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National curriculum standards for different countries mean some International Baccalaureate (IB) schools must often balance IB and national standards. Literature on how schools find this balance is limited. Using a qualitative case study design, we examined the perspectives of teachers of English in a Chinese IB school that recently employed a two-model system to address government mandates while still adhering to IB policies. A two-model system occurs when the two curricula are taught separately rather than in an integrated way. Our findings describe teachers' understanding of a two-model system, identify challenges for teachers in its implementation, and suggest improvements. Results are confined to a single context of an English department in China and cannot therefore be generalized. Our findings reveal an overall theme of separateness identifying structural and conceptual factors affecting the relationship between the two models. The article discusses new ideas for curriculum structures that might inform school decisions for similar IB schools and schools with integrated curricula.

While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd) and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindset.

This paper examines the utility of Campbell's narrative construction of 'the hero's journey' as a conceptual apparatus to understand how international students from Confucian heritage cultures navigate their experiences in Western schooling systems like Australia. The hero's journey framework was used to investigate the commonalities and differences in international students' beliefs and behaviours, which led to the development of three different students 'hero' models: the self-determined hero, the hesitant hero, and the wounded hero. These models were used to represent the students' beliefs, behaviours and perceptions of support and to describe the experiences and motivations of students in different contexts during their secondary schooling in Australia. The hero's journey provides a potentially useful framework from which to engage schools, systems, and policymakers in productive dialogue regarding the support and engagement of international students.

This article considers the development of an ongoing team-based project to incorporate a game into an online American National Government class. We start by suggesting that play, and the games that provide for play to occur, is the most natural way for individuals to learn. Technologies offered by online education provide the opportunity to introduce unique game-playing elements into introductory classes such as American National Government. We consider the goals established for this course and how we endeavored to achieve them through a fully self-contained and integrated game--"Citizenship Quest"--making use of the class learning management system. We then consider surveys of students' learning outcomes and feedback concerning the game during the first two semesters, Fall 2017 and Spring 2018. We conclude by considering development issues dealt with by the instructor and the instructional design team in how "Citizenship Quest"--a simulation of the citizenship process--was embedded into this class. [This work was presented at 45th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Political Science Association, Jonesboro, Arkansas, March 2-3, 2018; at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, April 5-8, 2018; and at the Online Learning Consortium Accelerate Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 16, 2018.]

In many countries, just as in the United States, the pressure is on to raise the quality of the teaching force; the bar is being raised for what teachers should be able to do. Drawing on her experiences organizing the International Summit on the Teaching Profession and leading delegations of educators to various nations, Stewart describes how some countries (China, Estonia, Finland and others) are creating structures for teacher-led PD to improve their teaching force.

This review contributes to the growing body of global autism spectrum disorder literature by examining the use of screening instruments in low- and middle-income countries with respect to study design and methodology, instrument adaptation and performance, and collaboration with community stakeholders in research. A systematic review was conducted to understand the use of autism spectrum disorder screening instruments in low- and middle-income countries from studies published between 1992 and 2015. This review found that 18 different autism spectrum disorder screeners have been used in low- and middle-income settings with wide ranges of sensitivities and specificities. The significant variation in study design, screening methodology, and population characteristics limits the ability of this review to make robust recommendations about optimal screening tool selection. Clinical-based screening for autism spectrum disorder was the most widely reported method. However, community-based screening was shown to be an effective method for identifying autism spectrum disorder in communities with limited clinical resources. Only a few studies included in this review reported cultural adaptation of screening tools and collaboration with local stakeholders. Establishing guidelines for the reporting of cultural adaptation and community collaboration procedures as well as screening instrument psychometrics and screening methodology will enable the field to develop best practices for autism spectrum disorder screening in low-resource settings.

International revulsion at the violation of human rights during World War II helped spark a global movement to define and protect individual human rights. Starting with the creation of war crimes tribunals after the war, this newfound awareness stimulated a concerted international effort to establish human rights for all, both in periods of war and peace. These endeavors resulted in a historic milestone when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The effects of World War II on international understanding and protection of human rights have been far-reaching, yet this dimension of World War II is often neglected or marginalized in the classroom. The atrocities of the period are sometimes taught only as events that happened during the war, without an evaluation of their long-term effects on the world's conception of human rights. The purpose of this article is to provide teachers with an approach to integrating the teaching of human rights and their violation into the world history curriculum through a historical analysis of events during the World War II era. (Contains 11 notes.)

Purpose: The paper seeks to identify key features of prenatal care utilization and quality in western regions of China and to determine the factors affecting the quality of prenatal care. Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted. The instrument for the study was a 10-stem respondent-administered, structured questionnaire, designed in Chinese, composed of two segments: general information on infants who were under two years old; and their mothers. The authors determined the quality (both amount and content) of prenatal care using recommendations made by UNICEF and the Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) jointly for rural areas of China. Findings: The median number of prenatal visits was three and rate of first trimester visits was 53.6 per cent (n=1,474). Over three quarters (75.3 per cent) of respondents had fewer than five prenatal visits, with this proportion highest in Gansu (95.8 per cent) and lowest in Shanxi (55.4 per cent) provinces. The percentage of women who received qualitatively adequate prenatal care services was only 1.8 per cent. No respondents in Gansu received a completely correct prenatal test, while this rate was 4.0 per cent in Shanxi and 0.2 per cent in Sichuan. Mothers' age (p=0.05), level of educational attainment (p=0.07) and place of prenatal care (p=0.01) were related to the quality of care. Originality/value: The prenatal care utilization among women in western regions of China is not adequate. Those women who have received prenatal care seldom receive qualitatively adequate prenatal care services, according to national standards. This situation clearly requires urgent attention and improvement. (Contains 3 tables.)

Contrary to what many people assume, writes Stewart, a high-quality teacher workforce is not the simple result of some traditional cultural respect for teachers that exists in some countries. Rather, it requires deliberate policy choices. In a tour of seven countries that traditionally score high on international tests of student performance (Singapore, China, Japan, U.K., Finland, Canada, and Australia), Stewart describes many ways in which policymakers support effective teaching. Examples include recruiting the most able candidate into the teaching profession; providing time and structure for meaningful professional development; modernizing teacher preparation programs; and improving teacher evaluation and compensation.

Educators and governments are paying increasing attention to international comparisons as they seek to develop effective policies to improve the performance of their education systems. Data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are useful in revealing best practices across the world. Current data show that the United States is falling behind member OECD nations in both secondary and postsecondary graduation rates. The United States also scores average or below average on the PISA assessment in math, science, and reading. To ensure excellence in their schools, high-performing nations focus on four drivers: high universal standards, accountability and autonomy, strong professional development, and personalized learning. Although the United States has much to offer in discussions about educational excellence, it also has much to learn from other countries in which educational excellence is more systemic. (Contains 2 figures and 1 endnote.)

This study examined each of the 192 Member States of the United Nations to address three important questions: (1) how many countries have professionals who provide school psychology services; (2) which countries do and do not have school psychologists; (3) what evidence of school psychology is available in each country. Of the 192 Member States of the United Nations there was evidence of school psychology in 83. Furthermore, this study revealed evidence of: regulations that require school psychologists to be licensed, registered or credentialed in 29 countries; professional associations specifically for school psychologists in 39 countries; university preparation programs for school psychologists in 56 countries and doctoral preparation programs in school psychology in 19 countries. This study advances our knowledge of the profession of school psychology as of 2007. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study investigates cultural and communication medium effects on conversational argumentation in a decision-making context. Chinese and U.S. participants worked in pairs on two decision-making tasks via face-to-face (FtF) and instant messaging (IM). The analyses showed that Chinese participants tended to engage in potentially more complex argumentation, whereas U.S. participants tended to utilize proportionally more statements of claims and statements of convergence (agreements, acknowledgments, and concessions). Argumentation in IM tended to be more direct than in FtF interactions. There were no interaction effects between culture and communication medium on argumentation behavior. In addition, statements of convergence were found to be negatively related to measures of persuasion, indicating that such statements do not necessarily indicate true agreements or shifts in opinion. The results are discussed in terms of structuration theory and the socioegocentric model of communication. (Contains 3 footnotes and 3 tables.)

Grouped 72 Chinese and Indian 4-year olds with a friend and an acquaintance to study cultural influences on sharing resources. Findings from these representatives of two collectivist cultures highlight the importance of cultural beliefs on young children's behaviors and the interaction between sharers and recipients. (SLD)

Chinese calligraphy has been scientifically investigated within the contexts and principles of psychology, cognitive science, and the cognitive neuroscience. On the basis of vast amount of research in the last 30 years, we have developed a cybernetic theory of handwriting and calligraphy to account for the intricate interactions of several psychological dimensions involved in the dynamic act of graphic production. Central to this system of writing are the role of sensory, bio-, cognitive, and neurofeedback mechanisms for the initiation, guidance, and regulation of the writing motions vis-a-vis visual-geometric variations of Chinese characters. This experiment provided the first evidence of cortical excitation in EEG theta wave as a neural hub that integrates information coming from changes in the practitioner's body, emotions, and cognition. In addition, it has also confirmed neurofeedback as an essential component of the cybernetic theory of handwriting and calligraphy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceived facial age has been proposed as a biomarker of ageing with 'looking young for one's age' linked to physical and cognitive functioning and to increased survival for Caucasians. We have investigated the environmental and lifestyle factors associated with perceived facial ageing in Chinese women. Facial photographs were collected from 250 Chinese women, aged 25-70 years in Shanghai, China. Perceived facial age was determined and related to chronological age for each participant. Lifestyle and health information was collected by questionnaire. Bivariate analyses (controlling for chronological age) identified and quantified lifestyle variables associated with perceived facial age. Independent predictors of perceived age were identified by multivariate modelling. Factors which significantly associated with looking younger for one's chronological age included greater years of education (p,0.001), fewer household members (p = 0.027), menopausal status (p = 0.020), frequency of visiting one's doctor (p = 0.013), working indoors (p,0.001), spending less time in the sun (p = 0.015), moderate levels of physical activity (p = 0.004), higher frequency of teeth cleaning (p,0.001) and more frequent use of facial care products: cleanser (p,0.001); moisturiser (p = 0.016) or night cream (p = 0.016). Overall, 36.5% of the variation in the difference between perceived and chronological age could be explained by a combination of chronological age and 6 independent lifestyle variables. We have thus identified and quantified a number of factors associated with younger appearance in Chinese women. Presentation of these factors in the context of facial appearance could provide significant motivation for the adoption of a range of healthy behaviours at the level of both individuals and populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ cosmogenic nuclides are widely employed to quantify topographic and geomorphic landscape evolution. However, few studies are devoted to investigating possibly unsteady denudation. In this work the denudation rates of five surface bedrock and one depth profile are measured using in situ cosmogenic 36Cl in different climate zones in China; cosmogenic 36Cl is a powerful proxy for the surface denudation processes of carbonate landscapes in different climatic gradients since carbonates are more sensitive to climate change than silicates. Compiling previous worldwide surface denudation studies in different gradients, we find that: (I) denudation rate increases systematically with mean annual precipitation (MAP) in arid climatic zones (MAP lower than ~700 mm yr−1) and is dominated by long-term climatic gradients; (II) humid climatic zone (MAP greater than ~700 mm yr−1) denudation rates are about constrained to 34.1 ± 11.7 mm kyr−1 by carbonate dissolution kinetics; and (III) denudation rate is also influenced by short-term physical erosion or abrupt erosive events. Accordingly, the reconstructed evolutionary history of the Guizhou depth profile results from either a relatively high denudation rate (55.5 –4.4 +5.6 mm kyr−1) and long duration exposure (274 –147 +120 ka), or an alternative a low denudation rate (0.8 –0.8 +13.3 mm kyr−1) and a recent abrupt erosive event (13.0 –1.6 +1.9 ka). These two possible solutions suggest that assumed long-term averaged denudation rate can conceal episodic erosion events. Given tectonic quiescence we propose that climate change might mainly control an erosive event during the last glacial termination (~14 ka), which also implies that caution should be taken when determining the denudation rate of a landscape where climate change and/or tectonic activity plays an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mortality risk of iron ore (haematite) miners between 1970 and 1982 was investigated in a retrospective cohort study of workers from two mines, Longyan and Taochong, in China. The cohort was limited to men and consisted of 5406 underground miners and 1038 unexposed surface workers. Among the 490 underground miners who died, 205 (42%) died of silicosis and silicotuberculosis and 98 (20%) of cancer, including 29 cases (5.9%) of lung cancer. The study found an excess risk of non-malignant respiratory disease and of lung cancer among haematite miners. The standardised mortality ratio for lung cancer compared with nationwide male population rates was significantly raised (SMR = 3.7), especially for those miners who were first employed underground before mechanical ventilation and wet drilling were introduced (SMR = 4.8); with jobs involving heavy exposure to dust, radon, and radon daughters (SMR = 4.2); with a history of silicosis (SMR = 5.3); and with silicotuberculosis (SMR = 6.6). No excess risk of lung cancer was observed in unexposed workers (SMR = 1.2). Among current smokers, the risk of lung cancer increased with the level of exposure to dust. The mortality from all cancer, stomach, liver, and oesophageal cancer was not raised among underground miners. An excess risk of lung cancer among underground mine workers which could not be attributed solely to tobacco use was associated with working conditions underground, especially with exposure to dust and radon gas and with the presence of non-malignant respiratory disease. Because of an overlap of exposures to dust and radon daughters, the independent effects of these factors could not be evaluated.