There is increasing evidence of the fusion of Western and Eastern early childhood philosophies and programmes within China. Although research has paid attention to this change, less attention has been directed to how culturally different beliefs and practices are experienced by children and teachers. This paper reports on a study of play-based…

This study aimed to examine the relationships between motivational variables, self-regulated writing strategy use and writing competence with 511 fourth graders in Hong Kong. The high writing achievers reported a higher level of motivation, i.e. self-efficacy, task values (i.e. interest and utility) and growth mindset in English writing than the…

Integrating twenty-first century competencies into the curriculum has become an important issue for education reform worldwide. This study examines and compares twenty-first century competencies demonstrated in mother tongue curriculum standards in China, the United States and Finland. It identifies key similarities and significant differences…

The role of mastery and performance goals in self-regulated learning (SRL) has received much attention. However, in collectivist and Confucian-heritage contexts, social-academic goals may also play an important, yet unexamined role in SRL. This study examined the association between social-academic goals and SRL. We tested a hierarchical model…

Based on a phenomenological exploration of Chinese students at a UK university business school, this article supports a growing body of research questioning the assumptions underpinning the putative Socratic/Confucian dichotomy of academic cultures. Beginning with a review of research literature on the experiences of Chinese students on Active…

The study investigates how school teachers' personal background influences their deeper learning capacity and the school effectiveness. Furthermore, the study examines the correlation between teachers' learning capacity and school effectiveness. Four sets of analyses are performed: t tests, one-way ANOVAs, Pearson correlations, and stepwise…

A debate is ongoing in Hong Kong regarding whether local and international schools vary in the extent to which they provide classroom learning environments that support the development of students' higher order thinking and metacognition. This study investigated commonalities and variations in the metacognitive orientation of local and…