Classes In China Research Articles

Honor classes in China's higher education: perspectives from four universities

Ever since the University of Science and Technology of China started the Special Class for the Gifted Young in 1978, many Chinese universities have set up their own honor classes under different names such as Gifted Young Class, Basic Science Class, Experimental Class or Elite Class. These are often small classes; some emphasize mathematics and physics, aiming to cultivate talents with broad basic knowledge, while others focus on a particular discipline, such as computer science. In 2011, the Chinese Ministry of Education started the Experimental Program for the Cultivation of Top Talents in Basic Sciences, which boosted a new round of honor classes.How do these classes cultivate their students? Which kinds of special strategies are employed? Have they indeed fostered outstanding graduates? How did the students develop after graduation? On the other hand, are these classes a violation of the spirit of ‘equity in education’? Trying to answer these questions, in this NSR forum chaired by Professor Zhenjiang Hu, educators from four Chinese universities exchanged their experiences, views and perspectives on running the honor classes. Baoquan Chen Executive Director of the Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University. (Turing Class, Peking University.) Changqing Chen Professor and Head of the Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University. (Tsien Excellence in Engineering Program, Tsinghua University.) Zhenyu Li Professor of the School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China. (School of the Gifted Young, University of Science and Technology of China.) Yong Yu Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. (ACM Class, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.) Ming Zhang Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group of Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) China; Professor of the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University. Zhenjiang Hu (Chair) Dean of School of Computer Science, Peking University.

The effect of in-class and one-on-one video feedback on EFL learners’ English public speaking competency and anxiety

Video feedback (VF) is a useful learning technique in acquiring public speaking skills due to its capacity to retain both verbal and non-verbal elements of multimodal communication. Previous research has focused on video self-critique, peer VF, online feedback, or one-on-one VF in the first language (L1) context and has yielded varied results regarding the impact of VF on public speaking competence and anxiety. Therefore, this quasi-experimental classroom-based study compared the impact of the one-on-one VF and in-class VF on public speaking competency and anxiety of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Three intact university-level English classes in China (n = 74) were assigned to the three conditions (in-class VF, one-on-one VF, and verbal feedback). Data on students’ speaking competence were validated using many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM). Subsequent gain score analysis and ANCOVA showed that in-class VF significantly improved students’ delivery skill and global competence and reduced their speaking anxiety compared with the verbal feedback group. It is proposed that in-class VF be employed as an instructional procedure to help EFL learners improve their public speaking skills and reduce their public speaking anxiety, particularly in the teaching context of a large class size together with comparatively limited logistic and teaching resources.

In-stream surface water quality in China: A spatially-explicit modelling approach for nutrients

Nutrient pollution is a widespread problem in rivers in China. Managing nutrient pollution requires better knowledge of in-stream processes governing the surface water quality. As current nutrient models for China mainly focus on river export of nutrients to seas, in-stream surface water quality and their contributing sources and processes are, therefore not well understood. This requires accounting for combined effects of nutrient inputs to rivers from produced waste, biochemistry of different forms of nutrients and their transport by river network. Moreover, improvements can be made in evaluating the model performance of large-scale nutrient models based on water quality measurements in China (using the surface water quality classes from 1 to 6). The objective of this study is to quantify the spatial variation in in-stream water quality for nutrients, and associated sources, for water quality classes in China. Our new Model to Assess River Inputs of Nutrients to seAs (MARINA 3.0) for in-stream water quality distinguishes different nutrient forms including dissolved inorganic (DIN, DIP) and organic (DON, DOP) nitrogen and phosphorus and was applied for the year 2012. Our model simulations compare reasonably well with measurements across 155 river sections. Results show that between 12% and 66% of the streams are highly polluted (exceeding water quality class 3) and depending on nutrient form. Diffuse sources dominate in 76% of the streams for DIN. Point sources such as direct discharges of animal manure dominate in 46%–59% of the streams for DON, DIP and DOP. The dominant sources vary considerably between rivers and nutrient forms. This indicates the need account for nutrient forms in models and national monitoring programs. Our model results could support effective management to reduce nutrient pollution in China.

Chinese Folklore for the English Public: Herbert A. Giles’s 1880 Translation of Pu Songling’s Classical Tales

Chinese Folklore for the English Public: Herbert A. Giles’s 1880 Translation of Pu Songling’s Classical Tales

Exploring University Students’ Perceptions Of Online Physical Education Class As Participants: A Qualitative Case Study

Compare face to face learning, the implication of online courses has been discussed for several years in higher education. However, in 2020 the rise of the global COVID-19 pandemic has created obvious shifts in university students’ life. In order to ensure the “suspension of classes”, university students took part more in online classes compare to physical education (PE) classes in China. It is significant to explore students’ views on PE online learning that is benefit for teachers to provide students with high quality of online PE courses, which will be better to guide students to take PE lessons and also improve students’ health. This study investigated the issues of students’ perceptions toward online physical education courses in Tianjin University of Technology in China based on a case study. The findings of this study indicate that some students don’t like taking online PE courses due to there were some disadvantages of online PE lesson. Some students enjoy taking online PE courses because of the interesting sports videos. This study also explored teachers’ view on how to motivate college students to engage in physical education classes and recommends specific strategies for teachers to motivate college students to take online PE courses.

Utilizing Wen Juanxing in College English Classes in China

Utilizing Wen Juanxing in College English Classes in China

The Relationship between Formative and Summative Assessments Using the Mosoteach App in College EFL Classes in China

This study was intended to help improve assessment in college EFL classes by examining the relationship between formative assessment (FA) and summative assessment (SA). Participants for the study were 75 undergraduates, taking an eight-week optional college English course at a four-year college in China. FA data were collected in the final course of the course by a self-reporting survey using the online training platform Mosoteach. To achieve the finding, the relationship between FA scores and SA scores (final exam and performance scores) was analyzed in SPSS by means of Pearson correlation analyses. Significant positive correlations were found between FA and SA scores overall. In addition, students’ performance on chapter tests, online discussions, brainstorming, quick-responses, assignments and the number of thumbs-up clicks by teachers were significantly correlated with SA scores. The results suggested that FA administered through the Mosoteach app could improve students’ academic performance, thus providing an empirical basis for improving educational assessment. Based on these findings, implications for assessment in EFL classes were described.

Ethnic minority students’ access, participation and outcomes in preparatory classes in China: a case study of a School of Minzu Education

ABSTRACT This study investigates how educational equity is applied in university preparatory classes from the perspective of minority students. It explores minority students’ access to, participation and outcomes in preparatory classes, as well as the factors that influence their experience and attitude. Using a mixed research method, 320 students from a School of Minzu Education were surveyed and further in-depth interviews were conducted with seven respondents. This study finds that minority students from cities and towns are more likely to get into preparatory classes. Moreover, the fairness of the access to preparatory classes is questioned between various ethnic minority groups and even within the same ethnic group. In terms of participation in preparatory classes, preparatory classes play a positive role in promoting integration between Han and ethnic minorities and educational equality. However, minority students in preparatory class lack a sense of belonging to the affiliated university due to insufficient recognition of their cultural and linguistic background in class and community activities. The findings indicate that the outcomes of preparatory classes were mainly reflected in minority students’ academic performance and perception towards preparatory classes. The outcomes differed depending mainly on the family income, ethnic origins and the high schools they attended.

How can EFL teachers make their questions more interactive with students? Interpersonal patterns of teacher questions

Teacher questioning is central to effective EFL teaching as it affects student participation in classroom interaction, but a discrepancy is often found between questions considered effective by theorists and those teachers actually ask in practice. Adopting the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this study addresses teacher questions as ‘interactive events’ whose degrees of interactivity vary with teachers’ choices of interpersonal meanings realized in grammatical forms, with a view to informing EFL teachers how to choose interpersonal meanings to make their questions more interactive with students. Using authentic question-answer sequences (n = 433) occurring in whole-class discussions in 18 college EFL classes in China, the study first analyzed interpersonal choices of ‘Subject person’ (interactant vs. non-interactant) and ‘modal deixis’ (judgment vs. time) in EFL teachers’ questions, and then tested the relationship between teachers’ choices and the length of student answers. Those choices found to be significantly associated with lengthier answers include [interactant + judgment] inviting self-related assessment, [interactant + past] requesting recounts of personal experiences, and [non-interactant + past] seeking reconstruction of textbook discourse. All interpersonal patterns of teacher questions thus identified are described, and pedagogical implications discussed.

Friendship Group Activities: Voices from Chinese EFL Learners

Friendship group activities, as one of the learner-centered applications of collaborative learning, promotes learners’ overall abilities and have been warmly welcomed into English as a foreign language (EFL) classes in China. However, because of the complexity of the multi-level classroom life, sometimes this application becomes problematic in the actual practice. To tackle this problem and illustrate the dynamic characteristics of collaborative language learning, further investigation into friendship groups from the students’ perspective is necessary. The present study was conducted through qualitative research with six semi-structured interviews, which aimed to elicit learners’ in-depth views on group work in the actual language classrooms and create a more suitable facilitative classroom environment for future students. The findings show that the fundamental factors, such as culture, teacher guidance and group processing have significantly impacted students’ performance and participation. This impact may have important implications for implementing collaborative language learning in future EFL contexts.

Individual and class-level factors for middle school students’ interest in math homework

Informed by multiple theoretical frameworks, the present investigation used multilevel models to study a broad spectrum of factors influencing math homework interest, using data from 3018 8th graders from 96 classes in China. Results indicated that 9.7 % of the variance in homework interest was located at the class level. At the student level, homework interest was associated negatively with parent education, and positively with affective attitude, self-concept, monitoring motivation, mastery-approach, homework quality, academic purpose, self-regulatory purpose, family help, and teacher feedback quality. At the class level, homework interest was associated negatively with parent education, and positively with teacher feedback quality and homework quality.

Korean Chinese Undergraduates’ Preparedness and Learning Outcomes in EFL Classes in China

This study was executed to be used as the basic data for the improvement of Korean Chinese undergraduates’ English proficiency. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were used for data analysis on the differences between Korean Chinese and Han Chinese students' preparedness and learning outcomes of 203 undergraduates at a four-year college in China. Results showed that Korean Chinese students were significantly less prepared and had weaker learning outcomes than Han Chinese students. Analysis on the factors that affected learning outcomes showed significant differences in oral English skills, attitudes toward curriculum, beliefs in their own fluency, and learning strategies. On the other hand, no group difference was shown in learning interests. Based on these findings, implications for the improvement of Korean Chinese undergraduates' preparedness and learning outcomes in EFL class were described.

Vegetation response to climate zone dynamics and its impacts on surface soil water content and albedo in China

Extensive research has focused on the response of vegetation to climate change, including potential mechanisms and resulting impacts. Although many studies have explored the relationship between vegetation and climate change in China, research on spatiotemporal distribution changes of climate regimes using natural vegetation as an indicator is still lacking. Further, limited information is available on the response of vegetation to shifts in China's regional climatic zones. In this study, we applied Mann–Kendall, and correlation analysis to examine the variabilities in temperature, precipitation, surface soil water, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), and albedo in China from 1982 to 2012. Our results indicate significant shifts in the distribution of Köppen–Geiger climate classes in China from 12.08% to 18.98% between 1983 and 2012 at a significance level of 0.05 (MK). The percentage areas in the arid and continental zones expanded at a rate of 0.004%/y and 0.12%/y, respectively, while the percentage area in the temperate and alpine zones decreased by −0.05%/y and − 0.07%/y. Sensitivity fitting results between simulated and observed changes identified temperature to be a dominant control on the dynamics of temperate (r2 = 0.98) and alpine (r2 = 0.968) zones, while precipitation was the dominant control on the changes of arid (r2 = 0.856) and continental (r2 = 0.815) zones. The response of the NDVI to albedo infers a more pronounced radiative response in temperate (r = −0.82, p < .01) and alpine (r = −0.476, p < .05) compared to arid and continental zones. Furthermore, we identified more pronounced monthly increasing trends in NDVI and soil water, corresponding to weak changes in albedo during vegetation growing periods. Our results suggest that climate zone shifting has considerable impacts on the vegetation in China and will have larger ecological impacts through radiative or non-radiative feedback mechanisms in future warming scenarios.

CLIMATE CHANGES AND LANDSCAPE RESPONSES OF CHINA DURING THE PAST 40 YEARS (1979–2018) UNDER KÖPPEN-GEIGER CLIMATE CLASSIFICATION

Abstract. Under the background of global warming, China with diverse climate types is experiencing dramatic climate change. In this study, we produced a series of climate type map of China at 0.1° resolution from 1979 to 2018 using Köppen-Geiger climate classification, which provided continuous fine-scale decadal climate classification data for climate researches in China. Based on these climate maps, we divided China into four main climate zones: arid climate zone located on the north of Tibetan Plateau and west of Inner Mongolian Plateau, temperate climate zones in southern China, cold climate zone occupied most of Northeast Plain and North China Plain, and polar climate zone on Tibetan Plateau. The distribution of main climate classes in China have not changed significantly over 40 years, while the climate change mainly occurs at the levels of climate type and subtype changes. The frequency of climate changes shows the climate sensitivity of the region, and we identified the transition areas of climate zones with a high sensitivity to climate change. The change of climate types shows an obvious trend of rising temperature in all climate zones of China and increasing precipitation in most climate zones of China (the cold climate zone shows no significant dry or wet change). Overall, the climate in China is generally getting warmer and wetter in the past 40 years. Furthermore, we analysed the landscape responses on climate change with land cover data, e.g. the vegetation type variations in southern China and the snow cover fluctuations on Tibetan Plateau.

Developing Primary EFL Students’ Multiliteracies Competence Through Drama Teaching: A Case Study in China

Multiliteracies competence has emerged as an important research field, yet it remains a great challenge for primary EFL teachers in China to develop students’ multiliteracies competence. With the implementation of educational reform in K12 education in China, the importance of cultivating multiliteracies competence for primary school students has become increasingly prominent. Meanwhile, in the current K12 education curriculum in China, the practice of offering English drama courses caters to the needs of enhancing students’ multiliteracies competence. This qualitative study aims to exlore: (1) how are dramas taught in primary EFL classes in China? (2) how is students’ multiliteracies competence developed through learning drama? The participant of this longitudinal narrative inquiry is an EFL teacher at a primary school in Southern China. Data include two-semester-long observation of the English drama classes in the school, weekly meetings on drama teaching, workshops with foreign drama experts and interview narratives, as well as documents such as the participants’ lesson plans, journals and students’ feedback. Findings show that EFL drama teaching in the primary school adopts multiliteracies pedagogy, drawing on a range of media and aiming to develop students’ all-around skills. Findings also reveal that students’ language competence and multiliteracies competence are indeed greatly enhanced through drama teaching and learning. Implications for further teacher development are discussed, including offering English drama education in pre-service programs, enhancing acting skills mentoring in internship and in-service training, and observing and reflecting on one’s own and their peers’ drama teaching practices and raising their multiliteracies awareness and intercultural awareness.

Ethnic Chinese University Students' Perceptions toward Learning Competence Promotion in High School English Classes in China

The present study examines the extent to which key competence and learning competence in particular are promoted in the high school English classes attended by Chinese students. Eight hundred and thirty five college freshmen at a comprehensive four-year university in Jilin Province were surveyed on their experiences in high school English classes. In part 1 of the survey, we found that high school English instruction in China tends to be exam-focused rather than emphasizing the development of key competences. In part 2 of the survey, we found that three aspects of learning competence – attitudes toward learning English, meta-cognitive awareness concerning one’s own English learning, and knowledge about English language instruction – are not consistently instilled in high school English classes. Virtually no differences between ethnic majority and minority students were observed in survey. We believe that because English instruction in Chinese high schools is exam-oriented so that instructors do not have enough time to enhance learning competences. Our conclusion is that reform of instructional methods needs to include greater attention to the aspects of learning competence.

Classroom goal structures: Observations from urban and rural high school classes in China

AbstractThis study reports on the goal structures of one rural and one urban Grade 11 class in China, based on classroom observations and teacher and student interviews. Classroom observations, conducted over a 6‐month period, focused on physical settings and classroom activities. In each class, seven students and the homeroom teacher were interviewed to discern their views about classroom goal structures. Results indicated that although high scores and rankings on tests were admired, students were also encouraged to master knowledge, exert effort, develop good habits, and learn from their errors, reflecting the coexistence of both mastery and performance goals. Comparisons revealed that the rural class had a predominantly examination‐oriented focus whereas the urban class did not place as great importance on examination outcomes. Implications of the findings for research and practices are discussed.

A Study on the Application of Reading-to-Write Approach in Senior High English Writing Classes

Reading-to-write approach, an increasingly popular English teaching model in China, refers to the integration of reading and writing together, through which learners can accumulate various writing skills from reading materials, such as useful vocabulary, sentence patterns, and text structures. And then they are required to write in the form of imitation, rewriting, continuation and so on. As a result, these two processes are both emphasized and mutual promoted at the same time. The present paper explored the current situation of senior high English writing classes in China and the effects of this newly developed model combined with group cooperation and peer assessment. Students from a high school in Nanjing were invited as research participants. Original data collected from questionnaires, interviews and exams was carefully analyzed. The results showed that the reading-to-write approach was feasible and effective, and exerted positive influence on students’ English writing interest, writing ability, and their sense of self-efficacy to some degree. Meanwhile, it was revealed that interactions between the teacher and students, together with peer assessments, were beneficial to create a harmonious atmosphere in class, as well as decreased the anxiety of writing. Therefore, students’ enthusiasm was stimulated greatly. English teachers can apply this method while teaching so that students’ language proficiency will be improved effectively. Group cooperation should also be taken into consideration.

Can Big Fish in a Small Pond Also Swim Happily? The Influence of Perceived Overqualification on Career Success

Building on the conservation of resource theory, this study tries to examine the effect of perceived overqualification (POQ) on career success as well as the associated underlying mechanism. Specifically, our study proposed a moderated mediation model in which perceived overqualification influenced career success through job crafting, and career concern was served as the first-stage moderator. All hypotheses were tested. We collected the data from 195 full-time employees from the MBA classes in China, using a series of regression analysis combined with bootstrapping method. Four conclusions were obtained: 1) POQ was positively related to objective and subjective career success; 2) Such relationships were partially mediated by job crafting; 3) Career concern moderated the relationship between POQ and job crafting, such that the higher the employees’ career concern, the stronger positive relationship between POQ and job crafting; 4) Career concern moderated the mediating effect of job crafting on the relationship between POQ and career success, such that this effect was stronger when employees’ career concern was high.

Social Class, Group-Based Anger, and Collective Action Intentions in China

This research examines the anger and collective action intentions among different social classes in China. Based on social cognition theory with respect to social class, we proposed that the relationship between group-based anger and collective action intentions would be moderated by social class. To test this hypothesis, two studies were conducted. First, using data collected from a sample of 100 residents of Hubei Province, China, Study 1 found that the relationship between group-based anger and collective action intentions was moderated by social class: group-based anger can predict collective action intentions among the upper social class but not among the lower social class. Then, Study 2 employed a 2 × 2 completely randomised design. Its 118 participants were manipulated to experience a momentary change in their subjective social class and the level of their group-based anger before measuring their collective action intentions. The results were consistent with Study 1. Taken together, the findings suggest that social class does moderate the relationship between group-based anger and collective action intentions.