As STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education gets more and more attention from society, students' attitudes towards STEM are increasingly concerned. However, there was scant research that has empirically documented the relations among STEM attitude, learning motivation and metacognition. This research used Structural…

This study examined the effects of family SES on children's mathematics achievement for urban, rural, and migrant families in China. The data comprised 6050 children (44% female, 56% male) in grades 4 and 5 from a national database in China. The results showed that parental education level and family income were directly related to children's…

Engagement in academic tasks is important. However, compared to the large body of research on task engagement, the number of studies on task disengagement is quite limited. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between the motivational (self-determination) and attitudinal antecedents (learning orientations) of task disengagement.…

Chinese classrooms present an intriguing paradox to the claim of self-determination theory that autonomy facilitates learning. Chinese teachers appear to be controlling, but Chinese students do not have poor academic performance in international comparisons. The present study addressed this paradox by examining the cultural differences in…

Background: The latest report by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), issued in 2006, indicated that Hong Kong Primary 4 Chinese students outperformed children from 45 countries and provinces in reading comprehension tests that measured their higher-order reading proficiency. However, the study gave no indication of how…

The present research investigated the effects of an interdisciplinary program on Chinese music and culture, based on a sociocultural approach to multicultural music education. The program was introduced to 250 fifth- and sixth-grade children in three schools in New York, USA. Reports and questionnaires were collected from the teachers, students,…