Examining the impact of the ABRACADABRA (ABRA) web-based literacy program on primary school students in Hong Kong     

Barley S. Y. Mak  Alan C. K. Cheung  Xin Guo  Philip C. Abrami  Anne Wade 《Education and Information Technologies》2017,22(6):2671-2691

The current paper examined the effects of A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All (ABRA), a web-based literacy programme developed by the the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia University, on primary school children in Hong Kong. The participants were 249 Primary 1 students from two low social economic status schools in Hong Kong and the two schools were well-matched on many demographic characteristics. All participating students were pre-tested in the fall and post-tested in the following spring. After adjusting for pretest differences, the treatment school scored significantly higher than the controls on three of the six outcome measures at post-tests: phoneme-grapheme correspondence (ES = +0.22, p < 0.05), phoneme segmentation (ES = +0.46, p < 0.00), and nonsense word fluency (ES = +0.22, p < 0.06). Both treatment and control students scored similarly on word reading, listening comprehension, and initial sound fluency. The outcomes of the study provides some promising evidence of the effects of ABRA on Chinese primary students in Hong Kong, especially on the enhancement of phonological skills, thus leading to early success in the formative years of learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Practical implications are discussed.  相似文献   

Three-dimensional printing-based electro-millifluidic devices for fabricating multi-compartment particles     

Qiu Lan Chen  Zhou Liu  Ho Cheung Shum 《Biomicrofluidics》2014,8(6)

In this work, we demonstrate the use of stereolithographic 3D printing to fabricate millifluidic devices, which are used to engineer particles with multiple compartments. As the 3D design is directly transferred to the actual prototype, this method accommodates 3D millimeter-scaled features that are difficult to achieve by either lithographic-based microfabrication or traditional macrofabrication techniques. We exploit this approach to produce millifluidic networks to deliver multiple fluidic components. By taking advantage of the laminar flow, the fluidic components can form liquid jets with distinct patterns, and each pattern has clear boundaries between the liquid phases. Afterwards, droplets with controlled size are fabricated by spraying the liquid jet in an electric field, and subsequently converted to particles after a solidification step. As a demonstration, we fabricate calcium alginate particles with structures of (1) slice-by-slice multiple lamellae, (2) concentric core-shells, and (3) petals surrounding the particle centers. Furthermore, distinct hybrid particles combining two or more of the above structures are also obtained. These compartmentalized particles impart spatially dependent functionalities and properties. To show their applicability, various ingredients, including fruit juices, drugs, and magnetic nanoparticles are encapsulated in the different compartments as proof-of-concepts for applications, including food, drug delivery, and bioassays. Our 3D printed electro-millifluidic approach represents a convenient and robust method to extend the range of structures of functional particles.  相似文献   

Examining the moderating effect of inconsistent reviews and its gender differences on consumers’ online shopping decision     

Kem Z.K. Zhang  Christy M.K. Cheung  Matthew K.O. Lee 《International Journal of Information Management》2014

The prevalence of social media has provided consumers with many opportunities to post online reviews on a wide range of products on the Internet. In this study, we attempt to investigate the moderating effect of inconsistent reviews (i.e., a mix of positive and negative reviews) on consumers’ purchase decision. We further examine whether the effect will differ from female to male consumers.  相似文献   

Barriers to Completing the Dissertation as Perceived by Education Leadership Doctoral Students     

Stephanie B. King  Frankie K. Williams 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2014,38(2-3):275-279

Prior research indicates that students perceive a number of barriers to completing their dissertations. In this qualitative study, six education leadership doctoral students were interviewed about barriers and enhancers to completing their coursework, comprehensive exams, and dissertation proposals. Five of the students were in a program specifically for community college leadership who had taken a dissertation development course for students struggling to complete the dissertation proposal. Findings indicated that students perceived a number of barriers including external obligations, difficulties with advising, and knowledge deficiencies.  相似文献   

Privacy perception and protection on Chinese social media: a case study of WeChat     

Zhen Troy Chen  Ming Cheung 《Ethics and Information Technology》2018,20(4):279-289

In this study, the under-examined area of privacy perception and protection on Chinese social media is investigated. The prevalence of digital technology shapes the social, political and cultural aspects of the lives of urban young adults. The influential Chinese social media platform WeChat is taken as a case study, and the ease of connection, communication and transaction combined with issues of commercialisation and surveillance are discussed in the framework of the privacy paradox. Protective behaviour and tactics are examined through different perceptions of privacy in the digital age. The findings of this study suggest that users possess certain amount of freedoms on WeChat. However, users’ individual privacy attitudes and behaviour in practice suggest they have a declined sense of their own freedom and right to privacy. A privacy paradox exists when users, while holding a high level of concerns, in reality do little to further the protection of their personal information on WeChat. We argue that once a user has ingrained part of their social engagement within the WeChat system, the incentive for them to remain a part of the system outweighs their requirement to secure their privacy online as their decision-making is largely based on a simple cost-benefit analysis. The power and social capital yielded via WeChat is too valuable to give up as WeChat is widely used not only for private conversations, but also for study or work-related purposes. It further blurs the boundaries between the public, the professional and the private, which is a rather unique case compared with other social media around the world.  相似文献   

Disentangling genetic and environmental influences on early language development: The interplay of genetic propensity for negative emotionality and surgency,and parenting behavior effects on early language skills in an adoption study     

Rachael W. Cheung  Chloe Austerberry  Pasco Fearon  Marianna E. Hayiou-Thomas  Leslie D. Leve  Daniel S. Shaw  Jody M. Ganiban  Misaki N. Natsuaki  Jenae M. Neiderhieser  David Reiss 《Child development》2024,95(3):699-720

Parenting and children's temperament are important influences on language development. However, temperament may reflect prior parenting, and parenting effects may reflect genes common to parents and children. In 561 U.S. adoptees (57% male) and their birth and rearing parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, and 7% and 2% Latinx, respectively), this study demonstrated how genetic propensity for temperament affects language development, and how this relates to parenting. Genetic propensity for negative emotionality inversely predicted language at 27 months (β = −.15) and evoked greater maternal warmth (β = .12), whereas propensity for surgency positively predicted language at 4.5 years (β = .20), especially when warmth was low. Parental warmth (β = .15) and sensitivity (β = .19) further contributed to language development, controlling for common gene effects.  相似文献   

Hong Kong: geopolitics and intellectual practice     

Siu-Keung Cheung 《Inter-Asia Cultural Studies》2013,14(3):326-344

This article illustrates how different geopolitical factors shaped the growth of Hong Kong studies. Focusing on the close relation between geopolitics and intellectual practice, this study scrutinizes the acceptance of Hong Kong as a legitimate research object during the British colonial era and the gradual marginalization of Hong Kong studies after 1997. It analyzes the change of research paradigms, conceptual frameworks and narrative practices in the field of Hong Kong studies in relation to colonial encounter, Cold War politics, and the rise of global Empire. It singles out a critical paradox of how the field of Hong Kong studies frequently sets Hong Kong into appearance and disappearance at the same time. This study concludes with some preliminary suggestions for applying an alternative approach to the continuity of Hong Kong studies.  相似文献   

Resources mitigating the impediment of discrimination to the acculturation success of students migrated to Hong Kong     

Chau-kiu Cheung  Kwan-kwok Leung 《Int J Intercult Relat》2009,33(5):372-382

While discrimination against immigrants and resources for them likely influence immigrants’ acculturation success, how various resources moderate the influence of discrimination has not been clear. Achievement and social integration are indicators of acculturation success. From structural-functionalist theory, resources that mitigate the adverse influence of discrimination are likely to be those functional to the host society or its social integration. Earlier social integration with the host society thus may be a crucial determinant of acculturation success, partly by mitigating the adverse impact of discrimination. Conversely, resources such as welfare reception, affiliation with an organization in the home place, and fluency in the language of host society may aggravate the detriment of discrimination. These expectations are sustainable with a study of secondary school students who migrated from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong. Among the 1243 students, 416 had come to Hong Kong within 2 years. The supportive findings indicate that acculturation success in the face of discrimination would require early social integration into the host society and disconnection from the home place. Importantly, while fluency in the host language appeared to be conducive to acculturation success, it aggravated the adverse effect of discrimination on the success. Hence, communication in a discriminative context would be dysfunctional to the operation of host society.  相似文献