The Chinese Reading Classroom Paradox:

Outstanding Reading Outcomes vs. Lowest Reading Motivation

Doris Law2015.11.12

Exhibit 3.5: Trends in Achievement for Reading Purposes (PIRLS, 2011, p. 98)

Literary Informational

Country Differences BetweenYears

Differences BetweenYears

AssessmentYear

AverageScale Score

2006 2001 AssessmentYear

AverageScale Score

2006 2001

Hong Kong SAR2011 565 (2.5) 5 45 2011 578 (2.2) 7 41

2006 559 (2.7) 39 2006 570 (2.3) 33

2001 520 (3.4) 2001 537 (3.1)

Exhibit 3.5: Trends in Achievement for Comprehension Processes

(PIRLS, 2011, p. 101)

Retrieving and Straightforward

Inferencing Interpreting, Integrating, and Evaluating

Country Differences BetweenYears

Differences BetweenYears

AssessmentYear

AverageScale Score

2006 2001 AssessmentYear

AverageScale Score

2006 2001

Hong Kong SAR2011 562 (2.0) 1 37 2011 578 (2.4) 12 48

2006 561 (2.5) 37 2006 566 (2.6) 36

2001 525 (3.2) 2001 530 (3.4)

What happened between 2001- 2006?

Relationship between reading motivation and reading achievement

School/Teacher Support

Motivation Reading Achievement

Students Motivated to Read scale

Exhibit 8.2: Students Motivated to Read (PIRLS, 2011, p. 206)

Country Motivated Somewhat Motivated

Not Motivated Average Scale ScorePercent of

StudentAverage Achievement

Percent of Student

Average Achievement

Percent of Student

Average Achievement

Chinese Taipei (42)

62 (1.3) 566 (2.0) 27 (0.9) 542 (2.6) 12 (0.7) 512 (4.0) 9.4 (0.06)

Singapore (43)

60 (0.7) 576 (3.5) 31 (0.6) 562 (3.6) 8 (0.4) 533 (5.6) 9.3 (0.03)

Finland (44)

59 (1.1) 570 (2.2) 34 (1.0) 571 (2.4) 7 (0.6) 543 (4.4) 9.2 (0.05)

Hong Kong SAR (45)

52 (1.0) 577 (2.4) 34 (0.8) 570 (2.8) 15 (0.8) 551 (3.8) 8.9 (0.05)

PIRLS Results

Reading motivation

Reading Achieveme

nt

Gain insights from Zhou, N., Lam, S.-F., & Chan, K. C. (2012). The Chinese classroom

paradox: A cross-cultural comparison of teacher controlling behaviors. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1162-1174. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0027609

Ng, F. F.-Y., Pomerantz, E. M., & Lam, S.-f. (2013). Mothers’ beliefs about children’s learning in Hong Kong and the United States: Implications for mothers’ child-based worth. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37(5), 387-394. doi: 10.1002/9780470147658

Tong, Y., & Lam, S. f. (2011). The cost of being a mother's ideal child: The role of internalization in the development of perfectionism and depression. Social Development, 20(3), 504-516. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00599.x

Solutions to the Chinese Reading Classroom

Paradox

First Solution: Over Claim Hong  Kong children’s reading performance

Drilling activities in Chinese Reading Classroom : Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) exercise starting from primary 1

Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) Chinese

TSA Primary 3 Reading (25mins) Writing, (40 mins) Listening (20 mins) Listening and Reading (閲讀及聆聽—視聽資訊評估 ) (15mins) Oral (1 mins)

Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA ) Reading Assessment

TSA Primary 3 2004: Reading and Listening Comprehension 2005: Reading comprehension 30 mins, 3

texts (742 words in total) , and 24 questions. 2009: Reading comprehension 25 mins, 3

texts (1172 words in total), and 23 questions. 2014: Reading comprehension 25 mins, 3

texts (1193 words in total), and 22 questions.

PIRLS 2011 Reading Achievement /TSA Reading Comprehension

Purposes for reading

Process of reading

Reading for literary experience

Reading to acquire and use information

Focusing on and retrieving explicitly stated information

Making straightforward inferences

Interpreting and �integrating ideas and information

Examining and evaluating content, language, and textual elements

Further Research Suggestion

How TSA (Chinese), Reading has impacted Hong Kong students’ PIRLIS reading achievement?

Parents and teachers have been urging the abolition of the TSA tests. Could PIRLS be adopted to replace the TSA Chinese assessment for Primary 3 students?

Second Solution: The positive relation between reading motivation and

reading achievement

More Hong Kong students are motivated to read, but the PIRLS Students Motivated to Read scale could not reflect how they are motivated to read .  

Students Motivated to Read scale

Motivated ReadersINTRINSIC MOTIVATION “agreeing a lot” / “agreeing a

little”

I like to read things that make me think I learn a lot from reading I like it when a book helps me imagine other worlds

EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION “agreeing a little” / “agreeing a lot”

It is important to be a good reader My parents like it when I read I need to read well for my future

Approaches to measure students’ motivation

Achievement Goals

Learning goal

Performance goal

Motivation Extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation

Engagement

Teacher support

Student behavioral engageme

nt

Further Research Suggestion

Investigate how Hong Kong students could be motivated to read

Develop / adopt a new questionnaire to examine Hong Kong students’ / Chinese students’ reading motivation

Investigate how Hong Kong teachers motivate students to read in the Chinese reading classroom

Third Solution : Different emotional responses of Chinese and Western students to controlling behaviour of

their teachers(Zhou, Lam, & Chan, 2012)

Autonomy-supportive teaching practice is associated with autonomous motivation and leads to better academic performance

Controlling teaching practice is leads to poor academic performance

The Chinese classroom is associated with controlling teaching practices and should have poor academic performance

Chinese students outperform Western students  

Further Research Suggestion

Investigate how Chinese students’ emotional responses to teachers link to their reading achievement

Adopt the questionnaire to measure social-emotional relatedness based on Zhou et al. (2013) in the Chinese reading classroom