An Empirical Analysis of the Development of China’s Higher Vocational Education

Abstract

After more than 20 years of practice and construction, China’s higher vocational education has developed into an important educational category and become an important force in the development of China’s higher education. But in the course of this development, higher vocational education is facing problems such as excessively fast development, weak content building, severely inadequate investment, and uneven regional development. Therefore, the government must create a policy environment suitable for the equitable development of higher education, establish fair education spending policies, strongly promote the balanced development of regional higher vocational education, and strive to strengthen basic capabilities for quality projects.     

Pre-service Teachers’ False Beliefs in Superstitions and Pseudosciences in Relation to Science and Technology

Science & Education - In order to increase scientific competence within the general population, it is important that teachers and educators have a realistic image of science and scientists,...     

China’s Strategy for the Internationalization of Higher Education: An Overview

Over the past decades, the internationalization of higher education in China has had considerable achievements, and has contributed to the current transformation of the Chinese system into one of the largest and arguably most promising ones in the world. Setting the Chinese experience in an international context, this article assesses the latest developments. It argues that China’s internationalization of higher education is part of a much larger process of cultural integration between China and the West. From this perspective, it concludes that although China’s recent developments deserve to be noted, China has a considerable distance to go before its aspirations to create truly world-class universities are fulfilled.     

Universities in the Community‐The Role of the CCEs and Extension Services

The recent Green Paper, Higher Education. A Policy Discussion Paper, proposes that strategic planning be adopted by all tertiary institutions as part of a new style of management. ¹ 1. Higher Education. A Policy Discussion Paper, AGPS, Canberra, December, 1987. Chapter 7. This paper explains the nature and advantages of strategic planning, and the major elements involved in strategic planning within an analytical framework. Various strategies which can form part of the overall planning model are examined, with an emphasis on their financial aspects.

     

Translator’s Subjectivity in Science and Technology Translation

Science and technology translation involves various industries and professions,with its own system of terminology and unique language features.For a translator,who is not a professional scientist or technician,it seems to be difficult to do science and technology translation accurately and properly.Consequently,it is necessary for the translator to give play to his subjectivity when translating science and technology documents or related interpretation:searching for related data to replenish necessary professional knowledge,consulting with professional technicians actively to clarify the jargon and common sayings,and thinking critically to scrutiny the source text.     

Can Science Education Research Give an Answer to Questions posed by History of Science and Technology? The Case of Steam Engine’s Measurement

According to the principle of virtual velocities, if on a simple machine in equilibrium we suppose a slight virtual movement, then the ratio of weights or forces equals the inverse ratio of velocities or displacements. The product of the weight raised or force applied multiplied by the height or displacement plays a central role there. British engineers used the same product in the eighteenth century in order to measure steam engines’ effectiveness. The question is whether this measure was obviously empirical or had its origin in theory of mechanics and particularly in the principle of virtual velocities. According to science education research, this measure is not likely to have arisen intuitively and most probably could not have been formulated without any acquaintance with theory of mechanics.     

The Experiment ‘Treatment of Telecommunications in the Course of Information and Communication Technology Education’

Abstract

The article looks at work being done in Lower Saxony in which telecommunications are employed to enhance the teaching of various subjects. Not only does this help with the subjects, but it has led to a deeper understanding of telecommunications media.     

The Alienation of Impotent Art in Cather’s Youth and the Bright Medusa

Willa Cather’s Youth and the Bright Medusa first published in 1920 is a collection of eight stories of similar themes depicting the modern artists’ futile attempts to construct their art kingdom. This essay focuses on Cather’s antipathy toward monetary wealth and aesthet ic persistence and reflects on theartists’ dilemma in a philistine industrial society.     

On Library＇s Function in the Quality Education of Universities and Colleges

素质教育是社会进步的要求。文章在分析素质教育重要性的基础上,分析图书馆作为高校教学科研的重要组成部分在素质教育中所具有的优势,探讨了高校图书馆开展学生素质教育的主要途径。     

Roads to Success in the Belgian French Community’s Higher Education System: Predictors of Dropout and Degree Completion at the Université Libre de Bruxelles

In this paper we study the factors that influence both dropout and (4-year) degree completion throughout university by applying the set of discrete-time methods for competing risks in event history analysis, as described in Scott and Kennedy (2005). In the French-speaking Belgian community, participation rates are very high given that higher education is largely financed through public funds, but at the same time, the system performs very poorly in terms of degree completion. In this particular context, we explore two main questions. First, to what extent is socioeconomic background still a determinant of success for academic careers in a system that, by construction, aims to eliminate economic barriers to higher education? Second, given the high proportion of students who fail their first year and are unable to move to their second year, can authorities promote degree completion and decrease dropout among students who have already experienced a failure? Using the competing risks model, we show that in spite of low entry barriers, students coming from lower socioeconomic background are more vulnerable to dropout along the whole academic path because of financial constraints that prevent them from re-enrolling. Also, our results reveal that, after a failed year, a significantly higher proportion of students who re-enroll in a different field obtain a degree compared to those that re-enroll in the same field, suggesting that universities should rethink the mechanisms available to manage failure and guide student choices.     

Clergy’s Views of the Relationship between Science and Religious Faith and the Implications for Science Education

Since many teachers and students recognize other kinds of knowledge (faith) based on other ways of knowing, consideration of these realities is appropriate for the science education community. Understanding the multitude of ways that clergy view relationships between science and faith (i.e. alternative ways of knowing) would assist in understanding various ways that people address complex issues arising from ideas about science and faith. We administered a questionnaire composed of multiple-choice and short answer items to 63 United Methodist ministers. Findings included (1) that formal, organized faith contexts (e.g. church services) serve as informal science education opportunities, (2) participants demonstrated considerable diversity regarding the types of relationships developed between science and faith, and (3) participants recognized a need exists for better understandings of science and its relationship to faith for them, their colleagues, and their congregations.

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Justice in the Higher Education Classroom: Students’ Perceptions of Unfairness and Responses to Instructors

We investigated college students’ perceptions of instructor unfairness and their emotional and behavioral reactions to perceived injustice. Results obtained from 397 undergraduates from three universities in the United States indicate that anger and dissent were the strongest emotional and behavioral responses to injustice. Furthermore, disgust mediated the influence of injustice on student behaviors most damaging to professors—taking action, expressing verbal aggression, and dissenting to authority. Stress mediated the effect of injustice on the most constructive student behaviors—changing their approach and engaging in the class. We discuss the implications of the results of our study for the student-instructor relationship and learning in the contemporary higher education environment.     

Complexity Science and Education: Reconceptualizing the Teacher’s Role in Learning

This writing is structured around the question, "What is teaching?" Drawing on complexity science, we first seek to demonstrate the tremendously conflicted character of contemporary discussions of teaching. Then we offer two examples of teaching that we use to illustrate the assertion that what teaching is can never be reduced to or understood in terms of what the teacher does or intends. Rather, teaching must be understood in terms of its complex contributions to new, as-yet-unimaginable collective possibilities.