Parents’ perfectionistic tendencies and children’s early numeracy competence: the mediating roles of children’s executive functions and numeracy interest

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Parents’ high academic expectations have often been found to benefit children’s academic outcomes. Nonetheless, little is known whether...     

Effects of motion control footwear on running: a systematic review

Excessive foot pronation is a risk factor of running injuries and motion control footwear is designed to control foot pronation. With the movement transfer between foot pronation and tibial rotation, motion control footwear may not only be confined to controlling foot pronation. In view of the controversies in the literature on effectiveness of motion control footwear, this paper reviewed the efficacy of motion control footwear functions as reported in the literature. Eligible studies were identified from seven electronic databases. Two independent authors extracted the data and assessed the methodological qualities using the Jadad Scale. A total of 14 quasi randomised controlled trials were included. Even though the included studies were rated as "low quality" according to the Jadad Scale, the data were pooled and analysed. Results revealed that motion control footwear was effective in reducing the amount of foot pronation and the peak vertical impact during landing. There is no evidence that suggests motion control footwear for controlling kinematics of the proximal segments.     

Ecological Influences on Chinese Migrant Mothers’ Integration with Hong Kong

The present study uses an ecological model to understand how personal, interpersonal, and environmental factors contribute to migrant mothers’ employment readiness and their perceived integration with the host society. In the literature, successful employment, especially for recent arrivals, has proven to be important in the acculturation process. Little work has taken into account how various personal characteristics, relational factors (e.g., social capital), and neighborhood features make their contributions simultaneously. To enrich the work, this study employs survey data on 433 Chinese migrant mothers living in three low-income neighborhoods of Hong Kong. Results are supportive of the ecological model. They are favorable to the strengthening of social capital and workplace accessibility as a way to champion migrant women's integration with the host society.     

School desegregation in Hong Kong: non-Chinese linguistic minority students' challenges to learning Chinese in mainstream schools

The enactment of the revised School Places Allocation Systems at the compulsory stage in 2004 had the aim of desegregating Hong Kong's non-Chinese linguistic minority (NCLM) students by including them into ethnic Chinese-dominated mainstream primary and secondary schools. Because of the presumed cause-consequence relationship between “desegregated” school participation and academic achievement, in specific second language Chinese (CSL) acquisition, the challenges that such students face in participating in mainstream education and learning Chinese, no doubt, deserve to be examined. This qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 18 secondary students of South Asian/Southeast Asian minority backgrounds enrolled in mainstream schools. Drawing on both cultural and institutional paradigms of explanation for educational achievement, we argue that the reasons inhibiting the minority students' academic involvement are not simply their linguistic challenges but also the institutional constraints in the mainstream education system unique to this population. This study calls for a shift in school desegregation arrangement from one focusing narrowly on physical desegregation to a more comprehensive set of policies that embrace the institutional factors including teacher expectation, resource availability, and bilingual support, crucial to reduce racial differences in achievement.     

香港高职高专教育内容及课程体系改革

踏入21世纪香港制造及服务行业的产品及服务现况有如下特点：顾客主导；高度多元化；产品周期短；设计上须创新、具弹性及快速；存货量低。香港高职高专教学内容的改革将循以下方向发展：与工商企业更密切的联系；发展核心技能及重要的资历；确保职业教育的地位同样重要；推广持续及终生学习。     

德育及公民教育在香港课程改革中的理念、策略和实践经验

香港特别行政区推行的课程改革,将德育及公民教育作为首要发展项目,并就具体的推行策略建议中小学校应优先培育学生五种价值观和态度:坚毅,尊重别人,责任感,国民身份认同及承担精神;强调以学生为本的方针,鼓励学校将学生身边发生的事情灵活地融入课程设计中。此目标和策略的厘定,是回应现今香港的社会情况及未来发展方向,亦考虑到学校现况及参考其它国家的实践经验。学校推行德育及公民教育的策略,除了开办正规的德育及公民教育课程外,亦会在正规的学科学习中,渗透一些涉及价值判断的讨论活动,藉此提升学生的道德判断能力;或是藉实践学习的经验培养学生的价值观。教育统筹局作为推动香港德育及公民教育发展的官方机构,负起带领学校推行课程改革的职责:引入新思维、鼓励新尝试及交流新知识;目的是希望将课程改革的信息带到学校,以提升教师在这方面的认识和教学技巧,并为学生提供一个有利培育正确价值观的学习环境。     

Functional Objectives in Language Learning Project: An Interim Report

The purpose of the Functional Objectives in Language Learning Project (FOLL) is two-fold:

? to identify what may be called “functional objectives” in language learning (in English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil) at three grade levels, viz. Primary 6 Normal (P6N), Secondary 4 Normal (S4N) and Secondary 4 Express (S4E), and

? to determine empirically how realistic or attainable these objectives are for pupils at each of the three grade levels.     

Outcomes of schooling: Mathematics achievement and attitudes towards mathematics learning in Hong Kong

High achievement of cognitive skills and the formation of favourable attitudes towards learning are universally acclaimed outcomes of schooling. The present study utilised the Second IEA Mathematics Study data (N=5644) to examine which of the ten measured attitude dimensions are pertinent in explaining mathematics achievement variance of Form One students in Hong Kong. Correlational and commonality analysis revealed that students' perception of their ability to do mathematics, the importance of mathematics to society and the concept of mathematics being a creative subject are the most pertinent attitude dimensions. In particular, the perception of students' estimated abilities to do mathematics made a substantial, unique and common contribution to the explained mathematics achievement variance.     

Orientations to Enrolment of Part-time Students: A classification system based upon students' perceived lifelong learning needs

This article develops a classification system for the orientations to enrolment of part-time students based upon their practical lifelong learning needs. Orientation to enrolment is seen as a complex construct embodying all the reasons, purposes, expectations and motivations that cause students to pick a particular course and elect to study by the part-time mode. Virtually all of the interviewed students had a vocational orientation so some previously used categorisation schemes were not suitable. Instead seven categories relating to lifelong learning needs provided a scheme which covered the cases and related well to explanations given by interviewees for enrolling in the courses. These were re-training or further development for those who need to make a career shift; education for professionals who need to undertake continuing professional development through their careers; an opportunity for a tertiary education for those who did not previously have the chance; an education at the tertiary level for those who did not do sufficiently well at school to qualify for direct entry to university; an alternative to mainstream education; education for adults; and learning for pleasure throughout the lifetime.     

Metalinguistic skills and vocabulary knowledge in Chinese (L1) and English (L2)

How are metalinguistic skills associated with vocabulary knowledge in languages with contrasting phonological and morphological properties? To address this question, tasks of phonological awareness and morphological awareness, other reasoning and literacy-related skills, and measures of vocabulary knowledge in Chinese and English, were administered to 217 Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children learning English as a second language. Syllable-level awareness but not phoneme onset awareness was strongly associated with Chinese vocabulary knowledge; phoneme onset awareness but not syllable awareness was associated with English vocabulary knowledge. In hierarchical regression equations, phonological awareness in English explained unique variance in English vocabulary knowledge but not in Chinese vocabulary knowledge. In contrast, measures of morphological awareness, which were strongly associated with syllable awareness, uniquely explained 13% of the variance in Chinese vocabulary knowledge apart from all other measures included but were not uniquely associated with English vocabulary knowledge. Findings highlight the strong overlap across phonological and morphological awareness in Chinese and the different associations of each to vocabulary acquisition in Chinese (L1) and English (L2) languages.