Chinese Junior Research Articles

Reading Assessment Literacy: Investigating Knowledge, Skills, and Conceptions of Chinese Junior High School EFL Teachers

Reading Assessment Literacy: Investigating Knowledge, Skills, and Conceptions of Chinese Junior High School EFL Teachers

The construction of a physical literacy assessment index system for junior high school students: a Chinese study

In recent years, the internalisation of education in China has led to an increase in the prevalence of a highly competitive, test-focused approach to learning. This has had a detrimental impact on the physical health and wellbeing of children and adolescents in China, resulting in a concerning lack of physical literacy among junior high school students. Accordingly, the objective of this study is to construct an evaluation index system for physical literacy in junior high school students with Chinese characteristics, quantify the relative importance of each domain, and provide a framework for students to assess and self-evaluate the sustainable development of their physical literacy. The indicator system was modelled on CAPL-2, and valid indicators were extracted from the literature. A pre-selected indicator system for physical literacy in junior high school students was constructed through three rounds of Delphi expert questionnaire surveys (48 questionnaires were distributed in total). A total of 16 experts participated in all three rounds of the surveys until a consensus was reached on the indicators, resulting in the establishment of a hierarchical analysis-based theoretical model. This was developed using the experts’ opinions and determined the items to be subdomains and weights. The AHP was employed to ascertain the relative importance of the subdomains and items within the assessment system. The index weight scores of the Chinese junior high school students’ physical literacy assessment index system are aligned with the core tenet of the physical literacy concept, comprising four primary indicators, eight secondary indicators, and 26 tertiary indicators. The weights of the physical literacy evaluation indexes for junior high school students in China were calculated using the AHP to establish a progressive hierarchical model and the consistency test. The primary indicators were found to be in the following order of importance: Physical Competence (29.82%) > Motivation and Confidence (29.64%) > Knowledge and Understanding (20.27%) = Daily Behavior (20.27%). The system is an effective means of evaluating the impact of physical activity and health promotion among junior high school students, and it effectively addresses the needs of this age group in these areas. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the effects of physical activity and health promotion among junior high school students, and it offers a scientific foundation for the development of precise and individualized physical activity and health promotion programs.

The effect of grit on L2 willingness to communicate among Chinese junior high school students: an analysis of the differential roles of foreign language enjoyment and anxiety.

With the burgeoning research on positive psychology, grit has gradually attracted scholarly attention in the field of L2 acquisition, and it has been shown to be a significant positive predictor of L2 achievements and outcomes. However, despite being an important factor in L2 acquisition, grit has rarely been incorporated as a research variable in prior research on willingness to communicate in a second language (L2 WTC), especially among Chinese teenagers who find themselves in a foundational stage of developing their L2 communicative competence. Based on a survey among 238 Chinese junior high school students, this study analyzed the effect of their grit on their L2 WTC, and explored the differential roles of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and anxiety (FLA) in their interactions. The results revealed that: (1) perseverance of effort (PE), consistency of interest (CI) and FLE had significantly positive correlations with L2 WTC, whereas FLA was found to have a significantly negative correlation with L2 WTC; (2) PE and CI served as significant positive predictors of L2 WTC; (3) FLE mediated the interactions between PE and L2 WTC and between CI and L2 WTC, while the mediating effects of FLA were found to be statistically non-significant. The findings can provide theoretical implications for furthering L2 WTC research, as well as practical reference for its development among Chinese junior high school students.

Association between autistic traits and sleep quality among Chinese junior high school students: The chain mediating roles of self‐control and mindfulness

Association between autistic traits and sleep quality among Chinese junior high school students: The chain mediating roles of self‐control and mindfulness

A single-session growth mindset intervention among Chinese junior secondary school students.

Brief, low-cost growth mindset interventions improving academic-related outcomes can be valuable. However, less is known regarding their effectiveness on learning motivation, behaviors, and academic performance in non-Western cultures like China. This study aimed to examine the effects of a single-session growth mindset intervention on Chinese junior secondary students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We recruited 618 Chinese junior secondary school students from two schools and cluster-randomly assigned them to be the intervention school (n = 311) or the control school (n = 307). Data was collected during the fall semester of 2019 and the spring semester of 2020. Compared with the control school, students in the intervention school reported stronger growth mindset (partial η2 = 0.02, p < .001), academic self-efficacy (partial η2 = 0.02, p < .001), study engagement (partial η2 = 0.01, p = .041), and improved Chinese performance (partial η2 = 0.07, p < .001), with lower helpless attributions (partial η2 = 0.03, p < .001) over time. The intervention had direct and indirect effects (i.e., via the growth mindset) on helpless attributions and academic self-efficacy, with an indirect effect on study engagement.The results support the effectiveness of the brief growth mindset intervention.

Development and validation of China’s Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire: evidence from junior high school students

The cultivation of environmental citizens has become an important measure to cope with the environmental crisis, and the research on the knowledge, conceptions, skills, attitudes, values, and actions of environmental citizens using the Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ) is becoming a research focus. The research on environmental citizenship in China mainly staying at the level of theoretical research and descriptive research due to the accuracy of the ECQ. The emergence of the ECQ-China Version is helpful to promote the empirical research on environmental citizenship in China.This study verifies the effectiveness of the ECQ by removing 16 ECQ items which are not suitable for Chinese culture and evaluating environmental citizen-related knowledge among 550 Chinese junior high school students. The ECQ-China Version, consisting of 75 items, showed convincing results for all measurements: students’ past and present environmental citizenship behavior and the essential skills, values, attitudes, and competence that an environmental citizen should be equipped with had a significant impact on students’ future environmental citizenship behavior. This study suggests that: (1) Environmental citizenship education should not only focus on knowledge education, but also include skills education. (2) Environmental citizenship education should adhere to comprehensive principles, focusing on innovative practice of ideas and methods. (3) China’s environmental citizenship education should focus on the cultivation of citizens’ ability to participate, so that environmental citizenship can become the driving force for sustainable environmental development.

The role of gender in Chinese junior high students’ self-efficacy, creative thinking and project-based learning perceived value in technology and engineering education

The role of gender in Chinese junior high students’ self-efficacy, creative thinking and project-based learning perceived value in technology and engineering education

Development and validation of a questionnaire to assess the implementation of physical education programs in Chinese junior high schools

BackgroundStudents’ physical fitness has always been the focus of attention of the Chinese government, and the school as an important way to improve students’ physical fitness, there are many studies on the current status of the implementation of physical education in schools, and there are many studies that use self-made questionnaires to investigate the implementation of physical education in schools, but most of the studies do not adequately validate the self-made questionnaires, so the purpose of this study was to develop a questionnaire to assess the level of implementation of physical education programmes in Chinese junior secondary schools and to test its reliability and validity.MethodThe content of the questionnaire was developed based on the content of Annex 1 of the Assessment Measures for Physical Education in Primary and Secondary Schools issued by the Ministry of Education of China in 2014 and was modified based on feedback from the expert panel and pre-test participants. The questionnaire was initially tested for validity by 5 expert reviewers, and then we collected data information from 350 participants and conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to explore the factor structure of the initial version. One week later, 40 of the 350 participants were randomly selected to assess test-retest reliability.ResultsThe I-CVI and KAPPA value analysis results of the expert review results show that the questionnaire has extremely high reliability and consistency among experts. EFA results indicate that the five dimensions of this questionnaire are highly reliable. In the test-retest reliability, the Pearson correlation coefficients of the initial test data and the retest data of each dimension are all greater than 0.7, and the significance probability values are all less than 0.05, reaching the significance level, the results show that the questionnaire has good stability.ConclusionsThis study concluded that the 5 dimensions and 38 items of this questionnaire had high reliability and validity and could be used as a preliminary tool to measure the implementation level of physical education programs in junior high schools in China. However, future research should explore the potential need for adjustment to suit different regions and cultures.

Second Language Identity of Chinese Junior High School EFL Learners: Its Construction and Sources

Second Language Identity of Chinese Junior High School EFL Learners: Its Construction and Sources

Exploring How Story-Focused Peer Counselling Impacts Sense of Purpose and Achievement Motivation

The problem of insufficient counseling service among high schools augments students need for peer mental support. The present study utilized quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore how applying peer counseling using counselors experiences about challenges and future directions results in Chinese junior high school students shift in Sense of Purpose and Achievement Motivation by analyzing 173 questionnaire results and coding 10 interviewees records. The findings suggest the following: 1) story-focused peer counseling has the potential to improve students Sense of Purpose and Achievement Motivation; 2) perceiving peer counselors as role models helps students internalize and apply the insight gained from counselors disclosure to their real-life situations; 3) self-projection influences how students leverage peer counselors stories to address the academic challenges they face. Overall, this study contributes to understanding the effect of self-disclosure stories on peer counseling and provides practical implications for organizing peer counseling among high school students.

Personality traits, bipolar depression symptoms, and coping mechanisms among Chinese junior college students

Personality traits, bipolar depression symptoms, and coping mechanisms among Chinese junior college students

Mediating effect of teacher support and student engagement in mathematics at Chinese junior middle school

AbstractThis study aimed to examine the influence of teacher support on student engagement in mathematics. A cross‐sectional survey was employed to recruit 632 students from grades 7 to 9 in junior middle schools across China. Participants completed various scales, including a teacher support scale, an academic self‐efficacy scale, and a student engagement scale. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 20.0 and Amos 24.0. Results showed that, first, emotional support and competence support had a significant positive effect on student engagement in mathematics. The contribution from competence support was the strongest. The contribution from autonomy support was the weakest; second, academic self‐efficacy mediated the relationship between autonomy support, emotional support, and competence support and student engagement in mathematics. These findings supplement and expand the understanding of the factors that affect student engagement and provide theoretical support and useful guidance for formulating effective education policies to improve student engagement in mathematics.

Stay behind children's differential educational performance: The impact of parental migration arrangements in China

Millions of children live apart from their parents who migrate for work. This dynamic raises questions about parental migration's impact on children's schooling. This paper investigated how Chinese junior high school students’ educational performance was shaped by the specific patterns of parental migration: whether it was only the mother, only the father, or both who migrate. The study analyzed data from 4204 students through a nationally representative panel survey, comparing children who experienced parental migration between two survey waves and those who did not. Difference-in-differences models were paired with propensity score weighting to estimate the immediate effects of parental migration. Results indicated that children's educational performance was heterogeneously affected by different arrangements of parental migration. Children's academic performance declined when mothers migrated alone, a pattern not mirrored when only fathers or both parents migrated. The findings indicate that the adverse effects of parental absence outweigh the financial benefits from migration, particularly in the scenario of mother-only migration.

Brief Meditation on Test Anxiety of Eighth Grade Chinese Students: Chain-Mediating Roles of Mindfulness and Self-Efficacy

Numerous studies have revealed an alarming prevalence of test anxiety among Chinese junior high school students. Prevention of test anxiety in this population has become crucial. Brief meditation intervention (BMI) has shown promising results for promoting students’ well-being and reducing test anxiety, but its mechanism for reducing test anxiety remains unknown. This study examined the effects of BMI and the roles mindfulness and self-efficacy play in mediating between the intervention and test anxiety. The BMI was optimized in content and form and culturally tailored for Chinese eighth graders. It includes guided meditation with relaxation music, mindful breathing and body scanning, and positive suggestions that promote self-efficacy. Six eighth grade classes at an urban junior high school in Beijing (N = 202, Mage = 14.14, 102 males) were assigned to either a BMI group (3 classes, N = 103) or a control group (3 classes, N = 99). Test anxiety, mindfulness, and self-efficacy measures were administered before, in the middle of, immediately after, and one month after the intervention. Repeated measures ANOVA and mediation analysis indicated that BMI had a significant effect on reducing test anxiety and enhancing mindfulness and self-efficacy over time. The study also found that mindfulness and self-efficacy played a chain of mediating roles in the relationship between BMI and test anxiety. The mediation effect value accounted for 68.35% of the intervention effects.

The selections and differences in mathematical problem-posing strategies of junior high school students

To illustrate the selections and differences in mathematical problem-posing (MPP) strategies of junior high school students, this study constructs a theoretical framework for mathematical problem-posing strategies and then conducts an empirical study through a survey of 1653 Chinese junior high school students. The results show that students prioritize accepting the given information to pose mathematical problems, while few choose to change the given information. Most students used chaining, and very few students used symmetry to pose mathematical problems. From a developmental perspective, excluding the number of problems, there were grade differences in the selectivity of MPP strategies among students in grades 7, 8, and 9. Still, for each grade, accepting the given information and chaining were the most used strategies in the category therein. More than 77.56% (1282 students) chose category B to pose further mathematical problems after accepting or changing the given information to pose mathematical problems. The results of path analysis illustrate that there are two main routes of the evolution of the selections of the strategies of MPP of junior high school students: the first one is from category A to category B, and the second one is after the students use changing the given information, they are present with the selection of strategies, either use symmetry or chaining. The results may have important implications for the teaching and learning of problem-posing.

Physical activity and school adaptation among Chinese junior high school students: chain mediation of resilience and coping styles.

As a crucial juncture in students' educational journey, junior high school presents challenges that profoundly influence well-being and academic performance. Physical activity emerges as a pivotal factor shaping the holistic development of junior high school students. Beyond its recognized impact on physical and mental health, engaging in regular physical activity proves effective in augmenting students' adaptability to school life. Despite its importance, the mechanisms through which physical activity influences school adaptation in junior high school students remain understudied in academic research. In exploring the potential mechanisms, this study aims to validate the mediating roles of resilience and coping styles by examining the association between physical activity and school adaptation among junior high school students. This study employed cross-sectional survey approach among junior high school students in China. Through the convenience sampling, 1,488 participants aged from 12 to 16 years old (Average age = 13.59, SD = 1.017) from two Junior high schools in Changsha City, Hunan Province were recruited to complete the Physical Activity Scale, School Adaptation Questionnaire for Junior High School Students, Resilience Scale for Adolescents, and Simple Coping Styles Questionnaire. For data analysis, the SPSS 26.0 and Amos 26.0 were used for statistical processing. The results showed that physical activity exhibited a significant correlation with school adaptation (r = 0.656, p < 0.001). Resilience, positive coping style and negative coping style played partial mediating roles between physical activity and school adaptation, with the effect size were 0.229, 0.170, 0.171. The chain mediation effect size of resilience and positive coping style was 0.042, while the chain mediation effect size of resilience and negative coping style was 0.050. Physical activity positively predicts Chinese junior high school students' school adaptation through resilience and coping styles, suggesting that junior high school students should engage in regular physical activity, so as to improve their resilience and positive coping styles, mitigating negative coping styles, thus promoting their school adaptation.

How the teacher‐student relationship influences adolescents' english academic performance: A multiple mediator analysis based on control‐value theory

AbstractThe current study examined a multiple mediator model based on the control‐value theory. A sample of 433 Chinese junior middle school students participated in questionnaires assessing teacher‐student relationships (TSRs), academic emotions, academic value (AV), and academic self‐efficacy (ASE). English test scores were collected as an indicator of students' English academic performance. The results indicated the following: (a) for academic enjoyment, the TSR has an effect on academic achievement through the chain intermediary of AV and ASE; (b) for academic relaxation, the TSR has an effect on English academic achievement through the single intermediary of academic relaxation and the chain intermediary of AV, ASE, and academic relaxation; (c) for academic anxiety, the TSR has an effect on English academic achievement through the single intermediary of AV, the single intermediary of academic anxiety, and the chain intermediary of AV, ASE, and academic anxiety; (d) for academic boredom, the TSR has an effect on English academic achievement through the single intermediary of academic boredom. These findings enrich the relevant research on the control‐value theory and provide important insights for improving students' English academic achievement.

Exploring the Improvement of Chinese Junior High School Students' English Capacities in Oral Speaking

Exploring the Improvement of Chinese Junior High School Students' English Capacities in Oral Speaking

The relative age effect and its influence on athletic performance in Chinese junior female' tennis players.

The relative age effect (RAE) has been the focus of numerous studies; however, there are still fewer studies in women's sports than in men's sports. In this study, all female players (N = 2,255) who participated in Chinese junior tennis competitions (U12, U14, U16, and the National Junior Team) from 2014 to 2019 were investigated in terms of competitors' birth dates and year-end rankings. For the purposes of the analysis, the birth dates were also separated into quarters and half years. The study's objectives were to analyze the prevalence of the RAE among young Chinese female tennis players and to further examine how the RAE affects athletic performance. Differences between the observed and expected distributions of birth dates were tested using the chi-square statistic, and subsequent calculations were tested using odds ratios. The RAE was discovered to be present in every group of Chinese junior female tennis players (p < 0.001), with the proportions of those born in the first half of the year being 56.4% (U12), 53.1% (U14), and 57.0% (U16), respectively. The RAE for athletes selected for the National Women's Junior Tennis Team was even more significant, with the percentage of birth dates in the first half of the year at 61.2%. Finally, we observed a tendency for the effect of the RAE on the athletic performance of adolescent female tennis players to diminish with age.

Trait mindfulness's effect on junior high school students' social anxiety: psychological resilience acts as a mediation factor

The current research studied one's connection between trait mindfulness and social anxiety in junior high school students using mental resilience as an intermediary variable. The Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents (RSCA), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) were used for providing a survey to 276 Chinese junior high school students. The key findings were as follows: 1) Social anxiety, psychological resilience, and trait mindfulness were found to be significantly correlated; 2) Psychological resilience acted as a partial mediating factor in establishing a link between trait mindfulness and social anxiety among junior high school students. Thus, the more trait mindfulness junior high school children have, the less social anxiety they experience, with psychological resilience serving as a partly mediation role. All things considered, this results explain this process by which trait mindfulness impacts social anxiety in this age range, providing guidance for interventions aimed at reducing social anxiety in junior high school kids.