity questions in the Chinese version.
[Copyright of Perceptual and Motor Skills is the property of Ammons Scientific Ltd. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/10.24.27.PMS.114.2.433-445]