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Demand for second-language (L2) Chinese education for kindergarteners has grown rapidly, but little is known about these kindergarteners' L2 skills, with existing studies focusing on school-age populations and alphabetic languages. Accordingly, we developed a six-subtest Chinese character acquisition assessment to measure L2 kindergarteners' abilities to make associations among the forms, sounds, and meanings of 40 Chinese characters, and administered it to 173 five- and six-year-old L2 kindergarteners in Hong Kong. We found a high model-to-data fit using the two-parameter logistic item response theory model (MS[subscript infit] = 0.87 to 1.07, ps > 0.41). Of the 40 items, 36 exhibited a range of difficulty and good discrimination. Internal consistency reliability and inter-rater reliability were also high. The children scored highest in the category of meaning-sound associations, followed by mapping from meaning to form. The results demonstrate that the instrument is adequately valid and reliable for assessing L2 kindergarteners' character acquisition and imply that child L2 learners may develop abilities to map meanings and sounds prior to their development of form-related mapping. With minor modifications, the developed instrument can be used in various child Chinese L2 programs around the world.

The Learning study and the Educational Action Research approaches to educational research are compared, not from a third, neutral point of view, but from the perspective of the former. Hence, the comparison is carried out in terms of how the main point of departure of the Learning study (LS), the question of 'What is to be learned?', is addressed in the two approaches. Both represent critical stances to Educational objectives, the frequently taken-for-granted answer to the question. Educational objectives communicate, however, what the students are expected to become able to do, but not what they need to learn in order to get there. Hence, what is to be learned cannot be stated in advance, prior to the teacher learning what her students need to learn. The two approaches to educational research agree on the principle that what is to be learned has to be found in the interaction between students and teachers; however, there is an important difference between the two concerning the very point of departure. Educational objectives are too wide and imprecise according to LS, the teachers have to find the critical aspects (necessary to appropriate, but not appropriated as yet by the students) of the object of learning. According to Action research, as formulated by Lawrence Stenhouse, educational objectives are too narrow, too limited and limiting. We shall start looking for what is to be learned amongst inherent aspects of the content itself.

Background Study: Previous systematic reviews concluded that online professional‐learning communities (OPLCs) have positive effects on teachers' development, but explored neither the technological affordances that make this possible nor the potential negative impacts of technology use in OPLCs. Objectives: The aim of this study is to systematically analyse previous research on teachers' OPLCs, and thus help answer the question of what technological affordances (dis)empower members of teachers' OPLCs, and how they do so. Methods: This study applied the systematic‐review method. A total of 28 studies were identified and analysed using rigorously defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results are reported as a synthesis. Results and Conclusions: First, in theme, the selected articles primarily focused on features of OPLCs and of teachers' knowledge. Second, mixed‐methods approaches were commonly used in the sampled research, and the number of studies employing advanced statistical methods and machine learning increased over time. And third, the reviewed studies' findings suggest that technology supports 'bottom‐up' teachers' communities (as distinct from 'top‐down' professional development organized by educational authorities) in seven ways: that is, by promoting collaboration opportunities, expanding the participants' networks, facilitating knowledge sharing, delivering support more rapidly, providing emotional support, allowing ubiquitous learning, and enabling multiple modes of participation. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter: Previous reviews found OPLCs have positive effects on teachers' development. What their paper adds to this: What technological affordances empower teachers in OPLCs.How technological affordances empower teachers in OPLCs. The implications of study findings for practitioners: The sampled articles primarily focused on OPLC features and teacher knowledge.Mixed‐methods approaches were commonly used.Technology provides various affordances to 'bottom‐up' teachers' communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gifted students usually require much less time spent in practising and revising basic skills; instead, they benefit greatly from opportunities to work through the curriculum at a faster pace (acceleration). Teachers currently working with mixed-ability classes do not always find it easy to differentiate their teaching approach in this way, so there is a need to facilitate in-service professional development to provide teachers with practical strategies for implementing effective differentiation for gifted learners. In response, a project for primary school teachers was organized by a university in Hong Kong. The purposes of the project were (a) to "enhance the confidence of teachers" in planning and delivering differentiated lessons in specific key learning areas (KLAs) with particular reference to gifted students; (b) to "empower teachers with knowledge and strategies" necessary for designing and implementing a differentiated curriculum in KLA domains and (c) to establish a "professional development practice" that connects local academics with schools and teachers. The project was implemented by inviting curriculum leaders, panel chairpersons and subject teachers from primary schools to attend a 3-hour lecture and a 6-hour workshop in which differentiation practices were explored. The project was later evaluated based on feedback from participants and university consultants. Overall, the feedback was positive, but suggestions are provided here for enhancing future projects of a similar nature.

Hong Kong attained the top place in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011, an international study of reading achievement, which arouses keen interest in understanding the reasons behind this remarkable achievement. Although factors associated with reading achievement in English have been widely studied, similar studies using Chinese as a different language system are limited. The present study proposes and tests a hypothetical model that attempts to explain the variance of reading achievement of Hong Kong pupils in the PIRLS 2011 study, focusing on parental and student factors. Data of 3,875 fourth graders from 132 primary schools and their parents or caregivers (n = 3,682) are involved in the analysis. Structural equation modeling supports the hypothesized model as tenable explaining 34% of the variance of reading achievement. Parental background acts as the fundamental factor that exerts an indirect effect on reading motivation, reading self-efficacy, and reading achievement of students via books at home and early reading abilities. Reading motivation and reading self-efficacy are found to be significant in influencing reading achievement. Implications for educational practices and future research are discussed.

This research employed the Learning Study approach which refers to a blend of Japanese "lesson study" and design-based research to provide support to teachers to teach creatively in Chinese writing. It reports a serendipity finding that remarkable differences in the creativity scores among these classes were noted even though they had the same learning objectives with the same lesson plan. Examining how teachers structure writing activities in a unit is essential to the understanding of how creativity works in the context of classroom instruction. We suggested that these differences were associated with the effects of hierarchical and sequential structuring of teaching content on creativity in Chinese writing. Possible ways of understanding creativity in a domain-specific training and disseminations of the findings are suggested.

Reading literacy of fourth-grade students in Hong Kong showed a remarkable improvement from 2001 to 2006 as shown by international PIRLS studies. This study identified various aspects of the teacher factor contributing to the significant improvement among students. A total of 4,712 students and 144 teachers from 144 schools were randomly selected using probability proportional-to-size technique to receive the Reading Assessment Test and complete the Teacher's Questionnaire, respectively. A number of items pertaining to teachers' instructional strategies and activities, opportunities for students to read various types of materials, practices on assessment, and professional preparation and perception, were found to be significantly correlated with the outcome of students' reading literacy. Stepwise regression procedure revealed four significant predictors for students' overall reading achievement. The most powerful predictor was the use of materials from other subjects as reading resources. Suggestions to improve quality of teaching of reading and further studies are made.

Being literate is fundamental for learning most school subjects. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) conducts a regular cycle of studies of children's reading literacy and the factors associated with literacy acquisition in countries around the world. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) focuses on the reading attainment of children in their fourth year of schooling and the experiences at home and at school that help them learn how to read well. Designed specifically to measure trends in reading attainment, PIRLS is conducted every five years. The first PIRLS assessment took place in 2001, the second in 2006, and the next is planned for 2011. More than fifty of the countries and regions participating in PIRLS 2001 also took part in the 2006 study, Hong Kong being one such region. Involvement enabled education authorities in the countries and regions to monitor trends in reading attainment across the five-year period from 2001 to 2006. Hong Kong students made substantial progress in 2006 compared with their performance in 2001. In PIRLS 2001, Hong Kong students obtained a mean score of 528 for overall reading attainment and ranked fourteenth out of thirty-five countries and regions. The overall mean reading score in PIRLS 2006 was 564, and Hong Kong was ranked second, only one point below Russia; Singapore ranked fourth; and Taiwan twenty-second. From 2001 to 2006, the number of students reading novels and nonfiction reading material outside school increased, and there was an improvement in the percentage of students reaching high levels in the Index of Students' Attitudes Toward Reading (SATR) and Index of Students' Reading Self-Concept (SRSC). A higher level of parental engagement with their children in reading activities at home was also reported. More teachers had become aware of the importance of students' developing good reading habits. They were offering a wider range of reading materials and reading activities in the classroom. Children were encouraged to choose their own reading material and to read for pleasure. Many schools now had their own written policies on the teaching of reading and their own school reading curriculum. Many schools were providing facilities for children to read before school and during lunchtime, and more and more were involving parents in the promotion of after-school reading activities. (Contains 12 tables.)

Responding to a definition of creativity, 449 Chinese language teachers identified imagination foremost, followed by inspiration and original ideas as a component of effective writing. Teachers identified developing student confidence and providing an open atmosphere as essential means of fostering creativity. The majority of teachers, however, reported using traditional methods of teaching writing. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This article offers parents or teachers guiding gifted and talented students with a counseling model which uses the acronym of MOTHER to suggest intervention strategies including: Mentorship, Opportunities, inTegrity, High state of moral development, Emotional intelligence development, and Responsibility. Concepts of Chinese philosophy are also integrated into this model. (Contains references.) (DB)

The 13-item Chinese Creative Writing Scale was modified from the Carlson Originality Scale to assess creativity elements in compositions of primary school students (n=69) in Hong Kong. Content validity was endorsed by an expert panel and results show the scale has excellent interrater reliability and moderate to good internal consistency. (Contains references.) (CR)