Search

Investment in preschool education is increasingly seen as a policy priority in middle and high-income countries due to the early benefits it provides children in their educational journeys. This article discusses the impact of recent increased investment in preschool education in China which has served as a correction to relative historical neglect. In this study a parental satisfaction survey evaluated the cost-sharing, equity of enrollment and quality of preschool education in a local urban governmental-led and multi-participant public service system of preschool education. In the context of the continued challenges of bridging gaps between policy and practice, results show that Government investment is beginning to have positive effects in terms of cost-sharing of preschool education with benefits to family incomes and significantly increasing the quality of preschool education. Parents of children in public provincial kindergartens provided higher satisfaction ratings for students' development than parents of those in private provincial kindergartens. The article concludes by discussing the differing, but related roles of the Government and private providers in Chinese preschool education including the development of what is termed a "High-Quality Collaborative Education Ecosystem."

Causal reasoning is important to children's cognition and academic development. However, there have been few empirical studies on the impact of visual cues and non-verbal scaffolding on children's reasoning in continuous causal processes. Hence, the present study aims to explore how causal reasoning in continuous processes is facilitated by visual mind maps and multiple-choice questions through science experiments. By randomly selecting 136 children aged 9-13, the following results were obtained: Children provided with a mind map containing visual causal cues performed significantly better than the non-cue group on explanation tasks regardless of age differences, and children assessed using non-verbal multiple-choice questions scored significantly higher in explaining causal relationships than those using only verbal reports. This suggests that identification and explanation need to be differentiated for a more accurate evaluation of causal reasoning ability. These results have valuable implications for science curriculum and pedagogy at primary schools.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, a large number of university students have been required to adapt to e-learning. E-learning engagement, a key indicator of academic success, is thus a great concern of educational partitioners and researchers. Although previous studies have identified various determinants of e-learning engagement, there is a paucity of research that examines the associations between university students' personalities and their engagement in e-learning. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying the personality-engagement relationship are still poorly understood. The present study used the five-factor model of personality as the main theoretical framework to explore how students with different personality traits engaged in e-learning. Additionally, it examined whether achievement emotions and adaptability mediated the personality-engagement relationship in the e-learning context. A sample of 1004 students enrolled at Guizhou University participated in an online survey to collect data for the study. Employing structural equation modeling, the findings unveiled several significant results: (1) extroversion, agreeableness, openness to new experiences, and conscientiousness exhibited positive associations with e-learning engagement, (2) neuroticism demonstrated a negative relationship with e-learning engagement, (3) the mediating effect of enjoyment as an achievement emotion was observed between personality traits (excluding neuroticism) and e-learning engagement, (4) adaptability played a mediating role in the relationship between personality traits (excluding conscientiousness and neuroticism) and e-learning engagement, and (5) the negative achievement emotion of anxiety did not operate as a mediator between personality traits and e-learning engagement. This study enriches the understanding of the relationship between personality and engagement in the emerging field of e-learning. Moreover, it offers a fresh perspective on how to investigate mechanisms underlying the relationship between personality and engagement in the e-learning context. The findings could provide a basis for instructors who wish to deploy emotional and adaptability interventions to increase university students' engagement in e-learning.

Purpose: Many studies on entrepreneurial intention have explored the impact of different factors; however, few have examined the relationship between and impact mechanisms of informal social networks and entrepreneurial intention. This study aimed to bridge this research gap. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on social capital and ambidexterity theories. After surveying the data of 302 college students from different provinces and universities in China, a mediation model for research is constructed. Findings: Informal social networks help enhance college students' entrepreneurial intentions, whereas entrepreneurial learning (exploratory and exploitative learning) partially mediates this relationship. Originality/value: This study empirically explores the impact of informal social networks on the entrepreneurial intentions of Chinese college students and indicates the crucial role played by entrepreneurial learning (divided into exploratory and exploitative learning).

Purpose: To contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, this study aims to explore how to encourage innovative green behaviors among college students and the mechanisms behind the formation of green innovation behavior. Specifically, this study examines the influences of schools, mentors and college students themselves. Design/methodology/approach: A multilevel, multisource study involving 261 students from 51 groups generally supported this study's predictions. Findings: Proenvironmental and responsible mentors significantly predicted innovative green behavior among college students. In addition, creative motivation mediated the logical chain among green intellectual capital, emotional intelligence and green innovation behavior. Practical implications: The study findings offer new insights into the conditions required for college students to engage in green innovation. In addition, they provide practical implications for cultivating green innovation among college students. Originality/value: The authors proposed and tested a multilevel theory based on the ability-motivation-opportunity framework. In this model, proenvironmental and responsible mentors, green intellectual capital and emotional intelligence triggered innovative green behavior among college students through creative motivation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has seen rapid advancements, establishing itself as a robust tool for fostering accessible teaching and learning environments. Nevertheless, the efficacy of these intelligent learning settings in bolstering the engagement and learning outcomes for students with hearing impairments warrants further investigation. This research leveraged Design-Based Research (DBR) to iteratively refine intelligent learning environments, while also adopting the Community of Inquiry (COI) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess classroom presence and perception among students with hearing impairments. The results revealed notable enhancements in teaching presence, cognitive presence, social presence, and overall perception within intelligent learning contexts for hearing-impaired students. Additionally, their understanding of abstract and ill structured knowledge significantly improved. Such findings offer valuable insights for the design of inclusive teaching and learning environments in special education.

The developmental trajectory of audiovisual speech perception in Mandarin-speaking children remains understudied. This cross-sectional study in Mandarin-speaking 3- to 4-year-old, 5- to 6-year-old, 7- to 8-year-old children, and adults from Xiamen, China (n = 87, 44 males) investigated this issue using the McGurk paradigm with three levels of auditory noise. For the identification of congruent stimuli, 3- to 4-year-olds underperformed older groups whose performances were comparable. For the perception of the incongruent stimuli, a developmental shift was observed as 3- to 4-year-olds made significantly more audio-dominant but fewer audiovisual-integrated responses to incongruent stimuli than older groups. With increasing auditory noise, the difference between children and adults widened in identifying congruent stimuli but narrowed in perceiving incongruent ones. The findings regarding noise effects agree with the statistically optimal hypothesis.

Mental health education in colleges and universities has made considerable progress, but the existing assessment model still faces challenges in terms of time overhead and rank indicators. In response, this paper proposes a new psychological education assessment model for colleges and universities, based on multimedia feature extraction techniques. The proposed model utilizes word vectorization with Word2vec and an improved transformer network, incorporating deeply separable convolutions and an LSTM network to establish long-range dependency coding. Experimental results show that the proposed model outperforms traditional feature extraction methods in terms of extraction speed, feature readability, and model efficiency. Furthermore, the study suggests that the use of reinforcement learning can improve the system's ability to capture key concepts and enhance accuracy. The proposed approach has significant implications for improving mental health education in colleges and universities and can be applied to similar professional environments.

Data mining has been applied to a large extent in various information application fields this year. In this paper, it is applied to the students' physical exercise for partial optimization and compared with some traditional algorithms for improvement. Different analysis results are obtained under different potential information analysis backgrounds, which improves the accuracy and results of clustering analysis. This study used the physical activity rating scale and the subjective well-being scale to assess the status, subjective well-being level, and interaction mechanism of middle school students in Sichuan Province participating in physical exercise. The physical activity of students is insufficient, and the physical activity of girls is seriously insufficient; the overall level is above average, and the average score of boys in the two dimensions of life satisfaction and emotional balance is higher than that of girls; the relationship between each dimension of physical exercise and life satisfaction and emotional balance is shown.

In the 21st century, the transformation of Chinese education going to market has reinforced alongside the deepening marketization process in China since the 1970s. To date, the Chinese have widely accepted English education's marketization. Many Chinese parents register for English classes in private training institutes for their children having a more intense immersion in the English environment and a better performance in school tests. However, the "Double Reduction Policy" implemented in 2021 considerably constrain the development of private. The English students and Preservice English Teachers (PST) have faced unprecedented challenges in the job market. Chinese educational institutes escalate the demands for Chinese ELT pre-service teachers (PSTs) when evaluating their eligibility in interviews. The ELT PSTs cannot proficiently speak English, therefore, are considered inferior in employability. This study utilizes 27 Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) survey statements investigating Chinese PSTs' relevant beliefs. Through examining the participating PSTs' enrolled program and analyzing the information collected from the group interview with the PSTs, the study explored how the PSTs' beliefs are related to the demand of the Chinese human resource market. Two concepts, "Material-centered Curriculum" and "Spirit-centered Curriculum," are raised in this study. Suggestions and implications about how to adjust the curricula for the Chinese ELT PST program are discussed.

While flipped learning has attempted to explain the benefits of technology applied to educational settings, this study aims to validate research questions and test the theory of the learning strategies in flipped learning. A self-designed questionnaire, consisting of 17 critical indicators of online self-regulation, project-based learning and 5-competence development, was administered to collect data from 87 college students in China. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the relative factors. The results indicated that an integrated model, combining online self-regulation and project-based learning, provided a marginally better explanatory power; project-based learning had a better prediction of 5-competence development than online self-regulation. An integrated model is proposed to detect the latent relationships among the data with structural equation modeling (SEM). The SEM provides a clear picture of the relations among the variables, and shows that online "Help seeking" in MOOC lecture videos and engagement in "Teamwork" in class are the key indicators of student engagement in flipped learning. This study adopted an innovative approach which emphasizes the diagnosis of students' engagement, and proposes an integrated model combining online self-regulation and project-based learning constructs for a theoretical framework to predict learning performance in flipped learning.

Enhanced pitch perception has been identified in autistic individuals, but it remains understudied whether such enhancement can be observed in the lexical tone perception of language-delayed autistic children. This study examined the categorical perception of Mandarin lexical tones in 23 language-delayed autistic children and two groups of non-autistic children, with one matched on chronological age (n = 23) and the other on developmental age in language ability (n = 23). The participants were required to identify and discriminate lexical tones. A wider identification boundary width and a lower between-category discrimination accuracy were found in autistic children than their chronological-age-matched non-autistic peers, but the autistic group exhibited seemingly comparable performance to the group of developmental-age-matched non-autistic children. While both non-autistic groups displayed a typical categorical perception pattern with enhanced sensitivity to between-category tone pairs relative to within-category ones, such a categorical perception pattern was not observed in the autistic group. These findings suggest among language-delayed autistic children with a developmental age around 4, categorical perception is still developing. Finally, we found categorical perception performance correlated with language ability, indicating autistic children's language disability might be predictive of their poor categorical perception of speech sounds.

Since 1987, the College of Health and Human Services at San Diego State University has facilitated two-way exchanges of information and service with the Republic of China, a model of a newly industrialized country of the Pacific Rim. The challenges of working creatively to educate the College and University to international opportunities with the Republic of China, Taiwan, are presented in this paper as a case study. It includes a description of the elements of a global shift in relationships between the countries of the Northern Hemisphere (North America and Europe) and those of the Pacific Rim, specifically the Pacific-Asian countries that border the Pacific Ocean including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and Singapore. The projected population growth of the countries in the Pacific Rim, combined with their large trade surplus and increased standard of living create a great economic interest to the countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The evolution of the Republic of China from a developing country to a "newly industrialized country" is presented as a case study that illustrates the impetus of the global shift. In addition, a model of assessment of educational training, participation and exchange at the departmental, college and university levels is included as well as a developmental program with the Republic of China. Finally, implications for future international development are addressed. [This article is reprinted from the "Phi Beta Delta International Review," Volume II, Fall 1991, pp. 67-75. The "International Review" is the predecessor of the current publication.]

Learning experiences can affect students' interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. Applying the social cognitive career theory, this study tested and compared the effect size and effect mechanism of formal learning experiences (FLE) and informal learning experiences (ILE) on 1133 tenth-grade students' interest in STEM careers (ISC) through a paper questionnaire survey. The results of structural equation model analysis showed that: 1) The total effect of ILE on students' ISC is much greater than that of FLE; 2) ILE, STEM self-efficacy (SSE) and STEM careers perceptions (SCP) can directly affect students' ISC; FLE and ILE can also indirectly affect students' ISC through the mediating role of SSE and SCP. The analyses suggest that in order to improve students' ISC, STEM education (especially informal STEM education) should be strengthened, both formal and informal education should pay attention to the cultivation of students' SSE and SCP.

In recent years, China has been facing a shortage of cadavers for teaching medical students. A better comprehension of the attitudes and factors influencing the general public's opinion toward body donation would be invaluable for planning and implementing body donation programs. Although altruistic attitude and attitudes toward death have received considerable attention in recent years globally, they have been largely understudied in China. Herein, the potential relationship between attitudes toward altruism and death, and willingness toward whole-body donation in a sample of university students in Changsha City in China were analyzed. A multi-stage sampling method was adopted to recruit 478 Chinese college students from two universities: the Medical College of Hunan Normal University (n = 272) and the College of Civil engineering of Hunan University (n = 206). The study participants were assessed by a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R-C) questionnaire, and the altruism scale. Moreover, Chinese University students demonstrated moderate willingness to donate their bodies. The mean score of the willingness of study participants to donate their bodies was 3.138 ± 0.933 (5-point Likert scale). Acceptance toward death, gender, and type of university were positive factors, whereas fear of death negatively affected willingness toward body donation. Regression analysis showed that factors, including gender ([beta] = 0.237), type of university ([beta] = 0.193), natural acceptance ([beta] = 0.177), and fear of death ([beta] = -0.160) influenced willingness toward body donation. Overall, the present study provides hitherto undocumented evidence on factors influencing willingness toward body donation among Chinese university students, which can assist in designing public awareness programs for encouraging body donation.

Autism spectrum disorder has gained international attention due to its prevalence and the extent to which it can affect families. As a disorder without quantifiable treatment effects, it is easily overlooked in the battle for resources. Estimating family economic burdens and the specific factors that may be associated with them could help in the identification of resources and the promotion of social justice. We examined the family costs from a national family survey with Children with autism spectrum disorder aged 2-6 years (N = 3236). A three-tiered model to quantify the costs was used. The families' average annual direct cost per child was $24,869.0, including direct medical cost (inpatient, outpatient, drugs, etc.) of $6009.2 and direct nonmedical cost (rehabilitation or educational, rental, transportation, care, and others) of $18,859.8. The annual indirect costs (productivity loss from resignation and job adjustment) for families were $13,990.7. The total costs were $34,206.5. The results of the regression revealed that the mothers' educational level was significantly associated with costs. Families with an interprovincial immigration background, a higher-than-average income, or children with more severe autism spectrum disorder had a greater possibility of higher direct, indirect, and overall costs. Autism spectrum disorder imposed a significant financial burden on the families of children with autism spectrum disorder.

It has been controversial whether the matching of learning styles with teaching environment has improved the teaching effects. This paper constructs matching modes by choosing Sternberg's three learning styles (liberal leaning, internal scope and global level) and adopts curriculum comprehensiveness and instructing modes. The research, based on data of off-line teaching collected from 456 college students in China, finds that: (1) direct effect: three learning styles have significant effects on eight dimensions of learners' cognitive information processing (CIP); (2) matching effect: the alignment of learners' liberal leaning and instructing modes has a direct impact on the eight dimensions of learners' CIP; the alignment of learners' global level and curriculum characteristics has a direct impact on the 7 dimensions; the alignment of learners' internal scope and instructing modes have no significant direct impact on the 7 dimensions; and (3) moderating effect of the mandatory use of IT (MUIT): MUIT may restrain or strengthen effects of some matching modes on some dimensions of CIP. The key conclusion is that whether personalized instructing based on learners' characteristics can improve teaching results requires the selection of appropriate matching modes. Not all matching modes have matching effects, and matching effect is influenced by MUIT.

This study explores Chinese English-major students' intertextual competence and factors shaping their ability to paraphrase in academic writing. Multiple instruments were employed to collect data from 212 English-major students at different academic levels from nine universities in mainland China. The data were analyzed to determine how a range of personal and contextual variables related to their ability to paraphrase an academic text. Two groups of variables were found to be associated with their performance on the paraphrasing task. The first group comprised knowledge and attitudinal variables, including previous training on plagiarism, knowledge of blatant plagiarism, inability to recognize plagiarized texts, and condemnatory attitudes toward plagiarism. The second group consisted of ability measures or their proxy variables, namely English proficiency, instructional context and inadequate academic ability as a perceived cause of plagiarism. The observed relationship between the two groups of variables indicated that the effects of knowledge and attitudinal variables depended on or were mediated by the ability variables. These findings call for a multipronged and coordinated pedagogical approach to developing students' intertextual competence.

This paper investigates four teachers' efforts to innovate during a semester of English language teaching at a university in China. At the end of a mentor-facilitated action research cycle, the teachers wrote their 'Story of Innovation' in order to construct deeper understandings of their experiences. These stories were examined for themes and are retold here as a collective story in order to show what 'innovation' means to the four teachers and the benefits gained from innovating. Although the teachers' understandings of innovation converged with government policies and other top-down expectations, the individual emphasis of each suggests that different teachers view innovation from the perspective of their particular context. Moreover, although each of the four saw benefits for self and their students, what emerged from their stories was how they grew from the innovation process which may best be described as gradual restructuring.

Collaboration proves to be an effective way to facilitate students' engagement and solve the mostly-mentioned problems of blended learning (BL). For collaborative BL, self-regulated learning (SRL), self-efficacy and engagement are frequently referred to in BL studies and represent key elements of effective BL. Furthermore, the interaction of these elements correlates closely with the performance of students. There have been few research attempts to draw synergies and explore the relationship among these key elements. To address this gap, data were collected through a questionnaire and records on LMS from 125 students in a Chinese university. Descriptive analytics show that students fully recognize the positive effects of collaborative BL. Correlation analysis and regression analysis find that self-regulated learning (SRL) is significantly correlated with all factors except workload. It is also a significant predictor of behavioral engagement. Therefore, SRL proves to be central among the essential BL elements. Emotional engagement is significantly correlated to and interact with multiple key BL factors. Specifically, emotional engagement is a significant predictor of behavioral engagement. The findings offer insight into the interactions of key elements of BL and provide practical implications for improving BL learning design.

This study elucidates the relationship between instructional leadership and teacher self-efficacy by identifying the moderating role of teacher collegiality. Survey data were collected from 1,498 teachers at 53 middle schools in Henan, China. Findings indicate that instructional leadership has a positive impact on teacher self-efficacy. More importantly, teacher collegiality was found to moderate the relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher self-efficacy. More specifically, when there was a high level of teacher collegiality, instructional leadership positively predicted teacher self-efficacy; however, when there was a low level of teacher collegiality, instructional leadership barely predicted teacher self-efficacy. In addition to elaborating on the relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher self-efficacy, this study underscores the importance of teacher collegiality in promoting the effectiveness of instructional leadership.

In recent years, game-based learning has attracted much attention in education; however, the effectiveness of game-based learning is still not solidly confirmed. In the present research, a game-based learning in the physics domain with guides provided direct and immediate feedback. The research was conducted among three different groups: the traditional group, the educational video group, and the game-based learning group. The result showed that the game-based learning group performed the best among the three groups, followed by the educational video group, and the traditional group performed the worst. Students in the game-based learning group were enrolled into an interview to study which types of guides enhanced students' game-based learning. From the interview, the prompts and the interactive characteristic of the game-based learning environment took the first two places. In addition, students benefited from the features of game-based learning including task requirements for execution, the tip prompt function, the feedback mechanism, and the story settings. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate applicable guides into the design of game-based learning according to students' perspectives for providing engaging learning experience.

At the time of writing, more than 22 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, and at least 770 thousand deaths. Under the pressure of the pandemic, promoting global mobility has become an emerging issue in higher education settings. Although various methods of enhancing student mobility have been implemented, little research has as yet confirmed the pandemic challenges for students. This study investigates the global mobility of Chinese college students and the factors influencing their travel decisions. A self-designed questionnaire, consisting of 15 critical indicators of mobile capabilities, intentions, and implementation decisions, was administered to collect data from 2226 participants. The Minitab and Amos software were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and to detect latent relationships among the data with structural equation modeling (SEM). The SEM and logistic regression model provide a clear picture of the relations among the variables, and show that international intention is the key indicator of global mobility implementation under pressure.

This study investigated whether negative stereotypes are responsible for the effect of ASD knowledge on social distance from individuals with ASD among college students. A sample of 869 neurotypical Chinese college students completed a cross-sectional survey to assess social distance, ASD knowledge, and negative stereotypes. Pearson correlation analysis yielded significant correlations between social distance, ASD knowledge, and negative stereotypes. Multiple mediation analysis showed that negative stereotypes mediated the link between social distance and ASD knowledge. Specifically, greater ASD knowledge predicted reduced social distance through decreased stereotyping related to dangerousness, personal responsibility for the disorder, and discontinuity, but also predicted greater social distance through increased stereotyping related to social inappropriateness. The findings deepen our understanding of the association between ASD knowledge and social distance by revealing the mediating role of negative stereotypes, and provide information that can help improve anti-stigma initiatives in college settings.

To determine the impact of cognitive style on change of concept of engagement in the flipped classroom, a sequential analysis from the perspective of Bloom's Taxonomy was conducted to establish if significant differences existed between the learning achievements and engagement of students with different cognitive styles. The participants were pre-service teachers who had registered for a school-based curriculum development methodology course in China, with a total of 53 students from two classes, who performed a total of 1,599 behaviors in the discussion sections. The results show that the concepts of "evaluate" (31.52%) and "analyze" (27.77%) were the two most frequent behaviors in the Bloom's Taxonomy. The "remember" and "evaluate" were the significant starting behaviors for all of the students; "remember" and "evaluate" were the significant starting behaviors for the intuitive-style students, while "understand" was a significant starting behavior for the analytical-style students. This confirms that the students with different cognitive styles implemented multiple strategies for learning. It is also found that the flipped learning promoted the students' achievement. The conclusions suggest that it is important to match the cognitive styles of students as well as the instructional methods in order to improve students' learning.

The internationalization of education brings different challenges to local education of different communities. Traditional EFL education in Chinese universities may also encounter such challenges. Against this background, this study investigates the challenges and solutions for college EFL education in ethnic minority regions of China. A narrative research method was conducted. Three college EFL teachers from three universities in China's ethnic minority regions were selected as participants. Interviews and document analysis were employed to collect data. Results by an inductive approach to qualitative content analysis showed that three aspects of challenge existed for EFL education in these regions, including financial, pedagogical and cultural. Solutions to these challenges suggested by the participating teachers included enhancing teaching methods, promoting teacher development and employing educational technology.

Teaching effect is a core index for measuring the validity of teaching practices in universities. How to improve it in class? It is an important issue in educational reform. From students' cognition perspective, the study analyzed students' statements about the knowledge, personalities and behaviour of their teachers. Through the process of text analysis, the study summarized the common elements of teachers' knowledge and personality as well as their impacts on teaching effects. A new theory, i.e. "Intellectual Management for University Teacher" (IMUT), was constructed. Results show that: At first, university students can definitely cognize and appraise their teachers' knowledge and personalities; Second, an effective combination of knowledge and personality decides one teacher's teaching effect, and; Finally, according to the feedback of students, the elements of teacher's knowledge should include knowledge level and knowledge behaviour, and the elements of teacher's personality could be summarized as personality trait and personalized behaviour. In order to improve teaching effects, university teachers are suggested to implement intellectual management, for realizing intellectual beauty through building a syncretic system which helps to develop knowledge and personality together.

By making use of a nationally representative dataset collected by China Family Panel Studies, this article discusses how the higher education expansion policy influences the equality of higher education access opportunity. Moreover, this study applied the multilevel cross-classified model in order to control for inequality in chances of enrollment caused by the fixed admission quota for each province. The results indicate that the expansion has interrupted the continuously enlarged gap of access opportunities between regions; the expansion policy did not increase rural and ethnic inequalities and narrowed the rural inequality within provinces; it also shows that gender gap has been significantly reduced.

This research aims to explore the latent effect of elementary student engagement in a Spherical Video-based Virtual Reality (SVVR) environment for a school-based course on higher level competence development. Student engagement and higher level competence development were investigated using a valid sample of 324 students from five elementary schools in China. Factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The fitness of the items for each scale of the student engagement survey and higher level competence development survey indicated a sufficient fit and also confirmed the questionnaire's structure. The relevant factors of student engagement promote their higher level competence development in the model. The SEM analysis shows that student engagement has a significant positive impact on higher level competence development. The findings could be a good reference for those who intend to develop a specific topic of school-based courses on technology for fostering students' higher level competence development.

This study validates Shane et al.'s Entrepreneurial Career Motives Scale across nations. A total sample of 948 undergraduate and postgraduate students from five nations (China = 229, Hong Kong = 213, Holland = 136, United States = 155, and Ghana = 215) were recruited to complete a survey designed to measure their entrepreneurial motives and other related constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized four-factor structure, namely, "perceived recognition," "sense of independence," "pursuit of learning," and "perceived roles." Results of the measurement invariance comparisons satisfactorily established measurement equivalence of the scale across nations, language versions, and genders. Both convergent and discriminant validities were established as the motives were associated with different constructs in an expected manner. Interestingly, different patterns in the entrepreneurial career motives emerged across nations. Overall, our findings provide support for the construct validity of the Entrepreneurial Motives Scale. Implications for practice, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Mainland China and Taiwan have a homogenous macroculture, but a heterogenous microculture. To understand the acculturation of students from mainland China to Taiwan, the present study applies Berry's (1997) two-dimensional model of acculturation, together with the concept of cultural types as its analytical framework, using focus group interviews to analyze different directions of acculturation among students from mainland China in Taiwan. The results show that regarding personal values, due to Taiwan's restrictions on students from mainland China and the fact that they must eventually return to their place of origin, the acculturation of students from mainland China mainly takes the "separation/segregation" mode. Regarding peer selection, due to differences between individuals in their interpersonal choices, they may adopt "separation/segregation" or "integration" modes. Regarding the period of residence in Taiwan, as students from mainland China spend longer in Taiwan, they tend more towards "integration." However, when teachers show greater contempt for the culture of mainland China, the acculturation of students from mainland China tends toward the "separation/segregation" mode.

This paper focuses on quality assurance in language massive open online courses (LMOOCs). It is a qualitative study that adopts the grounded theory method and analyses evaluative comments on the quality of LMOOCs from learners' perspectives. With the data collected from 1,000 evaluations from English as a second language (ESL) learners on China's biggest MOOC platform "iCourse", this study examines what has influenced learners' perceptions of LMOOCs and identifies the specific quality criteria of five types of them, including ESL courses for speaking, reading, writing, cultural studies, and integrated skills. The results of the study will lay a foundation for the establishment of a quality criteria framework for LMOOCs and provide insights into design principles for effective online language courses tailored to the diverse needs of a massive number of language learners.

The present study examined the relationship between age of acquisition (AoA) and bilingual development for native Chinese children who learned English as a foreign language. A composite test measuring different aspects of language and cognitive skills in Chinese and English was administered on 85 Chinese native primary schoolers, who received bilingual instruction at different points of development (for Chinese, 0 [less than or equal to] AoA [less than or equal to] 7 years; for English, 2 [less than or equal to] AoA [less than or equal to] 10 years). Results found AoA constraints on the outcomes of L1 Chinese acquisition are significantly different from those for L2 English. Not all domains of bilingual skills follow the pattern of "the earlier, the better" in language development. Additionally, L1 AoA made unique contributions to L2 English learning. These findings contribute to our understanding on the nature of the AoA effect on bilingual learning.

The relationship between handwriting and instant message (IM) frequency has not been studied in English and the reason may be related to the similar cognitive process of typing IM and handwriting words. The mental processes of producing both handwriting and typing English words are from semantics to phonology and orthography. However, the cognitive process of Chinese "Pinyin" typing used in IM activity is very different from traditional handwriting, which changes the production of handwritten glyph into the phonetic production and orthography recognition. While the IM activity itself is not conducive to literacy skill, the "Pinyin" input experience may be helpful for that. If we could separate the independent effects of IM and "Pinyin" input on handwriting, it would help us to clarify the complexity of the impact of informational and communicational technology (ICT) on literacy skills. This study investigated 449 junior school students aged 12-15 in China and found that IM directly predicts the performance of handwriting characters negatively, meanwhile, it indirectly predicts handwriting performance positively through the mediator of "Pinyin" input experience. "Pinyin" input experience compensates the negative effects of IM on handwriting. The implications of this study are that we should look at the individual effects of different types of online activity on children's literacy, and guide Chinese children to appropriately engage in useful ICT for traditional literacy development.

Background: Camouflaging or camouflaging autistic traits—strategies that hide social impairments to match societal norms—has been linked to empathy and depressive symptoms in autism research. Much epidemiological evidence has further revealed that characteristics of autism and autistic traits are distributed continuously throughout the general population. Nonetheless, the relationship between these variables in the Chinese general population is unclear. Method: The present study aimed to elucidate the relationships between autistic traits, empathy, camouflaging, and depressive symptoms in a subclinical sample of 1215 Chinese university students of ages 18–27, using self-report assessments. Results: Correlational analysis revealed that autistic traits, camouflaging, and depressive symptoms were significantly intercorrelated. Empathy was significantly correlated with autistic traits and camouflaging. Mediation analysis revealed that camouflaging mediated the positive link between autistic traits and depressive symptoms. Moderated mediation analysis further indicated that the first stage mediated path (autistic traits → camouflaging) was weaker for students with lower levels of empathy. Conclusions: The results suggest that camouflaging is a key contributor in the positive association between autistic traits and depressive symptoms, and that empathy help stimulate the development and maintenance of camouflaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the cultural contents in one textbook series, which is currently in use for English as a foreign language (EFL) education among ethnic Mongol junior high students in Inner Mongolia, China, to understand the representations of multiculturalism and underlying power relations that appear in them. Applying Kachru and Nelson's model of English spread and their categorisation into Inner, Outer and Expanding circles, this critical content analysis investigates which countries are introduced and how multicultural variables including race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities are represented. The results show that representations of cultures of three circle countries and multicultural variables are shown in an unbalanced, stereotypical way and lack diversity. Additionally, we present the tensions within power relations among different countries, race/ethnicity, social classes, and gender/sexuality. The findings suggest that a critical multicultural perspective not only helps students and educators recognise both the international and internal diversity, but also urges educators and textbook writers to emphasise the importance of cultural knowledge of EFL textbooks to better serve ethnic Mongol students.

To assess the self-perceived quality of life of in middle school student with hearing impairment and identify the social-demographic and clinical factors those influence their quality of life in Hubei Province, China. A school-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in Hubei Province. Using stratified sampling method, 437 middle school students diagnosed with hearing impairment, aged 12-18 years, in special school setting were enrolled in the study. The Quality of Life Scale for Children and Adolescents (LSCA) was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics at the significance of p < 0.05. The quality of life of participates calculated to be 132.43 ± 15.19, and no significant differences were found in the overwhelming majority subscale and whole scale between students with hearing impairment and their normal hearing peers. Good peer relationships ([beta] = -6.32, p < 0.001) and school performance ([beta] = -3.58, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with a better quality of life. Moreover, receiving hearing rehabilitation was also significantly associated with a better quality of life ([beta] = 2.81, p < 0.001). Overall, students with hearing impairment reported similar quality of life to their normal hearing peers. The findings contradicted with the hypothesis that hearing impaired students could have poorer quality of life compared with their normal hearing peers. Promoting peer relationship and school performance may be conducive to the improvement of quality of life in hearing impaired students.

Regional higher education growth in non-federal states has not attracted much academic attention. This paper is one of the first attempts to explore China's latest higher education expansion and its systematic and regional impact from the perspective of multi-level governance. This article argues that the state had explicitly utilized the Commanding Heights Strategy to diffuse the higher education authority to sub-national level and promote regional growth. The Central authorities allowed the Ministry of Education establishing a vertical elite coalition to command the heights of tertiary institutional hierarchy and key resources for tertiary development. In addition, the state used both financial incentives and sectoral incentives to mobilize resources for regional expansion. The Commanding Heights Strategy shapes China's response to the higher education trilemma of costs, access, and quality. Under this strategy, the unprecedented tertiary expansion has expanded college access, but at the expense of affordability, quality, and a large and increasing regional variation.

The burden of dementia in China is expected to increase dramatically. This study aimed to estimate the potential impact of early parental death on cognitive functioning in late life and whether education is a possible mechanism underlying this association. Data were derived from the 2002 and 2005 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. The final sample consisted of 10,953 Chinese older adults aged 80 to 105 years. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the impact of early parental death and education on the odds of severe cognitive impairment in older men and women. Results showed that experiencing the death of a mother at or before 16 years of age significantly increased the risk of severe cognitive impairment in older men (but not women), independent of demographic, socioeconomic, and physical health conditions. This association did not persist over a 3-year follow-up period and was not mediated by education. These findings provide further evidence that childhood trauma is associated with adverse adult health outcomes, in this case the death of a mother in early life and cognitive impairment in late life. Potential mechanisms that may link early parental death to worse cognitive functioning over the life course were discussed.

This study investigates the process and its effect for a doctoral student's advanced academic literacy (AAL) development in the context of student-supervisor relationship (SSR). The data sources comprise an authentic three-year tutorial record and 68 reflective learning journals written by a successful Chinese doctoral student of linguistics. The case shows that the participant developed a cognitive, cooperative, dialogic and instructive student-supervisor relationship and her learning activities in doctoral education are rich and constructive. The participant built her expertise mainly through knowledge acquisition and by a significant amount of academic writing practice for publication. Aided by her supervisor, the participant successfully joined as a research member the given sociocultural community. This socialisation promotes her professional identity transformation. The findings also reveal some weaknesses in the participant's AAL development, such as a lack of solid theoretical knowledge base, meaningful peer interaction, and in-depth integration into the international academic community.

In recent years, western pragmatism has been prevalent on the campuses of Chinese universities. Its direct result is the emergence of such a trend in fine arts teaching which attaches high importance to the pragmatic side of the art learning and disregards fostering the humanistic qualities of the students. One of the most serious phenomena of this trend is that cultivating college students' humanistic qualities has been duly neglected. This paper attempts to discuss the possible causes of this phenomenon from both subjective and objective perspectives, illustrating the great importance of western fine arts appreciation course on cultivating students'character. It attempts to unite cultivating college students' humanistic qualities and art education together theoretically and practically in order to change the present situation of art teaching, some solutions and suggestions concerning course arrangement and teaching are also offered.

In the increasing pervasiveness of today's digital society, mobile devices are changing the face of education. Students can interact with mobile devices in context-aware environment. This paper presents a mobile application based on expert system (Plant-E) for students to acquire knowledge about plant classification by answering decision-making questions. In order to study effectiveness of Plant-E and cognitive load of students who experience different kinds of interaction in learning process, another mobile application (Plant-G) only providing information pages of plants was developed. A quasi-experiment was conducted with three classes of 137 seventh graders. The three classes, Class A with 46 students using Plant-E in campus, Class B with 44 students using Plant-G in campus, and Class C with 47 students using Plant-G in a traditional classroom, constitute three groups with different interaction complexity. The research conducted pretest, posttest, and delayed test to evaluate learning performance of students in three classes and used a questionnaire to investigate their perceptions and attitudes towards proposed system. Results show that interaction complexity has an impact on students' learning performance and mental effort in mobile learning; the higher the interaction complexity is, the higher mental effort and the better learning performance in mobile learning will be.

During the English language learning, it is common for Chinese students to have to guess the meaning of new word groups or phrases. The guessing ability may be related to the cognitive sameness and differences between Chinese and English people. In order to validate this hypothesis, the author carried out a research by having students doing test papers. Finally the result of the research proved the hypothesis. (Contains 3 tables.)

The psychological harmony education, oriented to the unity of Truth, Good, Beauty, and in pursuit of a healthy, balanced and harmonious development of individual psychological quality to improve the mental quality, is an important part in mental education. In order to better fulfill the psychological harmony education of the college students, as well as guarantee this achievement, it should persist in the principles of wholeness and systematism, fully displaying the roles of Mental Health Education Center, teaching system, management system and environmental system. Besides, it should also pay more attention to the family education, social system and self-education of them.

Camellia oleifera Abel. is the dominant woody oil crop under significant development in China. Wild C. oleifera in Lu Mountain is a valuable genetic resource with strong freezing tolerance. With high-throughput sequencing, the genome of wild C. oleifera in Lu Mountain was analysed and 700.3 Gb clean reads were obtained. The genome of wild C. oleifera was estimated as allohexaploid, and its haplotype genome size was about 2.69 Gb-2.79 Gb, with repeat content of 63.01%-73.02% and heterozygosity of 6.30%-7.43%, belonging to a very complex genome. The genomic draft was assembled that contained a total of 6,952,303 scaffolds with N50 length of 1.23 kb, and the overall length was 2.39 Gb with GC content of 40.87%. In the genomic draft, 1,104,618 SSRs were identified; scaffold1096012 and scaffold1779458 were identified as key genes associated with freezing tolerance combined with the transcriptome data of field plus lab experiments. In this study, the genomic background of hexaploid wild C. oleifera in Lu Mountain was revealed. This lays the foundation for obtaining the high-quality chromosome-level reference genome of wild C. oleifera. The identification of SSRs and key genes associated with freezing tolerance may contribute to the efficient exploration and utilisation of this genetic resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]