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Existing research on the psychological and academic experiences of China-born students studying outside of China has mainly been conducted in Western English-speaking countries. Using a coping resources framework, we investigated the predictors of psychological and academic adaptation of 2,201 mainland Chinese students (74% female) studying in universities in Hong Kong, China's Special Administrative Region and a former British colony. We found that academic self-efficacy, social support, and low levels of perceived discrimination predicted both psychological and academic adaptation. Language competence in English and the local dialect Cantonese was found to be additional factors in mainland Chinese students' academic adaptation. Implications for future research and higher education policies and practices are discussed.

Co-national groups of individuals from the same country can provide members with psychological and sociocultural support when coping with the stresses of studying abroad. This article examines intragroup task and relationship conflict that occurred in one co-national group during a 14-week short-term study abroad program. Findings reveal the negative effect of intragroup conflict, within the co-national group, on student's personal and social-ethnic-identities, acculturation and program involvement. Recommendations are made about ways to help students in co-national groups cope with acculturation and intragroup conflict, and how institutions can better prepare and support students for study abroad.

Hong Kong, along with other Asian societies with universities with top world rankings, has in recent years attracted an increasing number of international students, mainly from Asia. Previous research in English-speaking Western countries has indicated the importance of resources, including language proficiency, positive intergroup relations, and social support, in understanding international students' stress and coping in cross-cultural adaptation. Guided by a similar acculturative stress and coping framework, we investigated predictors of psychological and sociocultural adaptation in a survey sample of 726 international students (62% female and 73% Asian-born) from Hong Kong public universities. We found that English language proficiency, social support, and a low level of perceived discrimination fostered both types of cross-cultural adaptation, while contact with local students and proficiency in the local dialect further enhanced sociocultural adaptation. Implications for future acculturation research and higher education internationalization policies and practices are discussed.

As international students navigate in a foreign educational environment, having higher levels of coping or stress-resistance resources--both internal and external--could be related to increased satisfaction with personal and university life. The internal coping resources examined in this study were host language proficiency, self-esteem, intercultural social self-efficacy, and academic self-efficacy. The external resources studied were perceived social support from (a) hosts and (b) non-hosts. Survey participants were 385 Asian-born international students in Australian universities. Regression analyses revealed that academic self-efficacy and social support from hosts were significant predictors of both personal and university life satisfaction, but the effects of English language proficiency and social support from non-hosts disappeared when other resources were considered. Additional predictors of personal satisfaction were intercultural social self-efficacy and self-esteem. We discuss the implications for future research on the international student experience and for learning support provision for international university students.

This article focuses on a comparative study of how diverse subject disciplines in different higher education institutions in Australia and Hong Kong approached the challenge of internationalising the curriculum (IoC). Case study analysis identifies five conditions conducive to improving intercultural student interaction, engagement and adaptation through an internationalised higher education curriculum. The findings suggest that opportunities for IoC, such as those outlined, afford multiple benefits for both domestic and international students in higher education. These include, better cross-cultural mixing, intercultural competency development and adaptation to different higher education contexts. Implications for higher education institutions interested in creating conditions that facilitate an internationalised curriculum are discussed.

Little is known about how a family in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) makes decisions on cross-border study. International marketers and managers in higher education turn to research based on Chinese student preferences. However, such research ignores cultural traditions steeped in Confucian ideals of family and the subsequent roles and influence of parents. Using surveys and interviews with Chinese students our findings indicate that despite exponential financial and social development in contemporary Chinese society, traditional Confucian values are still largely upheld by parents. The influence of these parents extends beyond initial decision making and impacts on the student's social and academic well-being. To effectively market, manage and provide academic and welfare support for Chinese students studying across borders requires host universities to develop strategies that acknowledge and demonstrate respect for cultural traditions, parental perspectives and related ongoing influences.

Students who travel abroad for study bring with them a wealth of cultural resources and expectations that influence their ability to adapt and acculturate into their new environment. While the ability to fit into their new context is a largely personal endeavour, for students from Confucian heritage societies, the cultural expectations of family can have a significant impact on these students. Building on research into the influence of culture and parents on the decision to study abroad, this paper highlights the need for and benefits of developing internationalisation policy and management procedures that reflect and support an understanding of the embedded cultural needs and expectations of Chinese students and their families. This paper offers theoretical insight into the situations of the people involved, practical suggestions for higher education administrators wanting to develop a more effective internationalisation policy and meaningful intercultural strategies and support for international students.

Mainland China is one of the largest sources of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Previous research has identified the push-pull factors and features that influence a student choice of study abroad destination. This article extends understanding by identifying and examining what 251 mainland Chinese parents and 100 students rated as most and least important when considering study abroad. Findings highlight differences in parent-student ratings of importance and the consequent need for marketers to pay greater attention to cultural values when looking to recruit students from Confucian societies. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper discusses the concept of "cultural cross-currents," their implicit nature and the potential they have to effect second language literacy learning, teaching and curriculum reform in Hong Kong primary classrooms. Despite the substantive implications for learning, the exploration of cultural influences upon teacher and student thinking and the resultant educational consequences, remains a largely unrecognized area. The central argument in the paper is that cultural differences in attitudes, beliefs and values of cultural groups toward the way first and second languages are acquired needs to be made explicit in order to facilitate second language literacy teaching and learning.

This paper provides an analysis of recent educational reforms in Hong Kong that aim to transform the ideological basis of the curriculum, teaching and learning. While the reforms appear compatible with current international developments in higher education and school curriculum--movements, for example, towards standards-based accountability, the development of technological expertise and meeting the needs of diverse learners--major aspects of the reforms appear to contradict one another. The implications of current reforms for teacher education, in particular, are discussed together with issues related to the politicisation of reforms and teacher education pedagogy. The discussion highlights the need for an alternative approach to educating and preparing both new and in-service teachers in Hong Kong to cope with the current and future educational reforms.

A study of 10 preservice teachers in Hong Kong regarding their beliefs about principals found a relationship between leadership/management style of principals they would like to be and mothers' behavior and a relationship between principals they would not like to be and fathers' interpersonal behavior. Results demonstrate the influence of personal history on teaching, communication, and leadership. (Contains 39 references.) (SK)

Discusses the intercultural effects on college faculty teaching abroad through an exploration of the experiences of two teaching academics working in Hong Kong with emphasis on issues of language and communication and social and cultural distance. Argues that the development of intercultural understandings must permeate the curricula, and be a shared goal and responsibility of both teachers and students. (DB)

Proposes, justifies, and applies a framework for analyzing leadership stories. Although stories hold rich opportunities for understanding school leadership, they are often wasted because they are neither noticed nor interpreted. The CII Frame guides story interpretation by exploring the context, intuition, and influences leaders communicate via story-telling. (Contains 17 references.) (MLH)

This study explored the influence of personal history on preservice teachers' construction of the ideal language teacher. Written biographies and metaphors and personal construct interviews with Chinese, Tamil, and Malay preservice language teachers indicated that they entered teacher education with unique, well-developed constructs of the ideal language teacher and related approaches to language learning. (SM)

Studied how reforms in four particular areas (professional development of principals, higher education, English language standards, and inclusion of students with learning disabilities) have been conceived, contextualized, and managed in Hong Kong since the early 1990s. (SLD)

Reports on a study that found that children who read, write, and discuss whole texts of their own choice show remarkable insights into literature and its making, and that the insights match those of experienced adult literary critics. (SKC)

This article discusses a recent, renewed, call, for smaller class sizes in Hong Kong primary schools and the inference by politicians, parents and teachers that such a move will automatically result in more learner-centred English language teaching and consequently higher English language standards. The central argument in this article is that simply reducing the number of children in a class cannot alone accomplish these goals and that any such move must be accompanied by a shift in thinking and practice related to how the children in these classes are taught, how they are assessed and how teachers and schools are rewarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore pre-service teachers' perceptions and expectations of principals, how these perceptions may influence attitude and behaviour when they start in school and how pre-service teachers' perceptions of the principalship may have been formed. In general, pre-service teachers do not expect to receive assistance from the principal during their first months of teaching. Past experience of principals has resulted in clear expectations of principal support, particularly in respect to beliefs about the influence of hierarchy, school authority and principal's workload. Others, however, expect the principal to be receptive to and supportive of innovations. Some expect support from their colleagues whilst others believe they must rely on themselves. Furthermore, the sources of beliefs about the principalship are predominantly formed during pre-service teachers' experiences in school life and teaching practice. Many of their images of the principalship tend to be negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an alternative approach to spelling instruction. Classroom orientation process; Spelling folder; Main steps in weekly spelling organization; Outline of the weekly spelling timetable; General principles underlying the program; Individualized student involvement.