Although differences in academic motivation may exist across cultures, research on academic motivational goals has been Western-focused and relied on Western originated questionnaire. There is a dearth of studies adopting bottom-up, emic, and in-depth approaches to explore East Asian students' academic motivation. This study describes Chinese…

This study reports on the goal structures of one rural and one urban Grade 11 class in China, based on classroom observations and teacher and student interviews. Classroom observations, conducted over a 6-month period, focused on physical settings and classroom activities. In each class, seven students and the homeroom teacher were interviewed to…

This case study provides a description and in-depth understanding of changes in schooling after the implementation of college entrance reform in Shanghai, based on the observation of classroom activities in four high school classes, and interviews with students and teachers. It found that, first, whereas multiple criteria were taken into…