Schools In Mainland China Research Articles

The reciprocal relation between morphological awareness and spelling in Chinese: A longitudinal study of primary school students

Spelling is a literacy skill that must be mastered during children's academic development. It involves a variety of cognitive factors, including morphological awareness. Studies in the alphabet and Chinese systems have shown that there is a close relationship between morphological awareness and spelling. Although there is clearly a significant unidirectional effect of morphological awareness on spelling significantly, few studies have explored the bidirectional relationship between morphological awareness and spelling. This three-time point longitudinal study was designed to investigate the reciprocal effects of morphological awareness and character spelling in Chinese. Participants included 124 children from two primary schools in Mainland China. The students were tracked from first grade to third grade and were administered a battery of tests to measure morphological awareness (e.g., homophone awareness, homograph awareness, and compounding awareness) and spelling to dictation, controlling for IQ, phonological awareness, and orthographic awareness. A structural equation model was utilized to examine the reciprocal relation between the students' morphological awareness and character spelling. Results showed that earlier morphological awareness predicted subsequent spelling abilities from first grade to third grade and spelling in first grade predicted morphological awareness in second grade; however, spelling in second grade did not predict the subsequent morphological awareness in third grade. This study suggests that there is a bidirectional association between morphological awareness and spelling from first grade to second grade in Chinese, and a unidirectional association between morphological awareness and spelling from second grade to third grade. Future studies could examine the causal relationship between morphological awareness and character spelling by using an instructional intervention.

Family relationships and DSM-5 personality domains in adolescence: A person- and variable-based approach

The present study aimed to examine the role of family relationships (i.e., interparental conflict, mother-adolescent and father-adolescent attachment) on adolescents' dysfunctional personality domains at the person- and variable-based level. Adolescents from five middle schools in mainland China were recruited in this sample (N = 644, Range age = 13–17, 40.7% male). Four family relationship profiles, labeled as disengaged, moderate, cohesive, and conflictual families, were reliably identified utilizing multiple dimensions of interparental conflict and parent-adolescent attachment. These profiles simultaneously showed evidence of spillover and compensatory patterns within family relationships. Meanwhile, multiple regression analyses found that the multiple mediating effects of adolescents' appraisals of interparental conflict and father-adolescent attachment were significant. In addition, there was a significant serial mediating role of mother-adolescent attachment and father-adolescent attachment between the associations of interparental conflict properties and adolescents' dysfunctional personality domains. Our findings underscore that both person-based and variable-based approaches for studying family relational dynamics are useful to illuminate spillover and compensatory patterns of family influence in adolescents' dysfunctional personality development.

HPV vaccine acceptability and willingness-related factors among Chinese adolescents: a nation-wide study

ABSTRACT Background Adolescents are the primary target population for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The objective of this study is to explore the acceptability of HPV vaccines and evaluate factors related to willingness to be vaccinated among Chinese adolescents. Methods A nation-wide survey was conducted across 14 schools in mainland China. The questionnaire consisted of questions relating to socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of adolescent sexual health, cervical cancer, HPV and HPV-related disease, and students’ willingness to be vaccinated. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression were conducted in the data analysis. Results A total of 4,062 students participated in this study. Among them, only 17.1% of students reported having heard of HPV vaccines; however, 67.3% were willing to receive the HPV vaccine. Multivariable regression analysis showed that students who were from rural areas, have received sexual health education, have heard of cervical cancer or HPV vaccine, have a positive attitude toward vaccination, reported they were at the risk of developing cervical cancer, and those who value their parents’ and teachers’ opinions were more willing to receive HPV vaccination. Conclusions Awareness about the HPV vaccine is low among Chinese adolescents. The factors that most related to willingness to vaccinate among Chinese adolescents were school location, education about vaccination, HPV, and HPV vaccines. Integrating health education on HPV vaccination into existing school-based sexual health curricula may be an effective way to increase HPV vaccination coverage in mainland China.

The Impact of Perceived Personal Discrimination on Problem Behavior of Left-Behind Children: A Moderated Mediating Effect Model.

This study aimed to determine how pathological Internet use and emotional intelligence affect the relationship between perceived personal discrimination and problem behavior of left behind children. Data were collected from 406 left-behind students from 6 rural primary and secondary schools in Mainland China. Results indicated that perceived personal discrimination could be a predictor of left-behind children's pathological Internet use, and further cause their problem behavior. Pathological Internet use had a partial mediating effect on the relation between perceived personal discrimination and problem behavior. In addition, emotional intelligence played a moderating role in the relationship between perceived personal discrimination and problem behavior, as well as between pathological Internet use and problem behavior. Emotional intelligence could alleviate the negative impact of perceived personal discrimination on problem behavior, as well as the negative impact of pathological Internet use on problem behavior.

Are professional learning communities beneficial for teachers? A multilevel analysis of teacher self-efficacy and commitment in China

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationships between school-level professional learning communities (PLCs) and individual teachers’ self-efficacy and commitment based on questionnaire responses from 1,203 teachers from 39 primary schools in mainland China. Multilevel analysis indicated that reflective dialogue significantly predicted self-efficacy. Shared purpose, collective focus on student learning, and reflective dialogue were positively associated with teacher commitment to students, whilst collaborative activity had a negative influence. The results may be attributed to the contextual characteristics of Chinese teachers’ work. Implications for PLC practices are also discussed.

The socioeconomic and lifestyle determinants of contraceptive use among Chinese college students: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundChinese youth have become more sexually active over the years, yet their behaviours of contraceptive use are influenced by socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. This study aimed to investigate the socioeconomic and lifestyle determinants of contraceptive use among Chinese college students, and to investigate quantitatively their reasons for choosing different contraceptive methods.MethodsThe study used the data from a cross-sectional survey, which was conducted in 2015 among 17,517 students from 130 colleges and professional schools in mainland China. Chi-square tests were performed to test the differences in the awareness and uses of contraceptives between male and female students. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to analyse the associations between socioeconomic and lifestyle factors and contraceptive uses.ResultsCondoms (95%), oral contraceptives (91%) and emergency contraceptives (71%) were the most commonly known contraceptive methods among the sample of Chinese youth that were surveyed. Among male participants, high monthly expenditure (OR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.07–1.75), light alcohol consumption (OR = 1.47, 95%CI: 1.03–2.11), and high sexual knowledge (OR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.57–2.45) were positively associated with contraceptive uses, while tobacco use (OR = 0.47, 95%CI: 0.23–0.95) showed a negative association with contraceptive uses. Among female students, suburban residency (OR = 1.38, 95%CI: 1.03–1.83), high level of parental education (OR = 1.96, 95%CI: 1.19–3.22), moderate alcohol consumption (OR = 2.66, 95%CI: 1.05–6.77), and high sexual knowledge (OR = 1.50, 95%CI: 1.18–1.91) were positively associated with contraceptive uses, while tobacco use (OR = 0.60, 95%CI: 0.36–0.99) showed a negative association.ConclusionsA series of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors were associated with contraceptive choices among Chinese college students. Targeted sexual education programs are in demand to improve the awareness and the use of contraceptives in this population.

Authentic leadership and teachers’ voice behaviour: The mediating role of psychological empowerment and moderating role of interpersonal trust

Teachers’ voice behaviour plays a critical role in school reform by providing constructive suggestions to promote teaching, students’ learning and school management. This study investigates how and under what conditions principals’ authentic leadership contributes to teachers’ voice behaviour. Data collected from 982 teachers in 38 primary schools in mainland China were analysed using regression analysis and bootstrapping tests. The research tested a moderated mediation model of authentic leadership effects on teachers’ voice behaviour in which teacher psychological empowerment was included as the mediator and interpersonal trust as the moderator. The results affirmed the partial mediation model, finding significant direct and indirect effects of principals’ authentic leadership on teachers’ voice behaviour. Moreover, interpersonal trust positively moderated the relationship between psychological empowerment and teachers’ voice behaviour, and also strengthened the whole mediating mechanism. When teachers perceived a higher level of interpersonal trust, the effects of principals’ authentic leadership on teachers’ voice behaviour were stronger than for counterparts who perceived a low level of interpersonal trust. Our discussion highlights the benefits of understanding the impact of authentic leadership on teachers’ voice behaviour in relation to interpersonal trust and their psychological empowerment and indicates how teachers can play a role in implementing the perceived situation practically.

Effect of the flipped classroom on the mathematics performance of middle school students

With advances in learning technologies, new pedagogical models are being developed to improve students’ learning performance. One notable model is the flipped classroom, which has attracted the attention of many researchers, particularly in K-12 education. However, research on effective approaches for managing the flipped classroom model to improve mathematics learning is lacking. This study explored approaches to manage the flipped classroom in a Chinese context and designed an approach to improve the mathematical learning performance of middle school students. In a flipped classroom teaching and learning, students took notes while watching videos at home and then teacher utilized the notes for in-class discussion. A total of 88 sixth-grade students in a secondary school in mainland China participated in this study. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by situating the experimental and control groups in flipped and traditional classrooms, respectively. The results show that the proposed flipped classroom approach significantly improves the students’ mathematical learning performance. The proposed approach is more beneficial to students at the middle mathematics level comparing to those at high or low levels. Furthermore, some suggestions are provided for teachers to manage flipped classroom more effectively.

Unpacking the effects of culture on school leadership and teacher learning in China

Teacher professional learning plays a critical role in education reform by enabling teachers to refine their professional skills and keep up with changing content knowledge, pedagogy, and trends in schooling. This study examines how and under what conditions principal instructional leadership contributes to teachers’ professional learning in mainland China. Data collected from 1194 teachers in 64 primary and middle schools in mainland China were analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping tests. The research tested a moderated mediation model of instructional leadership effects on teacher professional learning in which teacher self-efficacy was included as the mediator and power distance orientation of teachers as the moderator. The results reaffirmed the partial mediation model, finding significant direct and indirect effects of principal instructional leadership on teacher professional learning. Further model testing found that the individual power distance orientation of teachers acted as a significant moderator of principal instructional leadership effects on both teacher self-efficacy and professional learning. When teachers perceived lower power distance in relations with their principals, the effects of principal instructional leadership were stronger than for counterparts who perceived high power distance. Implications for understanding the contextualized nature of school leadership during an era of cultural change are discussed.

The impact of perceived social support on students’ pathological internet use: The mediating effect of perceived personal discrimination and moderating effect of emotional intelligence

The aim of this study is to investigate how perceived personal discrimination and emotional intelligence affect the relationship between perceived social support and pathological Internet use of students in China. Data were collected from 560 students from primary and secondary schools in mainland China. Results showed that perceived social support could be a predictor of students' perceived personal discrimination, and perceived personal discrimination could have a significant impact on students’ pathological Internet use. Perceived personal discrimination had a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived social support and pathological Internet use. In addition, emotional intelligence played a moderating role in the relationship between perceived social support and perceived personal discrimination, as well as between perceived personal discrimination and pathological Internet use. As a moderator, emotional intelligence can enhance the effect of social support perception on discrimination perception, and mitigate the effect of discrimination perception on individual pathological Internet use. This enlightens us that it is necessary to provide social support and improve emotional intelligence of primary and secondary school students and reduce their perceived personal discrimination, thereby reducing their pathological Internet use.

The Development and Contextualization of Philosophy for Children in Mainland China

The past three years have seen a steady growth of interest in researching and practicing Philosophy for Children (P4C) in educational settings in China because many educators and administrators consider it as a coherent curriculum for developing student critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinking. Excited and gratified with children’s philosophical sensitivity and enthusiasm, three representative Elementary Schools in mainland China, namely South Station Elementary School from Yunnan Province, Shanghai Liuyi Elementary School, and Washi Elementary school from Zhejiang Province, started to practice P4C in the late 1990s and the early twenty-first century. Without succumbing to the aggravated uniformity of the educational system, the three schools demonstrated innovative ways to reform their educational practice, which helped to develop a different form of Chinese educational praxis. This study provides a review on three schools’ P4C practice from the perspective of motivation, development of school-based curricula, the mode and effect of P4C. The three schools found Lipman’s P4C curriculum inspiring but, for the most part, culturally and contextually inappropriate, thus developed their own P4C textbooks, pedagogy and conceptual framework. The study further offers glimpses of P4C historical development in the past thirty years in the model schools, and discusses the challenges, opportunities, existing methodological approaches, theoretical and practical tensions that Chinese P4Cers experienced when P4C being practiced. Then it proposes methodological advancements and possibilities of future P4C practice and research in mainland China.

End-of-life care education for medical students in mainland China: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundAccording to the 2015 Quality of Death Index, China ranks 71st out of 80 countries in terms of the quality of palliative care. The lack of end-of-life care education has been identified as a key barrier to the improvement of the discipline. The aim of this study is to assess the status of end-of-life care education for medical students in mainland China. MethodsWe obtained a list of all medical schools from the website of the Ministry of Education. We did a telephone survey of associate deans for medical education at all 282 medical schools in mainland China in May, 2019, following a standardised protocol. Telephone interviews focused on attitudes to end-of-life care teaching, and the extent and manner in which end-of-life care is incorporated into the curriculum. Schools that did not reply were contacted again after 1, 3, and 7 days. We obtained ethical approval from Zhejiang University Research Ethics Committee. FindingsAmong the 282 medical schools, associate deans from 120 (43%) schools completed the interview; 53 (19%) schools declined to answer questions related to end-of-life care. 92 (77%) of 120 associate deans regarded end-of-life care education as very important, but only 11 (9%) provided specific teaching about end-of-life care. One dean said that such a course was being planned. 18 schools have integrated end-of-life education within required curricula, such as medical ethics. The main reason reported for not providing end-of-life care was that the medical curriculum dictated by the Chinese Ministry of Education does not require it. InterpretationA minority of medical schools in mainland China provide any formal teaching about end-of-life care. The Chinese Government needs to include end-of-life care in the medical curriculum. FundingStart-up Funds for Foreign Experts of Zhejiang University.

Family Risk Factors Associated With Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms, Depressive Symptoms, and Aggressive Behaviors Among Chinese Children With Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

Family factors including parental emotion dysregulation and harsh parenting practices place children at high risk for malfunctioning in emotion regulation, depressive symptoms, and aggressive behaviors. This study investigated the associations among parental emotion dysregulation, harsh parenting practices (i.e., emotional abuse and corporal punishment), and child emotion regulation and child oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms and co-occurring depressive symptoms and aggressive behaviors. Participants included 239 parent–child dyads from 14 primary schools in Mainland China. All children were diagnosed with ODD. Parental emotion dysregulation, harsh parenting practices, and child emotion regulation were reported by parents; child ODD symptoms were reported by parents and teachers; child depressive symptoms were reported by children; and child aggressive behaviors were reported by teachers. Data indicated that parental emotion dysregulation was related to child ODD symptoms in the home and depressive symptoms indirectly through harsh parenting practices and child emotion regulation. Harsh parenting practices were related to child ODD symptoms in the home directly and indirectly through child emotion regulation. Moreover, emotional abuse was associated with child depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through child emotion regulation. Our findings highlighted the need for prevention and intervention targeting parent emotion dysregulation and harsh parenting practices among children with ODD.

The Moderation Examination of ICT Use on the Association Between Chinese Mainland Students’ Socioeconomic Status and Reading Achievement

This study explores the moderation effect of the information and communication technology (ICT) on the association between students’ socioeconomic status and their reading achievement. In total, 9,596 samples of 15 years old from 268 schools in mainland China are drawn from the latest wave of the public database -- Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. This study applies the moderation model in multiple regression analysis to respectively analyze the moderation effect of 2 composite variables of students’ ICT use, i.e., ICT use for schoolwork and ICT use for leisure. Two significant results are reported: (1) stu-dents’ ICT use for schoolwork or for leisure can moderate the relationship be-tween their socioeconomic status and their reading achievement; (2) the high-level ICT use for schoolwork or for leisure may narrow the gap in students’ reading achievement caused by different socioeconomic status deduced from the buffer-ing moderation effect of the moderating variables. These findings might provide insights to future studies in educational equality promotion, infrastructure con-struction and pedagogy improvement in reading education.

Characteristics and Limitations of English Language Teaching in China: Autoethnography of a Mainland-born English Learner and Teacher

ABSTRACT In this paper, I narrate the long process of my encounters with English language learning and teaching, manifesting characteristics of English teaching at different levels of schools in mainland China. After viewing the limitations of English teaching in mainland China from my fresh point of view as a UK visiting scholar, some suggestions are proposed for its improvement and development.

A shortage of cadavers: The predicament of regional anatomy education in mainland China.

Both in mainland China and around the world, regional anatomy stands as one of the most important basic science courses in medical school curricula. As such, dissection of human cadavers and use of prosected specimens remains the most essential teaching method in anatomy education. However, medical educators have raised increasing concerns about an ongoing shortage of cadavers for medical use in mainland China, a problem which may seriously limit the future development of human anatomy education. Based on a survey on cadaver usage in anatomy education in mainland China, this study found that the cadaver resources of most given medical schools in mainland China are associated with their geographic location, academic ranking, and local support for body donation policies. Effective measures to alleviate this shortage of cadavers may include future efforts to promote national-level body donation legislation, broader acceptance of body donation among Chinese citizens, and an efficient and humane protocol for body donation. Anat Sci Educ 11: 397-402. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.

Does principal leadership make a difference in teacher professional learning? A comparative study China and Thailand

This research explored the relationship of principal leadership and teacher professional learning in China and Thailand. The authors tested a conceptual model in which teacher trust and agency were proposed as mediators of the effects of the principal’s learning-centered leadership on teacher professional learning. Common survey measures had been used to collect data from 1259 teachers in 38 schools in mainland China and 1071 teachers in 60 schools in Thailand. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, multi-group structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping were employed to compare the proposed leadership and teacher learning processes in Chinese and Thai schools. The results confirmed a similar model of strong, statistically significant, ‘mediated effects’ of principal leadership on the professional learning of teachers in the two societies. These findings contribute to our understanding of leadership effects across societies and offer insight into how policymakers and practitioners can support school leadership, teacher development, and educational change.

Development and evaluation of a Chinese version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)

Teacher–student interpersonal relationships play an important role in education. The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was designed to measure students’ interpersonal perceptions of their teachers. There are two Chinese versions of the QTI for student use, and that inherited the weaknesses of the previous English versions, such as items that focus on class behaviour, instead of teacher behaviour, or that include conditionals and negations. The present study aimed to develop an improved Chinese version of the QTI which is conceptually parallel with the original QTI and with the use of optimal item wording. The process contained several steps, including expert panels and student and teacher interviews. New items were also created based on the Chinese secondary classroom context, rather than only using translations of English items. The final version of the Chinese version of the QTI presented in this paper was evaluated with a sample of 2000 students from 4 secondary schools in mainland China who rated a total of 80 teachers. The resulting version of the Chinese QTI had adequate validity and reliability, and it distinguished clearly between teachers. The predictive validity was supported by the relation between the students’ perceptions of their teachers and their academic emotions in class. Although further improvement of the instrument is recommended, it can be used to study interpersonal teacher behaviour in China and to help to improve Chinese teachers’ teaching practices.

The Effect of Storytelling and Retelling and Higher Order Thinking on Oral Performance of Elementary Students in English as Foreign Language (EFL) Program: A Pilot Study in Mainland China and Taiwan

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effect of Story Telling and retelling and higher order thinking for English Language and Literacy Acquisition (STELLA) on the English oral proficiency of elementary students in Mainland China and Taiwan, where English is taught as a foreign language. The 6-week intervention incorporated direct vocabulary instruction, modeling reading, and leveled questioning strategy through storytelling and retelling, and was delivered by certified English teachers who received weekly virtual professional training in two public schools in Mainland China and Taiwan. An English oral vocabulary measure was administered among 10 students in Mainland China and 9 students in Taiwan before and after the intervention. Paired-sample T-tests were conducted to examine the progress from pretest to posttest on the two cohorts, respectively. The results showed a significant improvement on students’ oral proficiency at both sites.

Contextualization and authenticity in TBLT: Voices from Chinese classrooms

In view of ongoing debates about the future of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in contexts of English as a foreign language (EFL), we present a detailed case study of teacher beliefs and practices regarding TBLT conducted in a secondary school in mainland China with a long history of communicative and task-based teaching approaches. We used a mixed-methods approach to gather a broad range of triangulated data, combining individual interviews, material analysis and observations coded using a novel task-focused version of the scheme ‘Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching’ (COLT). Quantitative and qualitative findings revealed positive beliefs about TBLT principles in general, reflecting strong institutional support for communicative teaching. However, there was marked variability between beliefs and practices in using tasks, especially with beginner-level learners. Most teachers demonstrated an intrinsic lack of confidence in using tasks as more than a communicative ‘add-on’ to standard form-focused teaching. We argue that this demonstrates a need for building teacher autonomy, in implementing TBLT, even in supportive settings, to support successful authentic contextualizing TBLT principles in different EFL contexts.