This brief report explores the associations of interpersonal strengths with subjective well-being and psychological flourishing among high-ability adolescents (M = 13.08, SD = 2.17) in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. It also examines the indirect effects of strengths on well-being outcomes via satisfaction of basic psychological…

This study aims to identify the profiles regarding students' familiarity with information and communication technology (ICT) and their relationships to reading literacy and background variables for high-performing countries in PISA 2018. We distinguished four classes in each of the six countries (Estonia, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland,…

This study analyzes how students' reported teaching practices of their teachers and their attitudes towards science are related to the science achievements of four high-performing countries/economies in PISA 2015: Hong Kong, China, Canada, and Finland. A study of these regions can shed light on the commonalities of and differences between the…

The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) has instigated domestic policy debate aimed at improving education systems' quality and efficiency. Its high performers are often described as knowledge-based legitimation tools that have become reference societies. This article analyses if and the extent to which PISA affects the choice of…

This study examines the use of lexical bundles in reports produced by university-level L2 English writers in civil and environmental engineering (CEE). The corpus consists of 119 reports, and the study compares the use of different types of lexical bundles (3-word, 4-word, and 5-word) in high-scoring and low-scoring papers. The results show that…

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that has been implemented by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) since 1995. This proposed study is aimed to identify the correlations of science classroom teachings with eighth graders' science…

This study was to examine the individual differences in primary school students' motivation (i.e. growth mindset, self-efficacy, and interest), self-regulated learning strategy use in English writing and the relationships between motivation, strategy use and English writing competence. Participants were 523 4th grade primary school students in…

It is well-documented that academic achievement is associated with students' self-perceptions of their academic abilities, that is, their academic self-concepts. However, low-achieving students may apply self-protective strategies to maintain a favorable academic self-concept when evaluating their academic abilities. Consequently, the relation…

Emerging research suggests that adolescents at high-achieving schools (HAS) in Western societies are at elevated risk for problem behaviours. This cross-sectional study explored whether adolescents attending HAS in a non-Western setting show similar risk patterns and if contextual (school-, family-, and peer-based) factors typically associated…

This year, widespread school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic have required almost all high-performing systems to implement distance learning to ensure that students continue learning. This document summarizes some initial takeaways from their experiences implementing distance learning in primary and secondary schools. Findings show that…

A student's 'meaning in life' and his/her connectedness to school, friends and family are believed to be factors that influence the development of life skills. Teachers could be aware of these factors in their endeavours to foster 'whole-person development' in their students. In this small-scale study, twelve secondary school teachers participated…

This study focuses on the perceptions of learning EAP of first-year undergraduates with high ESL proficiency admitted to an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Two in-depth individual interviews were conducted with nine participants and their written assignments were analysed. The data reveal several challenges facing the high achievers in…

The quality of a teacher plays one of the most important roles in the achievement of an education system. Teacher training is a multi-dimensional process which comprises the selection of teacher candidates, pre-service training, appointment, in-service training and teaching practices. Therefore, this study focuses on teacher training processes in…

This paper reports on research conducted as part of the International Instructional System Study that explored five subject areas across nine jurisdictions in six high-performing countries. The Study's overall aim was to understand what, if anything, there is in common in the curricula and assessment arrangements among the high-performing…

This article analyzes how principals of high-performing secondary schools in England and Hong Kong establish structural arrangements aligned to their core values as educators. Such values-driven structures provide a platform by which principals create the conditions in which policy and reform can be managed and absorbed without compromising the…