Education In Asia Research Articles

Building pictures of the field through research overviews

Happy New Year and welcome to volume 43 of Educational Management Administration & Leadership (EMAL). The literature on educational leadership and management is growing but it tends to be characterised by individual papers that are often important but rarely build to create a sense of ‘where we are now’. In reporting research from all parts of the world, authors connect their findings to a narrow range of relevant literature but less often ‘step back’ to reflect on the collective significance of broad aspects of the field. Philip Hallinger has been a leading figure in the world of educational leadership and management for more than 30 years and his opening paper in this issue, with JunJun Chen, makes a significant contribution to mapping the field. The article reports the outcomes of a review of research on this theme in Asia between 1995 and 2011. The authors reviewed 478 papers in eight ‘core’ journals, including EMAL. They conclude that Asian scholarship in this field remains in the early stages of development and that knowledge production is uneven, with only a few pockets of research excellence. They also note a sharp increase of quantitative studies since 2006, and this is certainly a feature of papers submitted to this journal by Asian authors. There has been a significant growth in manuscripts about Asian education, accepted for publication in EMAL, and I plan to prepare a special themed issue of papers from this continent later this year. The second paper extends Jacky Lumby’s important work on leadership diversity. In this article, she analyses interview data from 54 school principals in South Africa to explore how women position their identities in relation to their gender, ethnicity and other characteristics, an approach often labelled as inter-sectionality. She concludes that women are ‘caught in a web of discrimination’, with sexism being further embedded, and only limited gains for women leaders. The next three articles all report research on aspects of policy change in England. One such change is the move away from the once-cherished notion of schools as individual units, to a range of linkages between schools. Christopher Chapman focuses on the nature and impact of federations and chains, drawing on a programme of research including a quantitative study of the impact of federations on student outcomes and a longitudinal qualitative project. He criticises the initiation of federations ‘through top-down directives’, a timely warning, and concludes that schools should ‘exercise caution before entering into any form of collaborative arrangement without a clear, shared purpose’. In the next paper, Sue Swaffield examines the role and impact of school improvement partners (SIPs) from the perspective of school principals. SIPs were a feature of the English system from 2008 to 2011. Drawing on a survey of principals, preceded and followed by interviews, the author notes that attitudes to SIPS varied and that much depended on the SIP’s expertise and conduct. She notes that about half of all heads appreciated the contributions of their SIPs and concludes that the policy ‘could be viewed as a brief experiment that did not have long enough to develop or mature’, Educational Management Administration & Leadership 2015, Vol. 43(1) 3–4 a The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1741143214563455 emal.sagepub.com

Quality Mathematics Instructional Practices Contributing to Student Achievements in Five High-Achieving Asian Education Systems: An Analysis Using TIMSS 2011 Data

Although teaching quality is seen as crucial in affecting students’ performance, what types of instructional practices constitute quality teaching remains a question. With the theoretical assumptions of conceptual and procedural mathematics teaching as a guide, this study examined the types of quality mathematics instructional practices that affect students’ mathematics learning across five high-performing Asian education systems using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 dataset. It found that no combinations of the components of conceptual and procedural mathematics teaching practices exist consistently across the five education systems. Results from the study provide important implications for practitioners and policy makers regarding how to improve mathematics teaching and learning in these Asian education systems as well as elsewhere.

Quality Mathematics Instructional Practices Contributing to Student Achievements in Five High-Achieving Asian Education Systems: An Analysis Using TIMSS 2011 Data

Although teaching quality is seen as crucial in affecting students’ performance, what types of instructional practices constitute quality teaching remains a question. With the theoretical assumptions of conceptual and procedural mathematics teaching as a guide, this study examined the types of quality mathematics instructional practices that affect students’ mathematics learning across five high-performing Asian education systems using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 dataset. It found that no combinations of the components of conceptual and procedural mathematics teaching practices exist consistently across the five education systems. Results from the study provide important implications for practitioners and policy makers regarding how to improve mathematics teaching and learning in these Asian education systems as well as elsewhere.

Toward 21st Century Learning: An Analysis of Top Performing Asian Education Systems’ Reforms

This special issue discusses how top Asian education systems (namely, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai) continue to reform themselves toward 21st century learning. The papers delve into issues such as systemic structures and mechanisms, leadership, curriculum and assessment, and teachers’ professionalism in transforming students’ learning dispositions, skills, and knowledge. International comparative studies, for example the 2007 and 2010 McKinsey reports, identified factors associated with high quality teaching and learning, and a good education system. These factors relate to students, teachers, classrooms, schools, and systemic issues. Students need to be equipped with 21st century skills, which go beyond knowledge to include values and dispositions (Barber and Mourshed 2009). Quality teachers are essential to enact 21st century learning (McKinsey and Company 2007, 2010; Mourshed et al. 2010). Classroom practices emphasize knowledge building, adapting, and applying knowledge to real-life problems (Barber and Mourshed 2009). Moreover, well-informed school leaders provide teachers with resources and autonomy to design and adapt curricular, teaching, and learning for students (Mourshed et al. 2010). Effective systems continuously adapt to change. Systems are aware of its context as it moves from policies to implementations to achieve quality learners (Barber and Mourshed 2009). This special issue draws attention to policies and strategies that Asian systems have attempted to remain relevant both presently and for the uncharted territories of the future. It examines how education systems are impacted by interrelating contexts of school, societal demands, and history. It tries to understand how enacted reforms have aligned education systems to 21st century education goals. Papers here discuss each system and (in some instances) compare with other systems by tracing specific or combination of issues relating to the:

Connected and entangled histories: writing histories of education in the Indian context

This article examines contestations and recent trend-setting approaches in the historiography of education in India in the post-1800 period. British colonialism created a huge rupture in South Asian society as regards the provision of education. Historians of education have asked what sorts of indigenous educational institutions and methods were present in pre-colonial India: in this context, the article discusses the work of historians who researched indigenous Indian village schools, key to educational transmission until the early nineteenth century. The educational work of the nationalist leader M.K. Gandhi inflected the work of such educational historians. The article devotes some attention to ways in which twentieth-century ‘new education’ reinvented aspects of pre-colonial South Asian education. Marxist, feminist, Dalit and Subaltern historians of education have analysed the differential and hierarchised spread of ‘western’ education in South Asia. Nonetheless, this article shows how the educational agency of Dalits, women, peasants and working people has been analysed by scholars. The article then examines recent scholarship which views the origins and growth of ‘western’ education in South Asia in the framework of transcultural transactions. It ends from the vantage point of connected and entangled histories of education, looking beyond the unit of the nation state.

Heterogeneity in neurologic education and care in Asian and Oceanian region.

The Asian subcontinent and Oceania (comprising islands in the Pacific Ocean) are home to more than 60% of the world's population. The burden of neurologic disease and sickness is thereby high and medical care is in high demand. There are many developing countries with diverse cultural, economical, political, religious, and historical backgrounds within the Asian and Oceanian region.1,2 Recently, enhanced medical care in these developing countries has resulted in greater longevity, which has increased the burden on those providing health care. The prevalence of neurologic illness has also increased and has emerged as a priority health problem.3 Most frequently reported cases in neurology are epilepsy, cerebrovascular disease/stroke, headache, Parkinson disease, neuropathies, neuroinfections, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer disease, and other dementias.

Looking West to India: Asian education, intra-Asian renaissance, and the Nalanda revival

AbstractMore than 800 years ago—at approximately the same time as the founding of the first European universities—the renowned monastic institution known as the Nālandā Mahāvihāra disappeared from historical records. Since 2006, a transnational Asian initiative to revive ancient Nalanda as ‘Nalanda University’ in Bihar, India, has been embraced at the highest government and philanthropic levels by a consortium of South, Southeast, and East Asian nations. Nalanda, described as an ‘icon of Asian renaissance’, and the issues surrounding its revival raise important questions about how a new interest in ‘pan-Indo-Asianism’ and a newly imagined vision of ‘Asian’ education are seen as converging to promote Asian interests. First, I consider the ambivalent relationship of the revival and its pre-modern namesake against the Nālandā Mahāvihāra's known history. Then I characterize two kinds of discourse on the contemporary project: one that is ‘pan-Indo-Asian’ and frames the revival as serving transnational Asian goals; and another that is Indic and imagines Nalanda as advancing Indian national concerns. While, for the various stakeholders, serious fissures are evident in the symbolic values of Nalanda—as an exemplar of Asia and of India—both types of discourse, taken together, reveal important insights into the development of an alternative model of education that is both modern and ‘Asian’.

Heterogeneity in Neurological Education and Care in Asian and Oceanian Region (P1.322)

Heterogeneity in Neurological Education and Care in Asian and Oceanian Region (P1.322)

East meets West: Learning-practices and attitudes towards music-making of popular musicians

Learning-practices of popular musicians are a prominent theme in Western music education literature; however, there appears to be a shortage of such literature in Asian countries. With the aim of comparing East and West, a qualitative study was conducted to investigate the learning-practices and involvement in music of Hong Kong popular musicians. Since Hong Kong is a former British colony, the study intended to investigate whether these practices resembled Western practices, or if they were derived from elements indigenous to Hong Kong. Interviews and observations of the informants’ performances and rehearsals were used to obtain data. It was found that all the informants learned mainly in an informal way and participated actively in music-making – similar to the Western popular music-making scenario – but the shadow of the mentor–apprentice learning relationship inherent in Chinese culture also appeared. Lastly, achievement-driven motivation in learning, which is prevalent in Chinese society, was also found among the informants in the present study. This may not be a significant finding in the context of popular music generally, but it is an issue in which Asian educators may be interested.

Behind the academic motivation of East Asian students

This study identifies Confucian values and social rigidity as the foundation for both positive (educational) and negative (psychological) outcomes of East Asian students. It highlights (1) how persistently and powerfully the Confucian value system has molded the achievement-orientation of Confucian Asian students; (2) illustrates how historical accounts of Confucianism have contributed to the rigidity of a society; and (3) presents what forms of social rigidity is notable in Confucian Asian culture. Factors contributing to social rigidity of Confucian Asian countries are identified as the strict and competitive examination system and its heavy influence on distribution of social rewards. The study concludes with four sets of recommendations for educators, policymakers, and parents who are willing to address the challenges of Confucian Asian education systems.

Overcoming Colonial Policies of Divide and Rule

T chapter1 offers a situated account of English and vernacular literacy practices from a postcolonial perspective. Postcolonial scholarship in disciplines such as cultural studies and English literature has alerted us to the extent to which colonial rule partially created and reproduced negative images regarding “natives” so as to be better able to govern. Within applied linguistics, this awareness provides a necessary sociohistorical background against which to understand current grounded realities around language teaching and learning. Colonial policies in South Asian education— especially the policy of Divide and Rule—created schisms between the English medium (EM) and vernacular medium (VM) of education (Phillipson, 1992). This breakdown assumes neocolonial hues and dovetails directly with local societal stratifications (of caste and class) that exacerbate unequal conditions between those who are educated in the two tracks. Situated in ongoing endeavors in a variety of local contexts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, where I was raised and schooled, this chapter calls attention to some key educational sites through which these policy-related inequities are reproduced, and some ways in which individual teachers and institutions assume the responsibility to make conditions more just and equal. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how a postcolonial research framework allows us to understand not only grounded inequities around language policies in terms of historical colonial pasts but also how fellow humans draw on particular rationalizations to harness the veranaculars and work toward moving us all to more equal footings (Canagarajah, 1997). Increasing discussions around English being a “world” language (Brutt-Griffler, 2002) and the instrumental role it plays in globalization force us now to take stock of the “dominating” role that English seems to be assuming. Scholarship in this realm ranges from researchers questioning mediums-of-instruction policies, to ways in

Rethinking the pattern of external policy referencing: media discourses over the ‘Asian Tigers’’ PISA success in Australia, Germany and South Korea

The article compares how the success of the ‘Asian Tiger’ countries in PISA, especially PISA 2009, was depicted in the media discussion in Australia, Germany and South Korea. It argues that even in the times of today's ‘globalised education policy field’, local factors are important in determining whether or not a country becomes a reference society for educational reform. The article aims to uncover some of these factors, identifying the globally disseminated stereotypes about Asian education, economic relations and the sense of ‘crisis’ induced through the relative position and change of position in PISA league tables in the countries in question.

Role of mobile phone technology in health education in Asian and African countries: a systematic review.

The objective of this systematic review was to explore the role of mobile phone technologies in delivering health education programs in Asian and African countries. The search engine used was Pubmed during 2008-2011. Randomised controlled trials or controlled studies that improved health outcomes through delivery of health educational interventions using cell phone or text messaging were included in the review. Results showed studies from six Asian and African countries including Philippines, China, Kenya, South Korea, Taiwan and India. Mobile phone technology has shown to improve health outcomes for chronic disease conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. Additional conditions include obesity and cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidance. Other studies have shown improvement in self management of breast cancer and post-hospitalisation HIV and pharmaceutical care. Overall results of the present review showed that mobile phone technologies can be a possible solution to improve healthcare outcome.

Relationships of Cognitive and Metacognitive Learning Strategies to Mathematics Achievement in Four High-Performing East Asian Education Systems

ABSTRACT The authors examined the relationships of cognitive (i.e., memorization and elaboration) and metacognitive learning strategies (i.e., control strategies) to mathematics achievement among 15-year-old students in 4 high-performing East Asian education systems: Shanghai-China, Hong Kong-China, Korea, and Singapore. In all 4 East Asian education systems, memorization strategies were negatively associated with mathematics achievement, whereas control strategies were positively associated with mathematics achievement. However, the association between elaboration strategies and mathematics achievement was a mixed bag. In Shanghai-China and Korea, elaboration strategies were not associated with mathematics achievement. In Hong Kong-China and Singapore, on the other hand, elaboration strategies were negatively associated with mathematics achievement. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Asia, Europe, and the emergence of modern science: knowledge crossing boundaries

PART I: TOWARD DIALOGICAL HISTORY Global Dialogical History and the Challenge of Neo-Eurocentrism J.M.Hobson A Passage to Infinity: The Contribution of Kerala to Modern Mathematics G.G.Joseph Copernicus, Arabic Science and Scientific (R)evolutions M.Kokowski Time Atomism and Ash'arite Origins for Cartesian Occasionalism Revisited R.T.W.Arthur Pramanas, Proofs and the Yukti of Classical Indic Science R.Narasimha PART II: SCIENCE, RATIONALITY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE Traditional Knowledge and the Smallpox Eradication Campaign J.R.Brown The Dialogical Copernican Revolution: Implications for Scientific Method A.Bala How Indigenous are 'Indigenous Sciences'? The Case of 'Islamic Sciences' A.Paya The Role of Intercultural Dialogue in the Rise of Modern Science A.Khursheed Science, Technology and Civilization Reconsidered A.Brennan PART III: FORGING NEW KNOWLEDGE The Relevance of Classical Chinese Medicine K.Lee Diverse Cultural Contributions to a 'Science of Religion': An Emerging Asia-Europe Dialogue on the Scientific Study of Religion D.Wiebe Reclaiming Tradition: Implications of a Knowledge Indigenization Perspective for Asian Education S.Gopinathan Southeast Asia's Indigenous Knowledge: The Conquest of the Mental Terra Incognitae V.R.Savage

Nuclear education trends after Fukushima nuclear accident

Nuclear education has seen many ups and downs since the birth of nuclear technology. Owing to the highest prior support from all stakeholders during 1960s, nuclear education along with its technology witnessed its peak time. But during late 1990s, it was felt that the amount of nuclear knowledge would become sub-critical if no countermeasures were taken to arrest the declining situation of nuclear education. Many local, regional and international efforts were put together to restore nuclear education. These painstaking efforts started nuclear education growing again but the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 seems to create serious obstacles in the restoration of nuclear education in many countries. This paper studies the influence of Fukushima nuclear accident on nuclear education. For this purpose, a worldwide survey has been conducted through a well-designed questionnaire asking maximum possible information about the trends of nuclear education. This survey covers Europe, Asia and America continents. Based on the results of this international survey, this research work highlights the impacts of Fukushima nuclear accident on nuclear education in European, Asian and North American countries separately.

A History of Games of Chance in Macau: Part I—Introduction

Gaming Law Review and EconomicsVol. 16, No. 10 ArticlesA History of Games of Chance in Macau: Part I—IntroductionJorge GodinhoJorge GodinhoSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:12 Oct 2012https://doi.org/10.1089/glre.2012.16107AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byCasino development and regulation in Asia: the experience of Macau and Singapore for Japan and other destinations25 August 2020 | Asian Education and Development Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3The beginnings of copyright law in Macau19 June 2018 | The Journal of World Intellectual Property, Vol. 21, No. 3-4Explaining urban economic governance: The City of MacaoCities, Vol. 61An Examination of Factors Driving Chinese Gamblers’ Fallacy Bias6 June 2013 | Journal of Gambling Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 Volume 16Issue 10Oct 2012 InformationCopyright 2012, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Jorge Godinho.A History of Games of Chance in Macau: Part I—Introduction.Gaming Law Review and Economics.Oct 2012.552-556.http://doi.org/10.1089/glre.2012.16107Published in Volume: 16 Issue 10: October 12, 2012PDF download

Revisiting the Role of Cultural Capital in East Asian Educational Systems: The Case of South Korea.

The concept of cultural capital has proved invaluable in understanding educational systems in Western countries, and recent work seeks to extend those insights to the diverse educational systems of other geographic regions. We explored cultural capital in South Korea by investigating the relationships among family socioeconomic status (SES), cultural capital, and children's academic achievement using data from the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment. South Korea was compared with Japan, France, and the United States to understand how institutional features of South Korean education shape the role of cultural capital in academic success. Results showed that family SES had a positive effect on both parental objectified cultural capital and children's embodied cultural capital in South Korea, consistent with evidence from the other countries. Moreover, parental objectified cultural capital had a positive effect on children's academic achievement in South Korea. In contrast to other countries, however, children's embodied cultural capital had a negative effect on academic achievement in South Korea controlling for the other variables. We highlighted several institutional features of South Korean education including a standardized curriculum, extreme focus on test preparation, and extensive shadow education, which may combine to suppress the effect of children's embodied cultural capital on academic achievement.

Balance between foundations and creativity: features of Korean mathematics education

We are very pleased to write this introductory paper to the special issue of ZDM that provides readers with a glimpse of mathematics education in Korea. In July 2012 (7th–15th), the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-12) takes place at COEX in the center of Seoul, Korea. The ICME is the most important congress in the mathematics education community. It is held once every 4 years under the auspices of the International Commission of Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). The impetus for having this special issue during ICME-12 arose from the scarcity of literature on Korean mathematics education despite Korean students’ high achievement on international comparison studies. Korean students have consistently performed well in recent international assessments of mathematics achievement such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the International Mathematics Olympiad. In addition, a recent study titled Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21) compared prospective teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning in six participant countries, reporting that Korean prospective secondary mathematics teachers were better prepared than those in other countries (Schmidt et al., 2007; Schmidt, Blomeke, Tatto, 2011). Despite such outstanding performances of Korean students and prospective teachers, very little literature is available on factors that contribute toward it. In addition relatively little is also written about mathematics education in Korea. Many scholars, particularly in the West, are curious about Korea’s excellence in teacher quality and student achievement (e.g. Akiba, LeTendre, & Scribner, 2007; Kang & Hong, 2008). There are, however, a relatively small set of systematic studies that examine various aspects of Korean mathematics education substantively and carefully (Kwon, Park, & Park, 2011). Further, some studies on Asian education have even mistakenly assumed that mathematics education in Korea is almost the same as that in other East Asian countries (e.g., Leung, 2011). Considering teaching and learning as cultural practices (e.g., Alexander, 2000; Fernandez & Yoshida, 2004; Ma, 1999; Stigler & Hiebert, 1999), this could mislead readers to ignore the uniqueness of mathematics education in Korea. As a historical–cultural construct, educational practice of mathematics is situated in a specific cultural context of South Korean society, where there are a range of unique cognitive and normative assumptions around the functions and purposes of education, the kinds of knowledge pursued in school and society, the roles taken by teachers and students. Thus, this special issue not only overviews major aspects of Korean mathematics education, it also addresses the historical and cultural foundations of Korean mathematics education in order to foster an understanding of its practices. This issue, a thematic collection of studies, consists of nine papers that present and discuss emerging issues and challenges of Korean mathematics education with respect to various aspects of mathematics education such as curriculum, teaching practices, student learning, textbooks, assessment, and teacher education. It makes an important contribution by Korean mathematics educators to the international community. O. N. Kwon (&) S. J. Cho Department of Mathematics Education, College of Education, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro 1, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-748, Korea e-mail: onkwon@snu.ac.kr

Thematic issue on ‘Values in East Asian Mathematics Education—The Third Wave’

In some ways, conducting (mathematics) education research is like the situation of having a few persons trying to describe an elephant in the dark. Depending on the approach taken by each person, a different part of the huge animal is felt. Inferences about what the animal looks like were thus made based on these incomplete ‘views’ of the animal. Likewise, in looking for more effective ways of understanding and facilitating the learning and teaching of mathematics in school, we adopt a variety of approaches. The cognitive and affective approaches have been two dominant ones. A third, volitional approach may also be utilised. This approach focuses on an individual’s motivation and will to act in particular ways. Its relation to cognition and affect can be seen in Andrew Tallon’s (1997) book title ‘Affection, cognition, volition as triune consciousness’, and is reflected in Benjamin Bloom’s wellknown three taxonomies of educational objectives, namely cognitive, affective and psychomotor. This third approach to educational research thus emphasises teachers’ and learners’ motivations and dispositions to teach and learn, respectively. The construct of the socioculturally-based values in mathematics education, first proposed by Alan Bishop (1988), reflects this approach. This ZDM issue has the theme, ‘Values in East Asian Mathematics Education—The Third Wave’. The wave metaphor not only encapsulates the energy for change that is generated by the values approach, but it also implies the ongoing relevance of the previous two waves (i.e. cognition and affect) since waves overlap. Collectively, the articles in this issue present the reader with a complementary approach to understanding the dominance of East Asian education systems in the various international comparative studies of student achievement in mathematics. The first article by Bishop traces the growth of the values construct in mathematics education. It sets the scene for this issue through telling a personal story that began some 20 years ago with the introduction of the values construct to the mathematics education research and professional communities. In the next article, Wong, Wong and Wong describe how the values embedded in the major Chinese schools of thought (namely, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism) have impacted on school mathematics pedagogy in the Chinese culture. We will also be looking at the relevant Japanese values, as Baba et al. trace the development of these values in a historical context. Seah and Wong’s article then provides an overview of the Third Wave project, an international consortium of research teams which undertake studies relating to the harnessing of relevant values in mathematics pedagogy. This is followed by two country reports of a study undertaken by the Third Wave project. Law, Wong and Lee identify and discuss the values espoused by students and their teachers when mathematics was learnt particularly effectively (from the students’ perspectives) in Hong Kong classrooms. Lim and Kor, on the other hand, report on the values underlying effective mathematics lessons as espoused and enacted by teachers who had been professionally recognised as excellent in Malaysia. Seah and Peng’s article which follows these country reports is aimed at better situating the values that would have been reported in the East Asian mathematics classrooms. It W. T. Seah (&) Monash University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: WeeTiong.Seah@monash.edu