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A growing body of research has examined the relations of dispositions toward information and communication technology (ICT) to intercultural competence among university students. However, there is little research exploring the associations between ICT-related dispositions and intercultural competence among adolescent students. The mechanism of such relationships also remains unknown. Therefore, from a self-determination theory perspective, this study investigated the relationships of perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness in ICT usage with global competence--intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes--among 17,055 15-year-old students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in PISA 2018. Results of Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling (MSEM) analyses indicated that perceived autonomy in ICT use, perceived competence in ICT use and perceived relatedness in ICT use all positively affected intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes. Further, the results of the study revealed that the use of social media was a partial mediator in the relationship between perceived autonomy/competence in ICT use and intercultural knowledge/skills; and between perceived relatedness/competence in ICT use and intercultural attitudes. Our findings emphasized the importance of satisfying students' ICT-related needs and acknowledged the role of the use of social media in cultivating their global competence. Implications for teachers, schools and parents were discussed.

Metacognitive judgment of one's online search process (calibration) is an important element of searching efficiency. This study investigated Chinese university students' calibration during online information search. Fourteen students s were asked to search answers for three assigned tasks. Immediately after the search, all participants attended individual interviews about their search behavior. Based on eye-tracking data of the actual search process, three profiles of searchers were identified: surface explorers, deep explorers, and smooth searchers. Eye-tracking and retrospective interview data were analyzed to examine the participants' level of calibration. Results showed that the participants were not able to calibrate well on their searching process, with a mean score of 3.64 out of 10.0 (SD = 1.91), suggesting a mediocre level of calibration capacity. A moderate level of positive relationship (r = 0.42, p > 0.05) was also found between calibration scores and search performance scores, implying a general pattern wherein the high calibration group tended to perform better than the low calibration group. The findings called for integrating metacognitive judgment as a component of improving computer information literacy which, accordingly, could be used to enhance students' ability to think critically about seeking and evaluating information.

Digital portfolios have gained an increasing prominence in teacher education programmes around the world as a consequence of research which purports their multiple benefits to users and of their potential to represent beginning teachers' practices. Despite the current popularity of digital portfolios, the nature of their use is still not well understood. This article explores how student teachers use digital portfolios in a teacher education programme in Singapore from an economics perspective. It posits that the adoption of an economic lens would shed new light on existing understandings and raise awareness of how and why student teachers use digital portfolios the ways they do. Reference to a range of economic concepts would will help to better understand educational outcomes. The article considers the implications of the findings for informing how digital portfolios are implemented and raises issues for consideration in further implementation efforts and in future research.

Due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in China, a large number of Chinese students resorted to online learning resources. The increasingly widespread online education enables the investigation of public opinion about this large-scale untraditional mode of learning during this critical period. Sina Weibo Microblogs (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) related to online education were collected in three distinctive phases: from July 01, 2019 to January 09, 2020 (pre-pandemic); from January 10, 2020 to April 30, 2020 (amid-pandemic); and from May 01, 2020 to Nov 30, 2020 (post-pandemic), respectively. The aim was to obtain broad insight into how online learning was viewed by the public in the Chinese educational landscape. The public opinion during these three periods were analysed and compared. The findings facilitated a better understanding of what the Chinese public perceived about this online learning mode in becoming the dominant channel for teaching and learning during critical periods.

This review examined the relations between grit and academic achievement based on a meta-analysis of 137 studies yielding 156 dependent samples (N = 285,331). Using the robust variance estimation, we found that the correlations of overall grit level with academic achievement were generally weak to moderate (weighted r = 0.19). The correlation of perseverance of effort to achievement (weighted r = 0.21) was stronger than that of consistency of interest (weighted r = 0.08). Adopting a cross-cultural perspective in reviewing these findings, we concluded that the associations between overall grit/2 facets and academic achievement did not differ across individualism-collectivism. We also investigated 7 other moderators, including grit measurement, types of achievement measures, publication type, educational levels, research design, study quality, and the female ratio of sampling in the grit-achievement relationship. After controlling for all proposed moderators, no significant moderators were found in the overall grit-achievement link or the consistency of interest-achievement link. There was a significantly stronger association between perseverance of effort and academic achievement in nonstandardized measures than in standardized measures. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Purpose: The increasing societal requirement requests higher education institutions to be more responsive to socioeconomic needs and new governmental demands. This study aims to present a self-developed multidimensional quality assurance and assessment model for higher education institutions -- R.I.S.E model (relevance, impact, significance and excellence) -- as a tool for quality assessment in higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The model was first described at a conceptual level, followed by the examination of its applicability by presenting a case of a university in Macau to substantiate the model with real-life evidence. Findings: Results showed that the model can be used as an assessment tool to analyze, evaluate and reflect upon the status quo of higher education institutions. Facilitators can use all or part of the model either as a useful baseline to assess performance and prioritize "next steps" or to compare performance across time to determine progress in achieving goals and objectives. Originality/value: The new model proposed in this study presents multiple perspectives when assessing higher education systems, especially in the transforming stage of a university, to meet upgrading requirements from both the society and the academic community.

Success of ICT integration in the classrooms is, to a large part, accounted for by teachers' engagement with technologies. However, while many studies have identified the factors that affect teachers' decision to use technology, few have considered student perception as a likely influence. Increasingly, there is evidence in the literature to support a trend that recognizes student perception more explicitly in examining teachers' motivation in engaging technologies for instructional purposes. This study examined the role of student perception to understand why teachers decide to use technology in their teaching. Participants were 169 university students in Macau who responded to an open-ended question on what they thought were factors that motivated teachers to use technology in the classroom. Data were analyzed using a two-stage coding strategy. Results revealed nine possible themes to explain students' perceptions of the factors that acted as motivators for teachers' decision to use technologies in the classroom. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.

The rapid development of science and technology worldwide has promoted a boom in STEM education in China, increasing the demand for competent STEM teachers and creating new challenges for training STEM teachers. Teaching competence is crucial to the implementation and quality of STEM education in school, and is influenced in turn by teachers' learning experiences during their preparation programs. This study investigated the longitudinal effects of teacher training experiences on new teachers' perceived teaching competence, with their teaching beliefs as a mediator. Based on the model of Baumert and Kunter (2013), the study collected data from 219 beginner teachers from different K-12 schools in China. The findings showed that knowledge training and teaching practice during teacher education programs, as well as the teachers' beliefs about teaching, were positively related to STEM teachers' perceptions of their teaching competence. Meanwhile, teaching beliefs mediated the relationship between teaching practice and perceived teaching competence. Multigroup analysis revealed similar relationships for both primary and secondary school teachers between teacher training and perceived teaching competence, and between teaching beliefs and perceived competence. However, the relationship between teacher preparation and teaching beliefs was different for the two teacher cohorts, and a significant indirect effect of teaching practice on perceived teaching competence, mediated by teaching beliefs, was observed only in secondary school teachers.

This large-scale study used the extended technology acceptance model to examine the different factors influencing Chinese university students' intentions to use the Internet-based technology with a learning focus. Specifically, the subject norm was conceptualised as a three-dimensional construct consisting of teacher influence, peer influence and institutional support. The data were collected from 4561 university students from 16 universities in China. The results indicated that 64% of the variance in Chinese university students' behavioural intentions were explained by their perceptions of ease of use and that the subjective norm significantly influenced their perceptions of the usefulness of the Internet-based technology with a learning focus. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and the subjective norm significantly influenced students' attitudes towards using the Internet-based technology with a learning focus. In addition, Chinese university students' intentions to use the Internet-based technology with a learning focus were significantly influenced by attitude, perceived usefulness and the subjective norm. This study identified both theoretical and practical explanations for these relationships.

Moodle is widely used in higher education institutions in this digital age. With the growing popularity of Moodle use in education, this study aimed to research on the factors that influence student users' intentions to adopt Moodle for learning purposes in Macau. A total of 564 students from nine departments at the University of Macau responded to a survey in which ten constructs from a framework that integrated the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Technology Acceptance Model, were measured. The results of this study showed that the research model had a good fit. Two variables--usefulness and ease of use--had significantly influenced Macau students' attitudes towards Moodle use. Other variables such as usefulness, attitude, and perceived behavioral control were found to be important determinants of students' behavioral intentions. Furthermore, usefulness was significantly associated with ease of use, output quality, trialability, as well as subjective norm. Students' perceptions on the ease of use was significantly influenced by technology complexity and trialability. On the whole, the proposed research model had explained 66% of the variance of Macau university students' behavioral intentions to use Moodle. This study contributed to deepening our understanding of technology acceptance theories by contextualizing the current study within the Macau higher education.

This article explores Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' attitudes toward technology use and the factors that influence their technology acceptance. A qualitative study was conducted with data obtained from semistructured, in-depth interviews of 14 university teachers from six provinces. The interview data revealed that Chinese EFL teachers generally maintained a positive attitude toward technology use in teaching. Facilitating conditions driven by modernization, perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and technology mania are major factors influencing their technology acceptance. It is worth noticing that the degree of reliance on technology varied in terms of age and experience. Overall, the findings were consistent with previous studies, while leading to a broader and deeper understanding of technology acceptance theories by analyzing contextual and cultural phenomenon in China. Implications for future research and suggestions to improve Continuing Professional Development were provided in order to promote technology integration among Chinese teachers.

In this article, we analyze a broad range of factors that affect the sense of belonging of undergraduate students taking a first-year academic literacy course (ALC) at a multicultural, multilingual university in Vancouver, Canada. Students who fail to meet the university's language and literacy requirements are required to pass ALC before they can enrol in writing courses across the disciplines. Consequently, many of those students feel that they have yet to be accepted as fully legitimate members of the university community. We present data from a two-year, mixed-method study, which involved asking students in surveys and interviews about their sense of belonging, as well as analyzing their reflective writing samples for issues related to their sense of belonging. We found that the participants' perceptions of sense of belonging are multi-layered and context-dependent, relating to changes in time and space, classroom pedagogy, and other social, cultural, and linguistic factors. Implications for higher education are discussed. (Contains 2 tables, 4 figures and 4 notes.)

Background: Few studies have been conducted in Canada to investigate the roles, actions and beliefs of health teachers in school health programs. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore health education teaching and assess related needs among pre-service and in-service teachers in a British Columbia K-12 school system, and to elicit conclusions regarding how to improve health through schools. Methods: K-12 teachers from the participating school district (N = 16) and pre-service teachers from the participating university (N = 14) participated in four focus groups. Results: Guided by the ecological model, seven themes were identified and categorized: (1) Intrapersonal Level (teaching strategies; knowledge/skills; comfort); (2) Interpersonal Level (teaching barriers); and (3) Community Level (health curricula; health programs; role of school). Discussion: Seven themes highlight the issues of school health programs from practitioners' perspectives, which also correspond with five sources of problems of school health programs classified by the WHO Expert Committee. This study reinforced the need for initial development of health educator roles and competencies to guide actions in school health improvement. Translation to Health Education Practice: The identified sources of problems illustrate the potential role that a health-promoting school approach plays to build school-community connectedness. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

A considerable amount of research has investigated the separate roles of motivation and identity in language learning. This study aimed to examine these two important constructs jointly by exploring the relationship between motivation, identity processing styles, and English learning among high school students. The hypotheses were empirically tested using questionnaire data collected from 187 Macau high school students. Correlation analysis found that only self-determined motivation was significantly positively related to academic performance in English and that none of the five identity processing styles was relevant. Further hierarchical regression analysis revealed that after controlling for age and gender, identification with commitment and ruminative exploration both negatively predicted English performance. Significant interaction effects were found between exploration in depth and self-determination and between ruminative exploration and self-determined motivation. However, ruminative exploration was the only significant predictor of academic performance when the students had low levels of self-determined motivation.

The prevalence of technology used in education is evident across many disciplines. Big Data, Massive Open Online Course, and e-Learning are buzz words in educational settings, yet they seem to be non-relevant to the majority of dance educators, especially those teaching dance at secondary level. Overall, the absence of research on technology use in high school dance education creates a void. This ethnographic research is designed to address this issue and to fill the gap by focusing on Generation Z (individuals born after the Millennials) and their teachers in three public high school dance programs in the Greater Toronto area in Canada. While it explores recent studies on technology integration in dance education, it also looks at the effectiveness of using technology, especially how mobile devices work and the role they play in teaching and learning dance. Results indicate that despite initial difficulties, both high school students and their teachers benefit from technology integration in dance classes. Some technological approaches (web podcast and blogs) work better than others (website and virtual learning platforms, e.g. Moodle and Blackboard). Concerns about confidentiality and capability of using technology in dance teaching and learning are discussed and strategies to problem-solving are also shared.

Background: To date, few studies have been conducted to investigate the preparedness of health educators in Canadian school systems. Purpose: This study assessed practicing and pre-service teachers' self-perceptions of preparedness to teach health education in British Columbia K-12 classrooms. It also investigated factors related to their preparedness. Methods: In 2006, 166 practicing teachers and 78 pre-service teachers participated in a self-designed questionnaire. Results: Significant positive relationships were found between pre-service teachers' knowledge, skill, preparedness, beliefs toward health education, and satisfaction with the provincial health curricula in assisting them to teach health education. Practicing teachers with more experiences in health education reported higher levels of knowledge, skill, and preparedness, as well as more positive beliefs toward health education, but their satisfaction with the curriculum was negatively associated with those variables. They also reported higher levels of skill and satisfaction and more positive beliefs than the pre-service group. Discussion: In light of these results, further explorations are needed to understand current contexts within Canadian school health education. Translation to Health Education Practice: Findings support the need for training and implementation of health-related programs into the education system, particularly the deliberation on how to transform curricula into a more supportive vehicle for health education programming. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

The aim of the current study is to develop and validate an instrument to measure the four sources of teacher efficacy among Chinese primary school teachers. A 26-item Sources of Teacher Efficacy Questionnaire (STEQ) was proposed with four subscales: mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and physiological arousal. The results supported the hypothesized four-factor structure of the STEQ. Scores from all the four factors of the STEQ had strong significant correlations with the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), which showed the criterion-related validity of the STEQ. Further, scores of all four sources significantly predicted teacher efficacy scores, among which social persuasion was the strongest predictor. This study contributes to the self-efficacy literature by providing researchers with an instrument for examining the various facets of teacher efficacy. The findings can inform school principals and teacher educators, enabling them to facilitate a school culture and teaching environment that cultivates a greater sense of teacher efficacy and, in turn, better teaching performance.

Engagement in academic tasks is important. However, compared to the large body of research on task engagement, the number of studies on task disengagement is quite limited. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between the motivational (self-determination) and attitudinal antecedents (learning orientations) of task disengagement. The sample consisted of 347 fifth-graders in China. We tested two mediation models that incorporated self-determination (autonomous versus controlled), learning orientation (collaborative versus competitive), and task disengagement among Chinese primary school students in learning English. Results showed collaborative learning orientation mediated the link between autonomous motivation and task disengagement. Collaborative learning orientation was also found to be negatively related to task disengagement.

This study examined pre-service teachers' intentions to use computers in traditional and innovative teaching practices in primary mathematics classrooms. It extended the technology acceptance model (TAM) by adding as external variables pre-service teachers' experience with computers and their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). Data collected from 226 participants revealed that the proposed model had a good fit for both traditional and innovative uses of computers. Structural equation modelling suggested that the established TAM variables, together with TPCK and experience, were significant determinants of pre-service teachers' intentions to use computers in teaching mathematics at both levels. The most dominant determinant of behavioural intention was TPCK, followed by attitude. The proposed model explained 22.7% of the variance in the use of computers in traditional teaching practices and 27.6% of the variance in the use of computers in innovative teaching practices. The implications for mathematics teaching are discussed in the final section.

Limited research has examined the mediational role of coping strategy in students' motivation and procrastination. In this study, we examined the relationships among self-efficacy, achievement goals, boredom coping strategies and procrastination with 506 Chinese college students. Data were collected via questionnaires. Structural equation modelling results showed that both self-efficacy and approach goals significantly predicted approach-oriented coping strategies, and avoidance goals significantly predicted avoidance-oriented coping strategies. Among the different types of boredom coping strategies, only behavioural avoidance coping strategy significantly predicted procrastination. Hence, the mediating link was only found between avoidance goals, behavioural avoidance coping strategy and procrastination. Implications of the mediating role of behavioural avoidance coping strategy in the goal-procrastination relationship were further discussed.

Prior research has attempted to incorporate different personal variables within extant theories of technology acceptance models (TAMs). This study further extends TAM by incorporating teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning (CoTL) in two forms: constructivist and traditional conceptions. The moderating effects of teachers' demographic variables including age, gender, teaching experience, teaching level, and technology experience were tested. Our findings demonstrated that incorporating CoTL could provide a richer and more nuanced understanding of technology acceptance, although no moderating effects on any demographic variables were found.

Dynamic geometry environments (DGEs) provide computer-based environments to construct and manipulate geometric figures with great ease. Research has shown that DGEs has positive impact on student motivation, engagement, and achievement in mathematics learning. However, the adoption of DGEs by mathematics teachers varies substantially worldwide. This paper described Macau secondary schools teachers' intention to use DGEs within the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Using the structural equation modelling approach, results revealed that subjective norm and perceived behavioural control were significant positive predictors of intention, while attitude was not. Further, perceived behavioural control had a significant and positive influence on teachers' attitudes, whereas subjective norm did not. Implications for theory and practice were given.

This study examined students' views on a blended learning environment designed for 29 in-service teachers in Singapore enrolled in an educational research method course. Their self-report data highlighted that students' prior knowledge and the amount and difficulty of content covered in the course affected the effectiveness of blended learning environment. Among the five course components in this blended course, face-to-face tutorials and the group project were perceived to be more useful than the online discussion forum, individual reflection blogs, and self-paced study. Interestingly, the higher their achievement level in this course, the more positive their views were on the blended learning environment. The interactions between student-student and student-tutor were essential elements in this blended learning environment; particularly the presence of tutors (online and offline) was expected as it provided more cognitive and metacognitive scaffolds. Explanations about findings and implications for instructional design are discussed in the conclusion.

Previous research has found the effects of acquiescence to be generally consistent across item "aggregates" within a single survey (i.e., essential tau-equivalence), but it is unknown whether this phenomenon is consistent at the" individual item" level. This article evaluated the often assumed but inadequately tested proposition that individual items are affected by acquiescence to the same degree. We modeled an external acquiescence criterion to assess (a) whether it affected scale items consistently and (b) whether it would be strongly correlated with an acquiescence factor based on an assumption of tau-equivalence. The results did not support this assumption. As further evidence, we identified a situation in which this tau-equivalence assumption could potentially be violated. We propose that the response style be best understood within a framework of an acquiescence × item interaction.

The purpose of this study is to research how Chinese university students solve information-based problems. With the Search Performance Index as the measure of search success, participants were divided into high, medium and low-performing groups. Based on their web search logs, these three groups were compared along five dimensions of the search process for answers to the assigned tasks: frequency counts of different activities during search process, time allocation on each search activity, search patterns, search query as well as selection of information. The results documented students' varying abilities to search. The key factor that determines search performance is the effective use of search queries. Successful searchers made use of advanced search options such as extracting relevant and effective key terms from further reading, in contrast with simpler strategies by unsuccessful searchers like adding, removing unimportant words, or using synonyms. High-performing students also showed more monitoring awareness and strategy, such as changing search engines, reformulation of existing search queries as well as backtracking to task questions.

The psychometric properties of scores from the Achievement Goal Questionnaire were examined in samples of Japanese (N = 326) and Canadian (N = 307) postsecondary students. Previous research found evidence of a four-factor structure of achievement goals in U.S. samples. Using confirmatory factor-analytic techniques, the authors found strong evidence for the four-factor structure of achievement goals in both the Canadian and Japanese populations. Subsequent multigroup structural equation modeling indicated the metric invariance of this four-factor structure across the two populations. (Contains 5 tables.)

Links between students' achievement goal orientations and learning tactics were investigated using software (gStudy) that supports a variety of learning tactics and strategies. An achievement goal questionnaire was administered to 307 students enrolled in an introductory educational psychology course. Data tracing study tactics were logged for 80 of these students who prepared for a test by studying a textbook chapter presented as a multimedia document. Using correlations and canonical correlations, we found relationships between goal orientations and activity traces indicating different forms of cognitive engagement. Notably, mastery goal orientation (approach or avoidance) was negatively related to amount of highlighting, a study tactic that is theorized to be less effective than summarizing and other forms of elaborative annotation for assembling and integrating knowledge. (Contains 5 tables.)