Examination-oriented Education System Research Articles

The interdependence of educational alienation and equality: rethinking China’s examination-oriented education system

The interdependence of educational alienation and equality: rethinking China’s examination-oriented education system

A Study on the Relationship Between Academic Stress and Mental Health Among High School Students in South Korea

This study examines the complex interplay between academic stress and mental health among South Korean high school students, employing a participant-centric research design with both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. It delves into the highly competitive academic environment, emphasizing societal pressures and the examination-oriented education system. Academic stress is comprehensively explored, defining its multifaceted nature and identifying key stressors. Findings categorize students into stress profiles, mapping varying degrees of stress and identifying common triggers. Correlations between academic stress and mental health outcomes are discussed, along with insights from subgroup analyses. Implications for education emphasize policy reform and a balanced, supportive environment, while holistic mental health support is recommended through integrated resources and stigma reduction.

Shyness and Learning Adjustment in Senior High School Students: Mediating Roles of Goal Orientation and Academic Help Seeking.

Learning maladjustment is a common phenomenon in the context of examination-oriented education system in china, especially among high school students who experience intense pressure when preparing for the national college entrance examination. Previous literature suggests that shyness may negatively affect ones’ cognition, emotion, and behavioral performance and lead to academic and social maladjustment. Therefore, learning adjustment among shy high school students is a critical and practical point of inquiry. With a sample of 677 Chinese senior high school students, this study aims to assess the association between shyness and learning adjustment and related mechanisms of goal orientation (i.e., mastery-approach goals, mastery-avoid goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoid goals) and academic help seeking (i.e., instrumental help seeking from teacher, instrumental help seeking from classmate, executive help seeking, and avoidance of help seeking). Self-report measures were adopted to collect information on: demographic characteristics, the level of shyness, goal orientation, academic help seeking, and learning adjustment. Results indicated that shyness was negatively correlated with learning adjustment, and this association was mediated by the dimensions of goal orientation and dimensions of academic help seeking. Specifically, shyness not only predicted learning adjustment through mastery-approach goals, and instrumental help seeking (teachers) but also predicted learning adjustment through the multiple mediating effects of the dimensions of goal orientation and the dimensions of academic help seeking (i.e., mastery-approach goals and instrumental help seeking from teachers, mastery-approach goals and executive help seeking, mastery-avoid goals and instrumental help seeking from classmates, mastery-avoid goals and executive help seeking, and performance-avoid goals and executive help seeking). Identifying these mediators further enables us to work out effective measures to promote shy high school students’ learning adjustment.

Taoist wisdom on individualized teaching and learning—Reinterpretation through the perspective of Tao Te Ching

In an era when individuality has been increasingly emphasized, the development of science and technology has provided technical support for the realization of individuation. However, in an examination-oriented education system, the education model has not attached sufficient importance to individuality. The modern education industry focuses much on the massive production of college degree holders. Student’s unique talents are mostly neglected, and their personality and creativity are not given due consideration in the teaching process. It is time to emphasize individualized teaching and learning in the contemporary paradigm of education. Taoist wisdom of individuality, pluralism, and diversity has great philosophical value and practical revelation to the modern education. Thus, an eastern perspective on the understanding of individualized teaching and learning is presented. The author argues that a university should not be an industrial factory, but a nurturing garden where students’ nature as humans are understood and their individual differences are respected. Some Taoist transformative paradigms for the future pedagogies are proposed in the hope of provoking arguments and exploring the future of higher education in an age of disruption. Finally, some Taoist practices for a better understanding of individualized teaching and learning are introduced.

Development and validation of brief scales to measure emotional and behavioural problems among Chinese adolescents

ObjectivesTo develop and validate brief scales to measure common emotional and behavioural problems among adolescents in the examination-oriented education system and collectivistic culture of China.SettingMiddle schools in Hunan province.Participants5442 middle...

AUDIO CLIPS IN DEVELOPING LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS IN MALAYSIAN PRIMARY ESL CLASSROOMS

Listening skill has been an under-emphasised skill in many English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms until recent decades. To keep up with the global advancement of technology, many studies on listening skills have integrated use of technology. In Malaysia, listening skills are also often neglected due to the highly examination-oriented education system. Since communication and technology competence are important 21st century skills, learners should be exposed to listening skills using no less than multimedia, especially when technology is inaccessible in rural parts of the country. This paper aims to examine the perceptions of teachers and pupils in using audio clips to develop listening comprehension skills in a rural primary school in Sarawak, East Malaysia, where digital facilities and internet connection are lacking in many parts of the state. Focus group interviews were conducted with two teachers and three ESL pupils after six weekly listening activities using audio clips based on the textbooks. Findings indicated that the teachers found audio clips to be useful and convenient, while pupils exhibited more interest and concentration during lessons. All respondents believed that audio clips could encourage the development of listening comprehension skills. Finally, it is recommended that audio clips could be expanded into a listening module that slowly moves towards authentic listening to equip learners with real-world skills and experiences.

Challenges and Strategies for Teachers and Learners of English as a Second Language: The Case of an Urban Primary School in Kenya

With over 40 spoken tongues in Kenya, English serves as a language of instruction in schools and is taught from the onset of schooling, making the language a significant factor in academic achievement and subsequent social mobility. This article draws on a case study conducted in an urban multilingual primary school in Kenya and focuses on the challenges and strategies for teaching and learning English as a second language (ESL) in primary schools. The findings are based on evidence gathered from teachers, through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, and from pupils, through learner diaries. The data show a strategic approach to teaching and learning English and reveal the tremendous effort invested by teachers and learners in grappling with the challenges of learning English in the context of an unresolved national language policy, interference from regional linguistic heritage languages and an examination-oriented education system. The strategies deployed by teachers to address these challenges include varied instructional approaches and creating a warm classroom climate to provide a non-threatening environment for learning and language acquisition. Data from pupils shows that group based interactions with their peers and individual reinforcement strategies, such as keeping vocabulary notebooks, are the most common learner strategies. The study shows how school-based research can give teachers and learners a voice in the development of successful language teaching and learning strategies for complex and challenging multilingual environments.

Democratization of secondary education in Malaysia: attitudes towards schooling and educational aspirations

As a consequence of the democratization of secondary education in Malaysia beginning in the 1990s, many students who do not have academic credentials are allowed to progress to upper secondary education. This study examines the attitudes of these students towards two important aspects of schooling – namely, learning and examinations, as well as their educational aspirations – to assess the extent to which they have fulfilled the aims of the democratization of secondary education, among which is to produce more highly trained and well-educated manpower. A questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews were conducted in five sampled schools to explore the issues from various perspectives. The attitudes of the students towards learning and examinations as well as their levels of educational aspirations were generally found to be wanting regardless of their background. This study has revealed the internal contradiction of the democratization of secondary education in Malaysia. The democratization of secondary education within the ambit of a highly academic and examination-oriented education system has not served the needs of academically weak students. This study has also revealed the lack of alternative educational opportunities available to these students. The lack of resolve among teachers to handle these students and enough counsellors to guide them through the schooling process further complicate their problems.

Research on Innovative Talents Training Mode Based on Off-Campus High-End Practice Environment

Through an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of current undergraduate professional talents training modes and traditional examination-oriented education system, the importance of the vantage teaching resources complementation between the off-campus high-end practice environment and the in-campus innovative talents cultivation system is studied and discussed. At the same time, the new problems that how high-end courses teaching method, management mechanism and knowledge system will be naturally suited and extended to outside high-end practice environment and training organization are addressed. These problems must be systemally resolved through reformation, and some key thoughts and methods resolved these problems are introduced in this paper. These thoughts and methods have a good reference for Chinese higher education at present.