The link between East Asian ‘mastery’ teaching methods and English children's mathematics skills

A small group of high-performing East Asian economies dominate the top of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings. Although there are many possible explanations for this, East Asian teaching methods and curriculum design are two factors to have particularly caught policymakers’ attention. Yet there is currently little evidence as to whether any particular East Asian teaching method actually represents an improvement over the status quo in England, and whether such methods can be successfully introduced into Western education systems. This paper provides new evidence on this issue by presenting results from two clustered Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT's), where a Singaporean inspired ‘mastery’ approach to teaching mathematics was introduced into a selection of England's primary and secondary schools. We find evidence of a modest, positive treatment effect that comes at a relatively low per-pupil cost.     

The interaction of student and program variables for the purpose of developing a model for predicting graduation from graduate programs over a 10-year period

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is some factor or set of factors which will predict the probability of graduation from doctoral programs. This study concentrated on two areas: (a) the factors available to the selection committee when the students apply for admission into graduate programs, and (b) those factors emerging after admission, resulting from the students' meeting program-imposed requirements for graduation. Data were collected from the file of each student admitted to the doctoral program in Educational Administration. The results of the study indicated that program variables are more important than admission variables in predicting graduation. and the technique of Path Analysis is highly recommended to study the problem of student progression through graduate departments.     

Examination of Gender Bias in University Admissions

In this study we examined whether the measures used in the admission of students to universities in Israel are gender biased. The criterion used to measure bias was performance in the first year of university study; the predictors consisted of an admission score, a high school matriculation score, and a standardized test score as well as its component subtest scores. Statistically, bias was defined according to the boundary conditions given in Linn (1984). No gender bias was detected when using the admission score (which is used for selection) as a predictor of first-year performance in the university. Bias in favor of women was found predominantly using school grades as predictor whereas bias against women was found predominantly in using the standardized test scores. It was concluded that the admission score is a valid and unbiased predictor of first-year university performance for the two genders.     

Comparison of Chinese Gaokao and Western university undergraduate admission criteria: Australian ATAR as an example

ABSTRACT

This is the first study that examines the comparative validity of the Chinese National College Entrance Exam (known as Gaokao) to a Western end-of-secondary-school performance measure, Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), as admission criteria to an Australian undergraduate degree programme. The study offers a strong warning about using just an aggregate Gaokao score as a sole admission criterion. However, the findings suggest that with adjustments for gender and time, Gaokao is found to be as good an admission criterion as ATAR, hence justifying its use for selection purposes if such adjustments are made. Supplementing selection criteria by also using the Gaokao English result is found to be a further improvement. The findings can help inform the admission policy relevant to Chinese international students into undergraduate degree programmes globally.     

Failed regulations and school composition: selective admission practices in Chilean primary schools

This is an exploratory study about pupil selection. Admission regulations are central to understanding issues of school mix, segregation and educational justice. In Chile, student selection has been intensively discussed but scarcely studied. Using a questionnaire for headteachers (N = 581), we explore how school admission processes are organised and implemented within a market-based educational system with a high-stakes testing regime where schools are pushed to use selection practices. Despite the existence of a national (although weak) legal prohibition at the time the survey was conducted, half of the headteachers state that they use some mechanism to select students (play sessions, student testing, or interviews with parents) even when they do not face demand pressures. Exploratory data suggest higher levels of selectivity in subsidised private schools. Regression analysis shows a strong association between ‘selectivity’ and homogeneous academic intake and social composition. Presumably, the widespread use of selection procedures responds to the structuring force of a double system of educational accountability; strong pressure on performance within a testing regime and where funding depends on enrolments makes selection a fundamental strategy for schools, but which is seriously affecting equality goals.     

中国的和平发展与中亚安全合作

中国的和平发展,需要一个和平稳定的国际环境。从地缘政治角度看,最重要的是一个稳定的周边环境。中国外交战略是为中国的和平发展创造和保持良好的国际环境、特别是周边环境的战略。在中国的周边,中亚是中国周边地缘战略需要重点经营的地区之一。中国与中亚国家都面临恐怖主义等非传统安全问题的挑战,这就需要中国和中亚加强合作,共同应对这些挑战。发展与中亚地区各国的睦邻友好合作关系,维护中亚地区的和平、安全、繁荣与稳定,有助于形成一个和平、稳定的周边安全环境,从而为中国的和平发展提供有力的保障。     

Academic risk and resilience for children and young people in Asia

Abstract

In studies of academic resilience, researchers seek to identify factors that protect against adverse effects caused by risk and stress, and which ultimately assist students to be academically successful. However, because relatively few studies are conducted in Asian settings, Western-based research may have limited application for policy and prevention in the Asian context. It is therefore important to expand the context and culture in which resilience research takes place. This paper highlights academic resilience factors among Asian students that are located in the multiple levels of the social ecology (including individual, peers, family and school). This is consistent with results from the Western context. However, it also reports on some differences in academic resilience factors that are found both within Asian countries and between Asian and Western countries. From these results, we might thus conclude that alongside pan-human factors, Asian students’ academic success can also be considered in part due to uniquely Asian attributes. This reaffirms the importance of considering culture and national context in studies of academic resilience. Taken as a whole, this collection of papers showcases multiple approaches to building academic resilience and empowering students and their educators and caregivers across the Asian region.     

Secondary Education Reform and Educational Research in the Asia-Pacific Region

The strengthening and upgrading of secondary education is of great world-wide concern, since in an increasing number of countries secondary education has become the weakest link in the education chain. This article commences by examining the importance of secondary education, and then provides an overview of programme activities concerning secondary education being undertaken in countries throughout the world. The article then reports on a regional study on secondary education in the Asia-Pacific Region, commissioned by the Asian Development Bank, which examined strategic issues and policy analysis. The article concludes that there are firm foundations to secondary education in the Asia-Pacific region and that much has been accomplished in the last few decades. But, as the article shows, there is still a great deal to be done to put into place the vibrant, rich, diverse, relevant, high quality and innovative secondary education desired by countries in the region. The challenges are great, and numerous, but the future for secondary education in the Asia-Pacific region appears bright and full of promise. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Quality Faculty: the Key to Ensuring Successful Transnational Educational Offerings in Southeast Asia

In the past year, the competition for transnational educational offerings in the Asian region has become more intense. One of the latest strategies in an attempt to win enrolments is the lowering of fees by international educational institutions and the reduction in the number of classes required for degree completion. The press and prospective students have made it clear that with the current economic crisis, price is the major consideration in their selection. The results of a study of the experience of Curtin University, an Australian university operating in Singapore and Malaysia, indicate that if quality faculty are involved in transnational educational offerings, even in these turbulent economic times, students will pay above the going rate for the opportunity to obtain the educational experience.     

高校自主招生的正面与侧面——以历史的眼光看

民国时期自主招生为选拔人才发挥了重要作用,但也有严重的缺陷,民国时期的自主招生也不是人们所理解的那样是由学校"自由招生",也有一些"成法",应正确认识自主招生的正面与侧面。对于现行自主招生存在的自主招生权有限、自主招生的公平公正性等问题,可适当吸收民国时期做法,适当降低自主招生的高考门槛,强调自主招生须以教育家办学、社会经济发展为条件,并设立自主招生委员会,统筹不同行政区之间、政校之间的招生事宜,同时兼顾统一高考与自主招生,使其相互补充。     

The Canadian scholastic aptitude test—Mathematical sections

Conclusions While the questions of university and college admission are by no means solved, either in terms of the efficiency of the institutions or in terms of guidance for the student, the SACU tests apear to offer one important kind of datum to assist in the process. With this start, the SACU organization is in a good position to research and try out other forms of selection devices that might provide better information for diagnosis, guidance, and differential prediction.The instrument reviewed here appears to operate with a high degree of technical proficiency in terms of its reliability, but provides only moderately useful predictive information. Use of the task analysis suggested above could considerably improve the predictive use of the test.OISE     

普通高校招生制度综合改革目标模式研究

我国高校招生制度改革的关键在于革新统一高考评价标准和评价手段单一的局面,增加有利于考核学生创新精神和实践能力的评价要素,着力构建一套科学、系统的评价标准体系。同时,针对这种评价标准的改变,构建政府宏观管理、高校自主招生、社会全程参与的高校招生公共治理结构,以及“一档多投、双向选择”的新型投档录取方式。这就是高校招生制度综合改革目标模式的基本战略构想。     

Ausleseverfahren und Institutionen der nationalen Elitebildung und ihre internationalen Herausforderungen

This contribution provides a historical-comparative perspective on three aspects of elite education. First, I outline the historical roots of formal selection and admission processes into tertiary education in France, England and Germany and highlight their far-reaching impact on the standing, structure and perception of secondary schools and universities in their respective national cultures. In the light of this, I show how the position, role and legitimacy of different modes of elite education have been transformed by the secular expansion of access to education. Finally, I discuss the challenges to the different national processes of elite selection and education posed by the observed emergence of international competition and standards.     

Carisbrooke people can: A positive structured approach to the development of adults with profound and multiple impairments

ABSTRACT

Carisbrooke Day Centre was set up under urban aid by the Scottish Society for the Mentally Handicapped. This paper describes the setting up and maintaining of a twelve place centre for adults with profound and multiple impairments in Monklands district. Strathclyde region, Scotland. It details staff selection, student assessment and admission procedures. The philosophy of the centre is that it is a needs driven system based on the belief that students with profound and multiple impairments can learn and that staff can teach them. The major part of the article concerns the ‘Carisbrooke Wheel’ which describes the interrelationship between the various inputs to students on continuing developmental programmes irrespective of age. Comments are also made on training and management structures for such provision.     

高校自主招生公平与效率的实证研究——基于学生学业发展的视角

高校招生改革具有"牵一发动全身"的重要战略意义,其动向兼具人才选拔的教育功能与代际流动的社会功能。本研究从2019年中国本科教与学调查数据里选取18所实施自主招生的高校(样本量=1888),基于学生背景及其在校表现对高校自主招生的实施效果进行评价。回归结果表明:从社会公平来看,自主招生政策更有利于农村生源,这反映了从2012年启动的贫困地区定向招生专项计划初见成效,但女生与家庭第一代大学生的自招表现有待提升;从择优录取的效率来看,控制高考分数之后,自招生在本科期间获得奖学金这一指标上优于统招生,但自招生对就读高校的推荐度却低于统招生。     

Mature age unmatriculated students and the justification of a more liberal admissions policy

In 1974 the University of New South Wales established a procedure for the admission of unmatriculated applicants of over 25 years old. The novel selection procedure employed is described and its effectiveness evaluated. Extensive interview and questionnaire data are reported relating to student motivation, expectations, adjustment problems and responses to the experience of advanced study. The academic performance of successive entry cohorts is shown to be consistently superior to that of students entering direct from school. The implications of the data for more liberal admission policies are then considered.     

江苏省高校招生中综合评价录取的实施现状、问题及改进

从招生专业、报名条件、选拔方式、录取办法四个方面对2021年13所在江苏省实施综合评价录取的高校的相关招生简章进行文本分析,发现试点高校在四个方面存在诸多问题,据此提出如下优化建议：优化报名条件设置,发挥学科专家主体作用;聚焦优势学科专业,构建选拔培养贯通方案;体现学科专业特色,完善科学有效选拔方式;前置使用素质档案,科学设计成绩指标构成等。     

普通高等学校招生录取中的几个要素——兼论高考平行志愿改革

高校招生录取过程中录取规则、高校和考生是几个重要要素,正确处理好这几个要素之间的关系有利于保证录取的公平、公正。高考平行志愿的推行,是对录取规则的一定调整,考生志愿填报方式的变化在一定程度上致使学校录取和学生选择匹配模式发生变革。     

A Review of Engagement with Creativity and Creative Design Processes for Visual Communication Design (VCD) Learning in China

Understanding the enigma of how learners from the Peoples Republic of China enact and engage with creativity and creative design processes can be problematic for VCD educators. Central to the concerns are questions which relate to the relevance of Western creative and creative design process definitions, explanations and models. This review provides an overview and analysis of the literature in this area. Findings indicate challenges attributed to a dearth of empirical evidence from the Asian region. However, a number of studies were found, which enabled learner engagement with creative design process models. Such models may help illuminate complex pictures of learners’ interactions, artefacts, social, cultural and historic forces. The review highlights issues and common areas upon which to build and prompts theoretical and methodological approaches for future creative design process research.     

新地区主义与东亚合作安全

新地区主义的兴起为当代国际关系注入了新的内容.东亚地区的安全现状为新地区主义提供了强大的发展动力,新地区主义也对东亚安全产生了深刻影响,推动了东亚合作安全的发展.新地区主义在东亚的发展,必将在很大程度上塑造东亚安全的未来.