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Purpose: The professional development of novice teachers is receiving increased attention. Although conflict is regarded as an essential factor affecting the effectiveness of the school professional learning community, it is often hidden unspokenly. This study uncovers the conflict experiences of female novice teachers in an Asian cultural context and investigates how such experiences influence their professional development and emotions. Design/methodology/approach: The case study approach was adopted. Four participants were selected according to specific criteria, and two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted in five years to identify the conflicting parties, conflict types, coping strategies and resulting impact. Findings: Longitudinal qualitative data have revealed that female novice English language teaching (ELT) teachers mainly reported conflicts with their female colleagues. Goal, task and relationship conflict are the most common types of conflict encountered, while the strategies of avoiding, dominating and obliging are the most popular. This study also discusses the impacts of such conflict experiences. Originality/value: This study identifies the influence of culture, particularly a culture of high power distance and an emphasis on "precious harmony", on novice female teachers' conflict coping and offers insights into how conflict can be utilised to enhance novice teachers' professional development in the school professional learning community.

This paper expands the innovation diffusion framework by adding a conceptual and empirical exploration of knowledge creation into understanding university technology-enhanced teaching and learning innovation. Institutional innovation research has largely focused on people and products while neglecting the underlying knowledge creation process for innovation that substantiates and sustains the diffusion of innovation across stages. Guided by a combined framework of organisational knowledge creation theory with the diffusion of technology-enhanced teaching & learning (T&L) innovation, this 4-year longitudinal qualitative study focused on a Chinese case of Tsinghua University, which has pioneered the adoption of digital teaching and learning, and generating exemplary sustainable whole-institutional teaching and learning innovation. We explored how technology leverages the interactions between technologies, adopters, and leadership within a university to build capacities for digital T&L innovation by tracing the technology innovation trajectory of Tsinghua University. The case study identified four stages of knowledge creation related to technology adoption and innovation. Of these stages, knowledge externalisation processes were found to be critical for leveraging the co-creation of knowledge for institutional innovation in the university context. Additionally, the study showed that the middle-up-down leadership strategy and middle managements' knowledge management ability facilitated the sustainable transition from individual and group exploration to organisational innovation. The implications for strategic technology adoption and sustainable teaching and learning innovation in the university contexts are also discussed.

Background: Researchers debate whether game-based learning (GBL) affects students' achievement emotions, as past studies yielded mixed results. Objectives: This study determines the overall effect of GBL on students' positive achievement emotion and their negative achievement emotions (PAEs, NAEs), along with their moderators. Methods: This meta-analysis examined true or quasi-experimental studies, reported in English or Chinese, and with students (ranging from primary schools to universities) who did not report physiological and/or psychological illnesses. Results: Compared to traditional instruction, GBL had a positive effect on students' PAEs (g =0.526, k = 39, 95% CI = [0.319, 0.733]) and a negative effect on NAEs (g = -0.517, k = 22, 95% CI = [-0.709, -0.324]). GBL's positive effects on students' PAEs were (a) largest in middle school and otherwise generally larger in higher grades, and (b) largest for competition GBLs (compared to cooperative or individual GBLs). GBL's negative effects on students' NAEs were (a) larger in collectivist cultures than individualistic ones, (b) progressively larger in primary school, middle school, and university, (c) larger for non-digital games than digital games, (d) smallest for individual games, (e) progressively larger in mathematics, social sciences, language, science, and highest in engineering and technology, and (f) smallest for extremely short or extremely long intervention durations (very short: up to 45 min; very long: over 2 months). Take Away: GBL often increases students' PAEs and decreases their NAEs, though their effect sizes differ across cultural values, grade level, game type, academic subject, or intervention duration. Hence, educators should consider these aspects when designing/selecting education games for their students and instructional contexts.

In July 2021 the Chinese Government unexpectedly released what has become known colloquially as the 'Double-Reduction' policy. The policy decreed the reduction of homework pressure on students and greater control of private tutorial companies. In this paper, we set out to understand why the Chinese central government launched the 'Double-Reduction' policy in mid−2021 by using narratives to analyse the three most circulated explanations for the policy and its timing. We use data from a range of formal and informal policy texts. The three narratives, including one policy narrative dominant in the official discourse and two alternative ones, constructed the causal stories about the policy's rationale from multiple perspectives. The combination of multiple perspectives and a narrative approach helps reveal the policy event's complexity and lays a foundation for researchers interested in tracking the development trajectory of this new policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital age, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has enabled learning to happen everywhere, leading to a shift of schooling to the home field and strengthening parents' educational responsibilities. Meanwhile, it may also cause the digital divide and digital reproduction, thereby exacerbating educational inequality. Against this backdrop, this study focused on parental digital involvement in online learning and introduced an emerging concept, digital capital, to understand the differences in parental involvement across socio‐economic backgrounds at the three levels of the digital divide. Drawing from the analysis of 90 Chinese parents' self‐narrated data, this paper identified four types of parental digital involvement according to parents' digital competence and ICT acceptance, and the conversion processes of different forms of capital underlying parental digital involvement were also clarified. The findings from this study expanded the theoretical understanding of inherited cultural capital and social reproduction in online learning in the context of educational digitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: This survey report outlined parents' evaluation of the Shanghai online learning program during the pandemic. According to the survey results, most parents favorably accepted the Shanghai online learning initiative, while some parents held some concerns about the forms and impacts. This report reveals nuanced analysis of parents' perception and their education backgrounds, stresses, and expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research­-policy-practice nexus is a long­-standing issue in higher education research (HER). Although closer linkages and greater relevance have been repeatedly suggested to improve the impact of HER on policy and practice, sophisticated theorization with contextual sensitivity is underdeveloped to renew the discussion in the non­-western contexts. As the Chinese higher education system has become the largest in student number, its HER field is worthy of study, particularly regarding its impact on policy and practice. In comparison with the European model and the American model (Scott, 1999), the Chinese model of the research­-policy-­practice nexus is characterized by strong institutional basis, a strong practice orientation at the macro-­ and meso­-levels, support from and legitimacy by the state, and program orientations for scholars and administrators. Those features have supported rich interactions through actors, activities and reifications in the Chinese higher education context to connect the research, policy and practice.

This article analyses the continuities and changes in principal development in mainland China over the past two decades by assessing the role of the state in shaping principal development over this period. The article outlines and analyses the 14 key policies that have shaped the practice of principal development. The main changes identified include formal recognition of the need for and potential of principal development to effect change in schools; growth in the number and background of training providers; and shifts in the stated purpose, content, curriculum and pedagogy of principal development programmes. The 'continuities' are the enduring power of the state in shaping the ideology that dominates principal development, such as framing it as both a national obligation and a right. We argue that the state has maintained a strong role in shaping principal development in mainland China over the last two decades, but at the same time, has (at least rhetorically) sought to promote increased school autonomy and build more effective schools. This indicates that principal development stands at an important juncture in China. (Contains 1 note and 4 tables.)

The past two decades have witnessed the great developments in principal training in China. Research on principal training in China is increasing in quantity and quality with its expanding practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the changing landscape of scholarship on principal training in China by examining the quantity of publications, themes covered, methodological approaches and the status of articles published from 1989 to 2008, as listed in the Chinese Database of Journals. This is the first serious academic effort to review and reflect on the Chinese scholarship of principal training and school leadership development. In conclusion, suggestions are outlined for future development of this academic field in China.

Background: Researchers debate whether game‐based learning (GBL) affects students' achievement emotions, as past studies yielded mixed results. Objectives: This study determines the overall effect of GBL on students' positive achievement emotion and their negative achievement emotions (PAEs, NAEs), along with their moderators. Methods: This meta‐analysis examined true or quasi‐experimental studies, reported in English or Chinese, and with students (ranging from primary schools to universities) who did not report physiological and/or psychological illnesses. Results: Compared to traditional instruction, GBL had a positive effect on students' PAEs (g =0.526, k = 39, 95% CI = [0.319, 0.733]) and a negative effect on NAEs (g = −0.517, k = 22, 95% CI = [−0.709, −0.324]). GBL's positive effects on students' PAEs were (a) largest in middle school and otherwise generally larger in higher grades, and (b) largest for competition GBLs (compared to cooperative or individual GBLs). GBL's negative effects on students' NAEs were (a) larger in collectivist cultures than individualistic ones, (b) progressively larger in primary school, middle school, and university, (c) larger for non‐digital games than digital games, (d) smallest for individual games, (e) progressively larger in mathematics, social sciences, language, science, and highest in engineering and technology, and (f) smallest for extremely short or extremely long intervention durations (very short: up to 45 min; very long: over 2 months). Take Away: GBL often increases students' PAEs and decreases their NAEs, though their effect sizes differ across cultural values, grade level, game type, academic subject, or intervention duration. Hence, educators should consider these aspects when designing / selecting education games for their students and instructional contexts. Lay Description: What is already known: There are many definitions concerning educational games, resulting in a lack of consensus in conceptualisation.The impact of educational games on students' learning and development has aroused significant interest among scholars.As previous studies have shown mixed results, whether GBL supports or hinders students' achievement emotions remains ambiguous. What this paper adds: Contribution to a clarification of the overall effect sizes of educational games on students' positive and negative achievement emotions (PAEs and NAEs).Insights into the impacts of educational games on students' PAEs and NAEs taking into account some moderator variables (e.g., cultural values, grade level, game type, academic subject, intervention duration). Implications for practice: Planners, implementers and evaluators of GBL should carefully consider the appropriateness of digital games in learning.GBL can be appropriately applied in teaching to control the fluctuations of middle school students' NAEs.Concrete suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]