Normal Universities In China Research Articles

Teaching methods for large student groups at a Chinese university

The aim of teaching at tertiary level is to reinforce education by developing effective teaching methods and organizational forms as well as enhancing teacher-student interaction. The purpose of this article is to share the authors’ experience of applying a contextual teaching approach as one of the main forms of interactive classroom technology within large groups of students at a Chinese university providing pre-service teacher training. Methodology. The study applied general levels of theory (analysis, synthesis, and comparison) to find the most effective teaching methods for classroom interaction within large student groups, as well as methods of empirical level (supervision and discussion) to understand the characteristics of large student groups in China. Results. Teaching the course “Teaching Methods of English” at Shangqiu Normal University in China, in 2023/24 academic year required an investigation into the most suitable teaching methods for effective interaction within large student groups (120 students). The decision was made in favour of interactive teaching technology, in particular a contextual teaching model. The reason for the choice was dictated by the necessity to keep such a large number of students motivated and engaged during lessons. Academic learning activity (in the form of interactive, problem-based lecture) and quasi-professional activity (in the form of role-playing, professional simulations and others) became the core of student activities. Conclusions. The authors’ experience enables us to assert that interactive teaching technology, namely a contextual teaching approach is highly recommended for addressing large student groups.

Development and validation of attitudes toward inclusive education scale among Chinese normal universities students’ attitudes

PurposeInclusive education plays a crucial role in integrating students with special educational needs (SEN) into mainstream schools, where the attitudes of pre-service teachers are pivotal. Despite recognizing the significance of these attitudes, there is currently a gap in understanding the perspectives of students attending normal universities in China regarding inclusive education practices. This study aims to bridge this gap by creating the Chinese version of the Normal Universities Students’ Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale (NUSATIES) and examining its psychometric properties.MethodsIn the context of China, this study validated and assessed the reliability of the Chinese adaptation of the NUSATIES among a sample of 4,091 students from normal universities. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to confirm the scale’s structural integrity, discriminant validity, and convergent validity. Additionally, Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (CR) were used to evaluate the scale’s internal consistency and reliability.ResultsThe findings indicated that the Chinese version of the NUSATIES possessed robust validity and reliability, which comprises three factors (i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral intention). The findings revealed that normal university students’ attitudes significantly varied based on specialty; students specializing in special education exhibited more positive attitudes towards inclusive education than those in general education.ConclusionThese findings indicate that the scale is effective in measuring attitudes toward inclusive education in Chinese-speaking countries. This study significantly contributes to the field by emphasizing the importance of positive attitudes among normal university students in fostering inclusive education and by offering a validated tool for assessing these attitudes.

Effects of blended learning in physical education on university students’ exercise attitudes and basketball skills: a cluster randomized controlled trial

BackgroundThe importance of physical education in higher education is widely recognized, as it improves not only exercise attitudes and motor skills but also physical fitness, social skills, and academic performance. However, physical education courses in Chinese colleges and universities face various constraints, such as a shortage of teachers, limited teaching methods, and insufficient resources, resulting in low student motor skills, negative attitudes toward sports, and low participation rates. This study explores the effectiveness of a blended learning model, which integrates traditional face-to-face instruction with online learning components, in improving university students’ exercise attitudes and basketball skills.MethodsThe research was conducted in 2022 at Luoyang Normal University in China, utilizing a cluster randomized controlled trial (CRCT) with 78 healthy first-year university students. Participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (blended learning) or the control group (traditional learning), and the intervention lasted 16 weeks. Exercise attitudes were assessed via the Exercise Attitude Scale, whereas basketball skills were evaluated via set shot and half-court dribbling and shooting tests.ResultsBoth instructional models improved students’ exercise attitudes and basketball skills; however, the blended learning model demonstrated significantly superior outcomes. Effect sizes (d) ranging from 0.57 to 1.92 indicated that the experimental group showed greater improvements in behavior attitude, target attitude, behavior cognition, behavior intention, emotional experience, behavior control, and subjective standards. In basketball skills, the experimental group outperformed the control group in set shots (d = 0.56) and half-court dribbling and shooting (d = 0.46).ConclusionCompared with traditional methods, blended learning significantly enhances university students’ exercise attitudes and basketball skills. Future research should explore the long-term effects and underlying mechanisms of blended learning in physical education, involving larger and more diverse samples to validate these findings.

The influence of information technologies on creative and critical thinking of students / La influencia de las tecnologías de la información en el pensamiento crítico y creativo de los estudiantes

Innovative information technology is developing rapidly and is penetrating many areas of life, including education. The paper measures the impact of innovative information technology, using augmented reality (AR) as an example, on the development of creativity and critical thinking among students. The study was conducted among 180 students from Tonghua Normal University in China. The research design: a pre-test and post-test experiment with a control group. The following research findings were obtained: academic knowledge of the experimental group was higher (15.73) than that of the control group (12.13). ARLE model improved critical thinking (8.77 in AR group, 7.60 in the traditional group) and creativity (593 in AR group, 570 in the traditional group). The resulting data demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed model of learning with the augmented reality technology. The research findings have practical implications. For example, they may be used to create new augmented reality apps for other disciplines and majors. The study presents recommendations on the development of creative and critical thinking, which teachers of various disciplines can apply in practice. The impact of other digital tools in education needs to be carefully studied to determine their effectiveness.

Work Values Influencing Level of Satisfaction Among Instructors in a Normal University in China

Work Values Influencing Level of Satisfaction Among Instructors in a Normal University in China

Pre-service geography teachers from normal universities in China: what do their master’s degree theses focus on and imply?

Master’s degree-level graduates in Subject Teaching (Geography) (hereinafter referred to as STG) in Chinese normal universities form a valuable pool of pre-service secondary school geography teachers. These graduates provide a comprehensive picture of the quality, focus and outcomes of current geography teacher training programs. However, there is a relative dearth of research appertaining to their research capabilities and the quality of their educational development. To address this gap, the present study adopts bibliometric and comparative analysis to shed light on the overall trends and specific characteristics of STG master’s theses from 2016 to 2022. The findings indicate that universities with divergent levels of subject assessment prioritize different research emphases, leading to variations in the depth of investigation into new teaching materials and the level of alignment with frontline geography teaching. Furthermore, in comparison with cutting-edge international and domestic research, the master’s theses of STG students are characterized by microscopic scale and insufficient depth. A three-pronged collaborative framework has therefore been advocated with the aim of enhancing the quality of STG graduates as pre-service geography teachers. This comprises close interactions among on-campus and off-campus tutors and learners, a partnership between universities and secondary schools, and inter-university cooperation.

Assessment of preservice physics teachers’ knowledge of student understanding of force and motion

In physics education, a number of studies have developed assessments of teachers’ knowledge of student understanding (KSU) of specific physics concepts with modified versions of existing concept inventories, in which teachers were asked to predict the popular incorrect answers from students. The results provide useful but indirect information to make inferences about teachers’ knowledge of the misconceptions that students may be using in answering the questions. To improve the assessment of teachers’ KSU, a new instrument is developed using a three-tier item design. The items were adapted from 17 questions from the Force Concept Inventory on force and motion. Each item was designed in three tiers, with tier 1 asking for teachers’ own answers to the question to test their content knowledge, tier 2 asking for teachers’ predictions of popular students’ incorrect answers, and tier 3 asking for teachers’ explanations of students’ incorrect answers in an open-ended form. The three-tier design captures teachers’ content knowledge, predictions, and explanations in a single item to allow explicit measures of teachers’ own content knowledge and their KSU on students’ misconceptions. The instrument was validated with preservice physics teachers, who were master-level graduate students in a normal university in China. The assessment results also suggest that the preservice teachers’ KSU of force and motion was only moderately developed, and their content knowledge was uncorrelated with their KSU. In addition, a four-level progression scale of KSU was also developed, which categorized the preservice teachers into five proficiency groups. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

The Performance Assessment of Chinese Students in College and the Role of English Language

This research paper addresses the importance of investigating local students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of English as a medium of communication in and out of the classroom. Interviews with semi-structured questions of intrinsic and extrinsic nature through five-Likert scale were conducted in 140 undergraduate students who have been pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Zhengzhou Normal University in China. Descriptive analysis and factor component analysis (FCA) used for obtaining the results. The intrinsic and extrinsic nature of findings demonstrate that English considerably impacts their academic progress and performance. Furthermore, the findings show that students are eager to accept, support, and encourage their friends to adapt English to generate new knowledge and information. The findings also imply that local English instructors should be paid well and have a strong social position as teaching faculty. The findings suggest that curriculum improvement, content adjustment, and frequent use of English in exploration approaches to instruction, with the ultimate objective of opening up new avenues of knowledge, may significantly improve English effectiveness in student performance and career development.

Conceptual Framework: Fostering Multicultural Music Education Innovation at Anyang Normal University in China

Conceptual Framework: Fostering Multicultural Music Education Innovation at Anyang Normal University in China

Knowledge Graph Construction and Personalised Learning Path Generation Mechanism for Online English Teaching and Learning

Abstract With the accelerated development of educational intelligence, the application of online English teaching has become more and more widespread. This paper constructs a knowledge map for online English teaching, which serves as the foundation for a personalized learning path generation model, with the goal of offering students deeply personalized English teaching services. Spectral convolution is used to transfer the filter and graph signals in the graph convolution network to the Fourier domain for computation, and the graph convolution neural network is used to generate the online English teaching knowledge map. Learner preferences are obtained by improving the knowledge graph convolutional network, and the learning path recommendation algorithm MKGLR is proposed. 50 first-year students of educational technology at Henan Normal University in China have been selected as the research subjects to carry out an online English teaching experiment. After the experiment, the average study duration of students decreased from 83.62 hours to 76.8 hours, the performance of online learning behavior improved significantly, and the number of classroom interactions, the number of homework submissions, and the number of resource accesses increased compared to the pre-experiment (Sig<0.01). There was a significant difference. The evaluation values of the usefulness and satisfaction dimensions increased by 43.42% and 26.77%, respectively, compared to the pre-experiment.

Dilemmas and Strategies of Volunteer Teaching Internships in Local Normal Universities in China—Based on a Survey of Chinese Language and Literature (Normal) Major Interns at M College

Dilemmas and Strategies of Volunteer Teaching Internships in Local Normal Universities in China—Based on a Survey of Chinese Language and Literature (Normal) Major Interns at M College

Experiences of Martial Arts Coaches Dealing with Parents: Managing Relationship

This study examines the experiences of martial arts coaches dealing with parents and how they manage their relationships as coaches. The research was conducted at Chongqing Normal University in China, involving five university martial arts coaches who have been serving for at least 18 years. The study revealed that these coaches have a passion for teaching and a strong emphasis on research, competition, and professional development. The experiences coaches have with parents before training are multi- faceted, encompassing various themes that contribute to fostering a positive and supportive environment. As coaches guide their trainees or athletes through the training process, the interactions between coaches and parents play a pivotal role in shaping the overall journey. Post-training interactions focus on various themes that aim to foster a supportive and encouraging environment for the young athletes. During a competition, the involvement of parents in the training process takes on a new dimension, and their interaction with coaches becomes crucial to the athletes' performance. After the competition concludes, coaches engage invital interactions with the parents of their trainees or athletes to reflect on the performance and progress achieved. Recommendations from the study include maintaining regular communication with parents, educating them about the martial arts discipline, highlighting character development, discipline, and respect, requesting positive reinforcement rather than solely on competition results, clearly communicating training goals and expectations, offering constructive feedback after competitions or training sessions, encouraging parents to participate in specific training activities, managing expectations realistically, and demonstrating professionalism, respect, and dedication as a coach.

The Coaching Principles Self - Study: Outdoor Sports Events Coach Experiences

This qualitative descriptive study deals with the coaching principles of outdoor sports events as the coaches’ experience. The study was conducted at the Physical Education and Health Sciences of Chongqing Normal University in China. The researcher utilized 10 coaches of outdoor sports including volleyball, tennis, track and field, and football coaches who were chosen using the purposive sampling. The study therefore recommends that: 1) Coaches should prioritize their own development by staying updated with the latest coaching techniques, sports science, and research. 2) Adopting a student-centered approach involves understanding the unique needs and abilities of each individual on the team. 3) Coaches should develop well-structured training plans and set clear, achievable goals for both the team and individual athletes. 4) Coaches should foster a positive and supportive environment where athletes feel encouraged to learn and grow. 5) Coaches must conduct risk assessments and develop risk management plans to ensure the safety and well-being of their team. 6) Building strong team unity and positive relationships among team members can lead to improved cooperation and performance. 7) Recognizing that athletes have different learning styles and needs, coaches should tailor their teaching methods to accommodate individual differences.

How Prepared are China's Preservice Mathematics Teachers? An Insight into their Cognition of Space Concept Literacy

At present, the research on space concept literacy in junior high school is a hot topic in the field of education in China. Many scholars have conducted research from different directions, but there is still a gap in the current research on preservice mathematics teachers' cognitive degree of space concept literacy. Therefore, this study used a semi-structured interview method to investigate 10 undergraduates and 10 graduates in a normal university in China to obtain their understanding of the contents related to space concept literacy. The results show that: 1. The cognitive breadth of space concept literacy is high, and most preservice mathematics teachers can cognize all the contents. 2. The cognitive clarity is relatively high. Most preservice teachers have a clear understanding of the cognitive contents, but the cognition of the value is relatively vague. 3. The cognitive accuracy is not high, and only a few preservice teachers can accurately master all the contents, among which the connotation is better, while the cultivation goals and value are worse. 4. The common implementation focus is the following three aspects: preparation of space concept literacy, cultivation of space concept literacy, and intensification of space concept literacy. 5. The cognition of the implementation focus is rational. However, preservice teachers have little understanding of content structuring and overall unit instructional design as suggested by the Standards, and lack the ability to capture emerging technologies such as AR technology.

A further study on the Belisana spiders (Araneae: Pholcidae) from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China.

Species of the spider genus Belisana Thorell, 1898 exhibit high diversity in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. Currently, 14 species have been recorded. In this study, three additional new species of Belisana from Xishuangbanna are described and illustrated based on specimens from the collection of Shenyang Normal University in China. They are: Belisana chuandiani Li, Zheng & Yao sp. nov. (male, female), B. daxiangi Li, Zheng & Yao sp. nov. (male), and B. fengzheni Li, Zheng & Yao sp. nov. (male, female). Moreover, the female of B. zhengi Yao, Pham & Li, 2015 is reported for the first time. Taxonomic keys for identification of males and females of Belisana species from Xishuangbanna are also presented.

Effects of Chinese Language Learning Anxiety on the Mental Health of International Students in China: The Chain Mediating Effect of Campus Adaptation and Academic Resilience.

Studies have shown that Chinese language learning anxiety among international students in China can negatively affect their psychological adjustment. However, the specific effects and conditions of learning anxiety need to be further investigated. This study explored the mediating effects between Chinese language learning anxiety and psychological adjustment of international students in China. Chinese Learning Anxiety Scale, Campus Adaptability Scale for International Students in China, Academic Resilience Questionnaire for International Students in China, Zung's Self-Rated Depression Scale were administered to 307 international students from Nanjing Normal University in China, including 165 male students and 131 female students, aged 19-28 (M =21.42; SD = 1.528). Chinese language learning anxiety significantly predicted the psychological well-being of international students after controlling for gender and age variables. Furthermore, Chinese language learning anxiety predicted the mental health of students through the independent mediating effect of campus adaptation and academic resilience, as well as the chain mediating effect of campus adaptation and academic resilience. The study has theoretical and practical significance for improving international students' psychological adaptation and health, and implications for those involved in the management and teaching of international students in China. The research conclusions are as follows: firstly, when the Chinese learning anxiety of international students in China is strong, their campus adaptation and psychological resilience are reduced, and levels of depression increase; secondly, grades are significantly correlated with anxiety dimensions, and higher grades are associated with lower anxiety levels; finally, the mediating effects of campus adaptation and academic resilience were significant, together with a significant chain mediating effect of campus adaptation and academic resilience.

Factors affecting the formation of views of nature of science: A mixed-methods study

ABSTRACT Background The views of the nature of science (VNOS) is one of the important goals of science education. According to information processing constructivism, learners’ psychological factors that may influence VNOS include scientific argumentation (SA), metacognition (MC) and epistemic beliefs (EB). Purpose This mixed-methods study aims to analyse the effects of SA, MC and EB on the formation of VNOS. Sample Three hundred and twenty-seven undergraduates majoring in chemistry education participated in this study. They came from three normal universities in China, each with 78, 119 and 110 participants, respectively. Design and Methods MC, EB and VNOS scales and SA test were used to collect data. Structural equation model (SEM, N = 327) was used to reveal linear relationships. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA, N = 78) was used to reveal set relationships. Results SEM shows that SA and EB directly affect VNOS, with SA also having a mediating effect, and MC plays an indirect role through EB. FsQCA shows that a high-level SA is a sufficient and necessary condition for a high VNOS, and a low-level SA or ‘a low-level MC combined with a low-level EB’ are possible configurations for a low VNOS. Conclusion In the formation of VONS, SA plays a key role, and the combination of MC and EB plays a supporting role. Therefore, two simple ways to cultivate VNOS and suggestions are discussed.

Problems Faced by English Teachers in Developing Practical Knowledge in Pre-service Teacher Education in China

It is widely accepted that practical knowledge, which facilitates the development of teaching competence, lays a solid foundation for teaching competence and professionalization. However, it is underestimated and marginalized in the current arrangement of courses in teacher education in China. The theme of the paper is to reveal the problems faced by pre-service TEFL teachers in such a context and their expectations for a change in the future. Questionnaires were employed to explore the views of 64 randomly chosen participants among sophomore student teachers in China West Normal University in China. The results from the survey suggest that most students feel that they have a low level of competence in mastery of knowledge of language teaching, the strong influence from student teachers’ former English teachers’ instruction in secondary school, the lack of video-cases in developing student teachers’ teaching competence, the lack of practice with guidance from the experts and the lack of intimate knowledge of students in primary school and secondary school. The findings illuminated the problems faced by TEFL teachers in pre-service teacher education and showed us the possibility and necessity to combine video-case observation with lesson study to form a new teacher training mode in which theory and practice are to be connected tightly.

Research on the Teaching Design Ability of Mathematics Normal Students in Local Normal Universities in China

In order to ensure the smooth development of future work, normal university students must constantly improve their ability of teaching design. This paper uses text analysis method to study the teaching design ability of mathematics normal college students. This paper investigates the mathematics teaching design ability of normal university students from six aspects: overall teaching design, teaching objectives, key points and difficult points of teaching, teaching process, homework arrangement after class and teaching reflection. The results show that the students' overall understanding of teaching design is slightly biased, and the ability of compiling teaching objectives is not ideal, they are able to grasp the key and difficult points in teaching, but unable to put forward how to deal with the key and difficult points in teaching; The teaching process design is also deficient; Normal university students do not pay attention to homework assignment and teaching reflection. Finally, the paper puts forward some suggestions on the development of teaching design ability of mathematics normal university students. Keywords: Normal mathematics student; Teaching design ability DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-32-08 Publication date: November 30 th 2022

Exploration and Reflection of Online Piano Teaching Practice in Normal Universities in China

At the beginning of 2020, due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, education in China was disrupted. The Chinese government has strongly supported online education, while the music education industry has also adopted a "Suspension of class but no suspension of learning" plan. Universities have also carried out online classroom practices, which has also opened a new door to online piano teaching in universities in China. The feasibility of online piano teaching in daily classrooms of universities in China is something worth researching.