Chinese Adult Education Research Articles

Artificial intelligence and its influence in adult learning in China

PurposeThis research aimed to examine the current status of artificial intelligence's (AI's) integration into Chinese adult education, by analyzing the influences that AI has had on current adult education practices in China and by discussing the opportunities and challenges that adult education in China is faced with under the rapid AI development in the past 12 years.Design/methodology/approachThis research employed systematic literature analysis. CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) Chinese Journals Full-text Database was used to collect scholarly publications on the use of AI in adult education in China that was published in the past decade. Data analysis included the following steps: identifying key words and phrases, detecting underlying meanings, searching for logical connections and relationships, collecting and connecting evidence to the research questions, and drawing logical and credible conclusions.FindingsThe findings indicated that AI has been gradually integrated into Chinese adult education through innovations and explorations and AI's influence is broad and profound. More specifically, the following five main themes were identified. The field's understanding of AI technology and AI's influence on adult education has evolved and become more comprehensive; AI challenges traditional Chinese adult education practices by helping to actualize personalized learning and precision education; AI transforms adult learning resource development; AI helps to turn learning environment into an open intelligent learning system; and lastly, AI urges the shift of adult educator's role in adult learning.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is not without limitations. Contextualized in China, this study shares the limitations with other single country studies. One such limitation is “cumulation” issue. This study should be replicated in other country contexts to further validate the generalizability of the five main themes identified in this research.Practical implicationsThe five themes identified in this study can help understand the promises and challenges that AI brings to the field of adult education in China. These five themes can also serve as an integrated lens through which one can make sense of AI's integration into other countries' adult education practices.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need of understanding the current status of AI's integration into and influence on the field of adult education in China.

Alternative education paths for pregnant girls and young mothers in Tanzania

AbstractThis paper aimed to elaborate the importance of investing in girls’ educating for socio‐economic development, by describing the Tanzania's Alternative Education Paths, following the ban of pregnant girls and young mothers in public regular schools. Qualitative design (document review) was used to collect and analyze data from different documents and official websites such as World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, and Ministries of Education. 3.6 million Primary and secondary aged children are out of school, and 5,500 girls drop out of school every year because of pregnancy in Tanzania. Open schools and Folk Development Colleges are not in good quality but opted as alternative paths for dropouts. Chinese adult education system and provision of sex education are few suggestions lamented in this article. Girls' education is essential and with the additional possible alternatives of ensuring pregnant girls’ right to education, the paper will help policymakers to think about the best option of ensuring pregnant girls’ and young mothers’ right to education.

The 40 Years’ Evolution of the Chinese Adult and Continuing Education: Where Does it Move Driven by the China Dream?

AbstractThis paper charts the historical and political contexts for the evolution of Chinese adult and continuing education over the past 40 years, focusing on the national adult education reforms and relevant policies, and establishing the national lifelong education system. The progress and transformations of Chinese adult education, including how purposes and roles of adult education have been defined and adjusted to meet the needs, is situated and contextualized in the three main eras, under four Chinese leaderships to clearly understand each ideological foundation and national strategic plan. Reflections on the changes in the Chinese adult education landscape lead to some theoretical understandings of China's ideological shifts and a focus that moved from adult education to vocational and adult education, toward building a lifelong education system, serving the realization of the China Dream, through the current Xi's One Belt and One Road national initiative. Finally, this paper concludes and shares implications.

A case study on the factors affecting Chinese adult students' English acquisition in a blended learning environment

Blended learning is a popular trend in college English acquisition for Chinese adult education. In order to study the influence of a blended learning environment to English acquisition and the factors affecting Chinese adult students' English acquisition, 100 of them who study in the School of Continuing Education of North China University of Science and Technology are selected as the research subjects, and the research instruments of questionnaire and interview are used to collect data. The study results show that the blended learning environment in some way can help learners overcome anxieties and cultivate autonomous learning abilities. In addition, those with better academic performances in English acquisition have low levels of anxieties and strong autonomous learning abilities. They use more learning strategies and they are willing to seek academic help. However, those with worse academic performance in English acquisition have high degrees of anxiety and are reluctant to ask others for help when they encounter problems or difficulties, and they do not know how to choose their individual learning strategies and are weak at self-learning abilities.

Oral health related quality of life among older adults in Central China.

To obtain information about the impact of oral health status on the quality of life in older adults in Central China, and furthermore, to investigate the influence of various demographic and socio-economic factors on oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL). This study comprised a stratified random sample of 1,000 older adults in Central China. Questionnaires including demographic factors, education and income level, denture wearing status and Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP)-14 were used in a face-to-face interview. Of the study population 82% stated that they had some forms of problems related to their quality of life. The mean value of the simple count and single summary item scores for OHIP-14 were 0.47 (sd 0.50) and 6.83 (sd 6.84) respectively for the entire study population. "Uncomfortable to eat" and "taste worse" were the two most common problems reported using the simple count method for OHIP-14, while the "physical pain" being the highest scored domain of the measure. When the effect of all independent variables was analysed in multivariate analysis, education level and denture wearing status were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the OHRQoL measure. In this Chinese older adult sample, education level and denture wearing status were related to having oral problems as estimated using the OHIP-14.

Mao was My Neighbour: Yao Zhongda and the “Opening” of Chinese Adult Education

After Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 reform and opening, foreigners had a chance to see adult education in China. As a result, many met Yao Zhongda, Chief of the Bureau of Workers’ and Peasants Education. From 1921 onwards, adult education has been a vital corollary of Communist revolution. Although Yao’s biography was extremely relevant to what foreigners saw, few knew much about their host. Yao made enthusiastic responses to Roby Kidd’s efforts to “open” China to the Toronto-based International Council of Adult Education. By 2013, he was 88 years old. The primary purpose of this paper was to capture his biography and reflect on what it means for 21st century China. A secondary purpose was to alert Beijing scholars to the importance of this key actor in the colourful drama of globalization and adult education in China

More Important Than Guns: Chinese Adult Education After the Long March

Without adult education, there would have been no Communist government in China. Once the Long March arrived in Yan’an, Mao and Communist leaders used adult education in informal and nonformal settings to build momentum for revolution. This article analyzes the theory and practice of adult education during the Yan’an “golden years” (1936—1939) of Chinese communism. Data were derived from interviews in Yan’an and close analysis of writings by foreign visitors to the Red base. Because of 1950s McCarthyism in the United States and tyrannical behavior in post-1949 China, Chinese Communists rarely appear in orthodox adult education history in the west. But after 30 years of “reform and opening,” this is a good time to recall Yan’an adult education and remarkable foreigners who studied and contributed to it. Although Chinese are now obsessed with modernization and money, looking into a rearview mirror might help illuminate adult education on the Red road ahead.

Madame Li Li: Communist revolutionary, adult educator, lifelong learner

Prior to 1949 the Chinese Communist Party orchestrated innovative and participatory forms of adult education. This article concerns Madame Li Li, a leading Chinese Communist woman adult educator. Western delegates at the International Council for Adult Education 1984 Shanghai symposium on adult education were fascinated by Madame Li Li because, amongst other things, she had begun her career in adult education as a 14-year-old propagandist in the Communist New 4th Army. Today, China is trying to become the biggest learning society in the world. With this as a backdrop, the purpose of this study was to chronicle the life of Li Li and reflect on what it means for twenty-first century Chinese adult education and learning. After being forced from her Huai'an (Jiangsu) home at age 14, she worked underground for the Communist Party. After 1949 she turned early experience in surveillance and propaganda into a career as an adult educator. She has misgivings about her work in the Party Discipline department and, being from a privileged family and a high official, suffered harsh treatment during the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution she presided over a massive adult education enterprise in Shanghai and was an organiser of the 1984 Shanghai symposium on adult education. Today she worries about corruption, instability and lack of a moral compass in China. The authors reflect on what her life means for adult education and lifelong learning in twenty-first century China.