Chinese Educational Context Research Articles

Chinese adolescents' achievement goal profiles and their relation to academic burnout, learning engagement, and test anxiety

The purpose of this study was to explore achievement goal profiles and their relation to academic burnout (emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy), learning engagement, and test anxiety in a Chinese educational context. Five goal profiles—high all, low all, mastery-oriented, moderate all, and approach-oriented—were identified through latent profile analysis. The approach-oriented profile was the most adaptive with less academic burnout, more learning engagement, and lower test anxiety, followed by the mastery-oriented profile. The high all profile, representing the highest proportion of Chinese adolescents, seemed not to exert more negative influence on students' learning than the mastery-oriented profile except with greater negative emotional experiences. The relation of achievement goal profiles to learning engagement and test anxiety was mediated by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy in some cases. This study contributes to deep understanding of achievement goals among Chinese adolescents.

The Role of Social Capital/Guanxi in Students’ Decision-Making about Postgraduate Education in China: An Explorative Case Study

This paper explores how the concept of social capital developed by Bourdieu and Coleman as well as the Chinese concept of guanxi (关系) or relationships facilitates students’ access to postgraduate education in a case study of a university in southeast China. The study comprises an initial survey of 381 first-year postgraduate students and a series of interviews with 30 participants. Social capital and guanxi inform analysis of the data. The results reveal that students from different social backgrounds employ different forms of social capital and guanxi networks in their decision-making about postgraduate education. They contribute to conceptualizations of how social capital is generated through guanxi in the Chinese educational context.

When testing stakes are no longer high: impact on the Chinese College English learners and their learning

It is now a consensus that high-stakes testing exerts powerful impact in controlling curriculum and pedagogy, and shaping students’ learning. The power of testing is especially strong in contexts where testing culture prevails. The Chinese educational context is such a context which is dominated by competitive tests. The language testing results from large-scale tests, such as CET-4 (College English Test—Band 4), used to be included as a compulsory prerequisite for undergraduates to get their bachelor’s degree. Such a requirement has been removed recently to reduce testing stakes for leverage purposes. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate whether the change will possibly help to impact students and their learning in a positive way.Our study aimed to explore the impact of changes in the stakes of a language test in the Chinese university context. Data were collected through questionnaires from 544 College English students at a university in north-western China. Our analysis via SPSS 2.3 showed that test-taking was still well accepted and practiced; while reducing the stakes helped to redirect the students towards English learning, it had less impact on their English learning motivation and approaches. The findings also show that the test-dominated environment that is deep-rooted in the macro- and micro-contexts decided the students’ responses to this policy change.

Improving postgraduate students' scientific literacy and self-efficacy using international collaborative research workshops: an exploratory case study in a Chinese university

Postgraduate education in China bears the dual mission of "high-end talent supply" and "scientific and technological innovation" as delegated by the Ministry of Education of China (2017). Improve the quality of postgraduate student training and management is essential for Chinese universities to meet this requirement. This paper investigates the practical effectiveness of using a specially designed, internationally collaborative research training workshop to enhance new Chinese postgraduate students' scientific literacy and self-efficacy. The research results show that the workshop, which integrates seminar presentations and both individual and group-based student activities, is of practical significance for improving the experiences of first-year postgraduate students. The findings indicate the application of enactive mastery and vicarious learning strategies in research training workshop effectively boost students' motivation, confidence and feeling of accomplishment at their early research career, and can provide ongoing benefits to support Chinese students to further develop research skills and capabilities. The positive findings in this exploratory study can inform future research projects to examine the transferability of this research training workshop model in the broader Chinese higher education context.

A Bourdieusian rebuttal to Bourdieu’s rebuttal: social network analysis, regression, and methodological breakthroughs

Bourdieu carved out a distinctive analytical niche for his reflexive sociology. His epistemological tool of field analysis, sometimes coupled with statistical correspondence analysis, is particularly powerful when deciphering the matrix of objective structures and subjective structures within social spaces (field) where agents vie for positions (capital), strategise dispositions (habitus), and negotiate practices. When grappling with the inner workings of the social world and the logic of practice within the social world, Bourdieu favours his field theory over network theory and considers correspondence analysis to be superior to regression analysis. In this paper, I argue that Bourdieu’s canonical theory-laden analytical framework does not exclude other methodological approaches. Indeed, Bourdieu himself argues against ‘methodological monotheism’. I therefore make an attempt to develop a Bourdieusian approach to Social Network Analysis (SNA) and regression analysis, despite Bourdieu’s explicit rebuttal to these methodological schools. To this end, I first review Bourdieu’s rebuttal to network analysis and regression analysis. I then tentatively incorporate SNA and regression into Bourdieu’s analytical framework. This is followed by an example of using SNA and regression in Bourdieusian research conducted in a Chinese educational context. In this vein, I engage with a Bourdieusian rebuttal to Bourdieu’s rebuttal.

College students’ views of ethical issues in classroom assessment in Chinese higher education

ABSTRACT Classroom assessment is an effective way to collect evidence about student learning, and a teacher’s professional responsibility in assessment is to use high quality, fair, and ethical assessment information to make decisions about students’ learning and teachers’ instruction. This study used a scenario-based survey and investigated college students’ perceptions about the ethicality of classroom assessment practices in Chinese higher education. Participants included 2711 college students from 177 universities located in 23 provinces and 4 municipalities in China. The results revealed that students reported very different levels of agreement with experts on the scenarios, and it appeared to be more challenging for them to recognize unethical assessment practices in comparison with ethical assessment practices. Students valued using multiple assessment methods but reported inconsistent views with experts regarding grading effort. Confidentiality and communication about grading were found to be the key assessment issues to be addressed in Chinese educational context.

Emotions and creativity as predictors of resilience among L3 learners in the Chinese educational context

This study investigated the factors related to resilience among third language (L3) learners by using a positive psychological framework. Participants were 635 native Chinese-speaking L3 learners (other than Chinese and English) in three highly competitive secondary schools in China. First, the correlation results revealed intercorrelations among positive emotions, creativity and resilience that were all positive and in the moderate range, while negative emotions were negatively correlated with resilience and positively correlated with L3 extrinsic learning motivation; Second, multiple regression analyses revealed that after controlling for the demographical confounders, both creativity and positive/negative emotions significantly predicted resilience in L3 learners. In addition, creativity showed a stronger predictive effect than emotions on resilience among the L3 learners. Further, an indirect effect of creativity was found between emotions and resilience, consistent with the broaden-and-build theory suggesting that positive emotional experiences enables learners to perceive learning contexts from a creative, flexible perspective resulting in the build up of psychological resources (e.g., resilience). Strategies for bringing positive emotions and fostering creativity among language learners in educational contexts through classroom teaching and learning exercises are discussed.

An Analysis of the Representation of Practical Work in Secondary Chemistry Textbooks from Different Chinese Communities

This study analyzes representations of practical work in 10th-grade chemistry textbooks and associated experimental workbooks from different Chinese communities, namely from the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and the Chinese sector in Malaysia. This paper contributes to the current body of knowledge of how practical work in secondary chemistry education is suggested to be applied in Chinese educational contexts. A total of 508 representations related to practical work was identified in seven sets of textbooks. The goal was to gain basic insights into the features associated with suggested approaches to practical work in the textbooks. Our focus was on the suggested type of learning, intended learning outcomes, inquiry level, and aspects of students' engagement with practical work. The results indicate a prevalence of prescribed experiments. This preference is then followed by illustrations of facts and laboratory operation processes. However, only a limited amount of scientific inquiries with at least some amount of openness belongs to the list of preferred items. The intended learning outcomes mainly aim at learning facts. Most textbooks suggest using a structured learning approach. Some suggestions of inquiry-based learning using either guided or open inquiry approaches do occur, but they are relatively limited in the textbooks and do not appear as frequently.

Task-based Approach to Develop Intercultural Communicative Competence in College English Education

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is a hot topic in foreign language teaching and learning. This paper discusses about task-based approach to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence in SUSE English class. In so doing, this paper provides theoretical foundations of concepts about intercultural communicative competence and task-based approach. Meanwhile, this paper describes the feasible tasks used in real class and find it is possible to develop students’ intercultural communicative competence in Chinese educational context.

Academic Interest Scale for Adolescents: Development, Validation, and Measurement Invariance With Chinese Students.

Hidi and Renninger’s four-phase interest development model was identified as the most complete and widely used theoretical model illustrating the essence of academic interest. Using the model along with current research literature as a basis, this study aimed to develop and initially validate a generic multidimensional instrument to measure academic interest across different school subjects in the Chinese education context; this instrument was called the Academic Interest Scale for Adolescents (AISA). Three large samples of Chinese junior high school students were recruited by cluster sampling in the study. (1) Sample 1 (N = 552; 45.5% girls; 12.31 [SD = 0.98] years, range = 10–15 years) completed the draft of AISA, Intrinsic Motivation Scale and Scale for Adolescents’ Flow State in Learning in math and English. (2) Sample 2 (a subgroup of Sample 1, 411 students) completed the AISA in math and English again 2 months later after the first survey. (3) Sample 3 (N = 1,780; 50.1% girls; 13.69 [SD = 0.97] years, range = 12–16 years) completed the AISA in math, English, and Chinese. Identically worded items were used in AISA, except for the name of the subject. An exploratory factor analysis for math in sample 1 using principle axis factoring and promax rotation resulted in a 29-item AISA containing four dimensions: emotion, value, knowledge, and engagement, and the latent variables together explained 59.40% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis for math, English, and Chinese in sample 3 suggested the four-factor model fits well in different samples and subjects. Scale scores showed adequate internal consistency (the Cronbach’s α for AISA and each subscale ranged from 0.86 to 0.93) and acceptable test-criterion relationships (correlations between the AISA score and intrinsic motivation and flow state in learning > 0.51, ps < 0.001). Furthermore, the structural measure invariance across subjects, time (2-month interval), genders and grades were upheld. The AISA promises to be a useful tool for the evaluation of academic interest among Chinese adolescents and can be administered in different educational settings, i.e., different subjects, time, genders, and grades.

Research on Chinese High-School Students’ English Learning Motivation from the Self System Perspective

L2 motivation has been proven to be an important factor for second language learning. The newly proposed framework of the L2 Motivational Self System by Dörnyei has offered researchers valuable insights into L2 motivation. However, few studies have been conducted on the L2 motivation of the English learners from a self perspective in the Chinese context. In consideration of the research gap and the distinctiveness of the Chinese high-school learners, this research aimed to explore L2 motivation among Chinese high-school students from the Self System perspective. A mixed methods approach of the questionnaire with follow-up semi-structured interview was utilized in the study. 128 students (randomly selected) from 4 high-schools in Wuhan in central China filled in the questionnaire survey, and six of them joined the interview. The results of the study showed that: 1) the key component of the L2 Motivational Self System, the Ideal L2 Self cannot be the reinterpretation of integrativeness in Chinese educational contexts; 2) among three dimensions of the Self system, the language learning experience had the highest correlation with learners’ motivation, followed by the Ideal L2 Self, with the Ought-to L2 Self produced the weakest correlation. Based on findings, some practical implications for English teaching are revealed. Keywords: L2 Motivational Self System, English language learning, Chinese high-school students, integrativeness, the Ideal L2 Self, the Ought-to L2 Self, language learning experience DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-26-07 Publication date :September 30 th 2019

“The Students Have Been Spoilt Previously”

The professional development of Chinese teachers of Chinese as a foreign language (cfl) in Europe is confronted with various complex educational challenges and problems. Traditional Chinese educational schemata and cultural values have great impact on these teachers’ professional beliefs and their perceptions. My case studies of six cfl teachers show that their professional challenges are connected with the cultural differences of Chinese and German educational contexts. Open-ended questions, in-depth interviews and classroom observation were employed. And multiple data sources, such as the transcripts of teacher interviews, field notes were included. Cross-case analysis indicated that the cfl teachers have to deal with some conflicts of their previous biographies and new requirements of local educational context, such as teacher-centered didactics versus student-centered didactics, traditional Chinese language approaches versus intercultural communicative didactics; strict classroom discipline versus acknowledgement of students’ individuality etc. I depict their professional development by employing a theoretic framework of developmental task theory, i.e. professional competence, mediation, acknowledgment and institution. My study may help to shed light on understanding the individual difficulties that cfl teachers face in overseas teaching environments. The study’s findings and recommendations therefore are of significance for the future design of teacher training for cfl teachers in Germany and in other European countries.

Foregrounding intersectionality in rural youth’s schooling experiences in China: a queer re-reading

This article uses a queer lens in an intersectional analysis of students’ schooling experiences in rural China. I argue that a queer perspective has been largely neglected and issues related to sexuality have not been carefully investigated in Chinese educational contexts. Drawing on queer theory and an intersectional framework, I re-interpret one of my earlier qualitative studies ‘queerly’ and examine the different ways that the discourses of sexuality and gender shape rural Chinese students’ schooling lives. Findings reveal that these discourses marginalize both effeminate boys who demonstrate ‘too little’ masculinity and male ‘troublemakers’ who perform ‘too much’ masculinity. This queer route of rereading also disrupts other constructions of normalcy associated with class- and place-based identities, such as students’ ‘half-rural identity.’ The analysis shows the importance of foregrounding the intersectional dimensions of inequalities and embracing a queer theoretical framework in understanding rural education in China.

Teachers' Growth Mindset and Work Engagement in the Chinese Educational Context: Well-Being and Perseverance of Effort as Mediators.

The current study investigated the relationships among growth mindset, work engagement, perseverance of effort and well-being for secondary school teachers in the Chinese educational context. We adopted Growth Mindset Inventory, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Grit Scale (Perseverance subscale), and PERMA profiles that measure five dimensions of well-being. Participants included 472 secondary school teachers from 10 secondary schools in central China. Correlation analysis showed that growth mindset, well-being, and perseverance of effort could all predict work engagement. Moreover, the structural equation model and mediation analysis further suggested that well-being and perseverance of effort could partially mediate the relationship between growth mindset and work engagement. This study permitted to advance our knowledge about the relationship between growth mindset and work engagement, which should be considered for future teaching practices and teacher development.

Teacher Professional Collaboration in China: Practices and Issues

Fostering higher-order thinking skills of students is important aim for 21st century education. Teachers, as important elements in a positive learning environment, are the key to high quality education. As for the importance of teacher professional collaboration in teacher development, Hargreaves and Fullan (2012) pointed out that teachers’ professional collaboration will benefit not only students but also the whole school community, and even society at large. In Chinese context, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (2010) issued a policy in 2010 promoting teacher professional collaboration and development as a background of this study, implying that teachers must be collaborating actively with colleagues in daily professional life to achieve collective growth for the purpose of improving student learning. Based on the policy reality, this study explored teacher professional collaboration in the Chinese education context. It looked in particular at practices and issues in teacher professional collaboration. This article begins with the definitions of teacher professional collaboration, followed by a detailed exploration of this type of collaboration in Chinese education and issues related to its implementation. This study will provide holistic picture of teacher collaboration in China for contributing to theoretical development and educational practice.

Examining cross-cultural transferability of self-regulated learning model: an adaptation of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire for Chinese adult learners

ABSTRACT This study investigated the psychometric properties of an adapted Chinese version of Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Data were collected from 611 college students from two Chinese universities on the scales of Motivation and Learning Strategies. Results suggested that cross-cultural adaptation and modification were necessary when addressing the transferability of self-regulated learning (SRL) models from Western culture to Eastern culture, particularly in the Chinese educational context. The adapted models indicated absence of Intrinsic Goal Orientation, ambiguity of Peer Learning, and split of managing resources of study time and place among Chinese adult learners. Re-specified models were tested and adequate reliability and model fit indices were reported in MSLQ for Chinese adult learners (MSLQ-CAL) with 52 items. These modifications were discussed with theoretical and empirical perspectives related to SRL.

How unique is the foreign language classroom enjoyment and anxiety of Chinese EFL learners?

Recent research has shown that Chinese foreign language learners' classroom emotions stand out from learners in the rest of the world. The present mixed-method study investigated to what extent foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) of 564 Chinese undergraduate EFL learners are different from learners outside China. While mean levels of FLE and FLCA were found to differ, most of the patterns between FLE and FLCA and a range of learner-internal and teacher-related variables were comparable to those identified in previous research, except for Chinese students' dislike of unpredictable behaviour by the teacher. Participants reported similar levels of FLE but higher levels of FLCA compared to the international sample in Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014), which could be attributed to the Chinese educational context. Multiple regression analyses revealed that FLE was predicted more strongly by teacher-related variables while FLCA was mostly predicted by learner-internal variables, confirming earlier research outside China. Qualitative analysis of learners’ emotional experiences also revealed that FLE was more likely to have been triggered by the teacher while FLCA was more related to learners themselves. Pedagogical implications of the findings are provided for EFL teaching in Chinese universities.

Interpersonal communication competence and digital citizenship among pre-service teachers in China’s teacher preparation programs

The Internet, new media and social change have created issues requiring digital citizenship education, particularly within the socio-cultural context of Chinese education. Recent digital citizenship standards for education developed by organizations such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) highlight the importance of this issue. Researchers have explored digital citizenship with some mediated behavioral determinants; however, the critical influence of interpersonal communication competence (ICC) has not yet been explored. To expand understanding of the components needed for improving the appropriateness of digital citizenship among future role models of society, this study investigates the relationship between ICC skills and digital citizenship with a sample of 905 pre-service teachers. The results showed that 10 ICC skills were positively predictive of digital citizenship. Environmental control and immediacy were found to be the strongest predictors of digital citizenship among the skills examined. These results theoretically emphasize the importance of ICC skills in mediated behavior and provide practical direction for improving pre-service teachers’ digital citizenship, which can positively enable the behavior instructors display and convey to their future students.

Regular education teachers’ concerns on inclusive education in China from the perspective of concerns-based adoption model

ABSTRACTTeachers’ concerns have been regarded as one of the key variables closely associated with successful implementation of innovative educational changes. China has initiated educational reform toward inclusive education since 1980s. Research related to inclusive education is very limited and teachers’ concerns remain unclear and are seldom investigated. The purpose of this study is to investigate the levels of Chinese regular education teachers’ concerns towards inclusive education by utilising Concerns-Based Adoption Model as a framework. The Stages of Concern Questionnaire was refined to conform to the Chinese educational context and administered for data collection in Beijing from a sample of 425 regular education teachers. The result indicates that regular education teachers make decisions on whether or not to implement inclusive education based on what they know about inclusive education and how effective it is to be. Regular education teachers demonstrate a ‘Multiple Peak User Profile’ in the Stages of Concern model, and that their concerns vary according to a few demographic factors. The results inform educational leaders’ decision making in improving programmes for teachers’ professional development for inclusion.

Leadership Behaviors and Mentoring Effectiveness

Good teacher mentors do not merely refer to expert teachers. They are the mentors who display various leadership behaviors and styles to encourage and support mentees in achieving their goals. This paper explores mentors’ leadership styles and behaviors in the Chinese education context. A qualitative research was designed and carried out. Analysis of the mentors’ responses to interview questions suggested that the mentors have been “leading” the less experienced new teachers into their new profession by using the non-authoritarian directive leadership behavior throughout the mentoring process. However, there still remain some contextual factors that may influence their effectiveness, including the lack of contextual supports and pretermission of training for the mentors.