Transfer paths and academic performance: The primary school merger program in china

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, China's Ministry of Education embarked on an ambitious program of primary school mergers by shutting down small village schools and opening up larger centralized schools in towns and county seats. The goal of the program was to improve the teacher and building resources in an attempt to raise the human capital of students in poor rural areas, although it was recognized that students would lose the opportunity to learn in the settings of their own familiar villages. Because of the increased distances to the new centralized schools, the merger program also entailed building boarding facilities and encouraging or mandating that students live at school during the week away from their family. Given the magnitude of the program and the obvious mix of benefits and costs that such a program entails there has been surprisingly little effort to evaluate the impact of creating a new system that transfers students from school to school during their primary school period of education and, in some cases, making student live in boarding facilities at school. In this paper, our overall goal is to examine the impact of the Rural Primary School Merger Program on academic performance of students using a dataset from a survey that we designed to reflect transfer paths and boarding statuses of students. We use OLS and Propensity Score Matching approaches and demonstrate that there is a large “resource effect” (that is, an effect that appears to be associated with the better facilities and higher quality of teachers in the town and county schools) that appears to be associated with the transfers of students from less centralized schools (such as village schools) to more centralized schools. Boarding, however, is shown to have negative impacts on academic performance. However, students who transfer to county school benefit from the transfer no matter where they start and whether they board or not.     

Understanding teacher learning in secondary education: The relations of teacher activities to changed beliefs about teaching and learning

In this study, relations between learning activities of teachers and changes in their beliefs were examined. Thirty-four teachers in Dutch secondary education were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their beliefs about teaching and learning on two occasions. They were also asked to report on learning activities that they undertook. Teachers who had changed their beliefs in a direction congruent with the aims of recent educational reforms often reported experimentation with colleagues' teaching methods. Teachers who changed their beliefs in a direction that was not congruent with the reform often reported experimentation with alternative methods due to discontent with the effectiveness of current methods.     

国际比较及启示:绩效拨款在高等教育中的实践

近20年来,世界发达国家高等教育财政体制改革的一个重要方面是把绩效因素纳入拨款公式。与投入拨款相对,产出或绩效拨款是指根据一些产出指标分配资源的拨款方式。丹麦、荷兰和美国的部分州,是三种不同类型的绩效拨款方式的代表。借鉴绩效拨款机制在各国高等教育中的实践,对目前我国高等教育拨款方式的改革是有意义的。     

Childhood social status in society and school: implications for the transition to higher levels of education

While research into educational inequalities emphasises childhood socio‐economic status, this study adds another dimension of status into the analysis; namely, the child’s own social position among its peers. The aim was to examine whether socio‐economic status and peer status can both be linked to educational transitions and, if so, whether they constitute overlapping paths. In a second step of analyses, the relationship between peer status and adult unemployment was investigated. Data were derived from a longitudinal study using a 1953 cohort born in Stockholm, Sweden. Our results suggest that children with higher socio‐economic status and children with higher peer status are consistently more likely than their lower status peers to proceed to the next level of education, and that the effects of socio‐economic status and peer status hardly overlapped at all. Furthermore, educational differences by peer status seem to involve consequences for the studied subjects’ contemporary labour market opportunities.     

Religious education legislation in an atheist state: towards a typology and policy analysis for contemporary China

ABSTRACT

The rule of law presents a new path for understanding and handling religious affairs in contemporary China. The field of religious education is no exception and current legislation has to be improved so that China’s religious education can be further promoted. This research examines the legislation and legislative regulations governing China’s diversified and dynamic religious education, which includes professional religious studies, religious education embedded in ethnic education, missionary religious education, religious education included in general education, and education on religious policies and regulations. It argues that how to understand and implement the principle of separation of education and religion stands out as the core issue, as China requires a more dialectical and pluralistic religious education.     

The role played by grandparents in family support and learning: considerations for mainstream and special schools

The twenty‐first century family faces many demographic changes. Despite this, the importance of intergenerational relationships remains. This article initially reviews the literature surrounding the role that grandparents play in their children's families, highlighting a growing body of research demonstrating the important support role that grandparents play in the lives of families with non‐disabled children. In contrast, there is limited research on the role played by and support needs of grandparents to families with disabled children. Recognising the significance of ‘family’ rather than purely ‘parent’‐based partnerships in UK schools, this article considers the role and importance of grandparents in schools; in particular, intergenerational learning, and how schools can begin to include grandparents and also provide support to meet grandparents' own support needs. Despite a limited literature on schools working specifically with grandparents of children with SEN, some policy and practice issues are discussed and areas for future consideration suggested.     

The CLEM model: Path analysis of the mediating effects of attitudes and motivational beliefs on the relationship between perceived learning environment and course performance in an undergraduate non-major biology course

In this study, the following questions were addressed in an undergraduate non-major biology course using a large lecture format: Is there a relationship between students?? perceptions of their learning environment and course performance, and what roles do motivation and attitudes play in mediating that relationship? The purpose of this study was to test a path model describing the mediating effects of motivation and attitudes on learning environments and course performance. The study considered contemporary understanding of teaching and learning, as well as motivation and attitudes, in suggesting a direction for future reform efforts and to guide post-secondary science education instructors and leaders in the design of learning environments for undergraduate non-major biology courses. Among the classroom learning environment variables assessed in this study, personal relevance was the major contributor to predicting attitudes, motivation and course performance. Although the classroom learning environment had a very weak direct effect on course performance, there was a moderate total effect on self-efficacy and intrinsic goal orientation. The classroom learning environment also had a moderate total effect on attitudes toward biology. Attitudes toward biology had a moderate direct effect on self-efficacy. While attitudes toward biology was significantly correlated with course performance, the direct effect was extremely weak and was dropped from the model. However, attitudes toward biology had a moderate indirect effect on course performance due to the mediating effects of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy had a strong direct effect on course performance and therefore seemed to be particularly important. The model tested in this study explained 33?% of the variance in course performance, 56?% of the variance in self-efficacy, 24?% of the variance in attitudes toward biology, and 18?% of the variance in intrinsic goal orientation. To improve course performance, instructors should focus on building self-efficacy among their students and ensure that students find the course personally relevant.     

探究返璞归真的教育变革之道——兼论中国远程教育整体创新的思路和趋势

从21世纪信息化与全球化合流的大趋势着眼,在理论与实践结合上,系统探讨了教育变革的规律和趋势,深刻剖析了导致我国社会和教育之异化的两只“看不见的手”：“行政化”（官本位）和“商品化”（钱本位）,提出教育变革的一个重要趋势是返璞归真。并在大教育的广阔视野中,对中国远程教育创新发展进行了整体思考,解读了在信息技术浪潮中突现的中国现代远程教育三大舞台,提出当前我国远程教育发展中必须实现的三大转变,论述了从五个方面综合推进远程教育整体改革持续深化的思路。认为远程教育的本质属性是一种超越面对面之传统学校教育时空的学习形式,因此也必然是一种以学生自学为主的学习形式或受教育形式,这其实是教育冲破时空束缚而获得的一种重大解放和自由,也正是现代远程教育最重要的价值和希望之所在。     

'Not for the likes of me': The overlapping effect of social class and gender factors in the decision made by adults not to participate in higher education

This paper, which includes data derived from two larger DfES and Scottish Executive funded studies, offers a consideration of working class gender norms as they pertain to the desire (or not) to attempt, and to successfully complete once attempted, a course of higher study in a British university. Consideration is given to attitudinal and behavioural norms for both sexes within the working class and an exploration is made of reasons for gender differentiated attitudes towards both studying itself and the capacity to successfully complete a course. For both males and females the capacity to be a 'good parent' was their first priority. However, males and females appeared to interpret the 'good parent' role differently. For males the ability to be an effective breadwinner was paramount, and any subsequent availability of paid work was often enough to trigger the desire to discontinue their studies. However, for females the desire to be an effective and visible role model for their communities was also important, and this acted as an encouragement (a 'pull') to them even in their worst moments of self-doubt. For a small number of females the 'push' factor of a significant (and often traumatic) 'life changing event', such as a divorce or a separation, acted as a 'push' towards learning. This is discussed in the light of Mezirow's 'perspective transformation' model.