Factors influencing the higher education of international students from Confucian East Asia

Higher education, especially that leading to a degree from a high-prestige university, is strongly related to social status and employment opportunities in East Asian countries. This is a consequence of both traditional Confucian attitudes to education and the social and economic changes accompanying industrialisation. Since the number of places available at high-prestige universities is limited, competition is intense. Successful entry to such a university is not only an important achievement for the future career of the student, but also a victory for the family. In contrast, failure to do so is often seen as shameful for the family, sometimes resulting in psychological problems or suicide. This background affects the international education of East Asian students, who often have a high level of family support, with correspondingly high expectations of their success. Motives for international study vary, from avoidance of the hyper-competitive domestic system, pursuit of an overseas degree as an ‘easy option’ of moderate prestige, to an expectation of more up-to-date teaching and content. Understanding this background can be a first step for Australian or other Western educators to better meet the needs of East Asian international students and to attract students from East Asia in the long term.     

Using failure cases to promote veterinary students’ problem-solving abilities: a qualitative study

Educational technology research and development - Failure is an inevitable human experience, which can offer great learning opportunities. Yet, in current educational contexts, failure has largely...     

Relationship between student designers’ reflective thinking and their design performance in bioengineering project: exploring reflection patterns between high and low performers

Educational technology research and development - The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between students’ patterns of reflective thinking and their performance in...     

Identifying indicators of university autonomy according to stakeholders’ interests

Tertiary Education and Management - This paper is an attempt to reconcile two different perspectives and come up with a more comprehensive conceptualization of university autonomy by adopting a...     

Do Stability of Care and Teacher–Child Interaction Quality Predict Child Outcomes in Early Head Start?

Research Findings: This study examined whether children’s outcomes at age 3 were predicted by their experiences in Early Head Start (EHS), focusing on 2 key features of infant and toddler care: (a) stability of care and (b) teacher–child interactions. This study further explored potential interaction effects between stability of care and teacher–child interactions in predicting child outcomes. Three main results were found from secondary analyses of the recently released EHS longitudinal data set the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (Vogel & Boller, 2009–2012). First, children who had stability of care (no teacher change) were rated as having fewer behavior problems and higher social competence. Second, children were rated as demonstrating better orientation/engagement and emotional regulation when they were in EHS classrooms observed to have higher emotional and behavioral support. Third, teacher–child interactions that are emotionally and behaviorally supportive may mitigate the potential drawbacks of experiencing instability of care on early social-emotional development. Study implications are discussed. Practice or Policy: Both stability and quality teacher–child interactions are important in center-based infant and toddler care, and ensuring quality teacher–child interactions is particularly important for children who experience teacher changes during their infant and toddler years.     

An analysis of the nature of epistemological beliefs: Investigating factors affecting the epistemological development of south korean high school students

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of epistemological beliefs about learning (or learning beliefs) by analyzing the type of factors involved in the epistemological development of South Korean high school students (N=455). Learning beliefs are implicit assumptions held by learners about the source and certainty of knowledge and the ways to obtain knowledge. Previous studies on the epistemological development of American high school students showed that American students learning beliefs are positively related with their age, amount of formal education, and academic achievement. Multiple regression analysis of this study, however, showed that no such relationships were identified from the present South Korean sample except between students beliefs and their academic achievement. In addition, the present study showed that South Korean students learning beliefs were related with their independent-self construal (individualistic self-view) but not with their interdependent self-construal (collectivistic self-view). These results reconfirmed the culture-specific nature of epistemological beliefs which was identified from previous comparative studies with South Korean and American college students (Youn, Kim, & Yang, 1999; Youn, 2000). The differences between the present results and previous findings with South Korean college students will be further discussed in terms of the sub-cultural variations between South Korean young generations. A paper presented at the 26th International Association of Cross Cultural Psychology, Pultusk, Poland, 2000/7/16-21     

Improved determination of dynamic balance using the centre of mass and centre of pressure inclination variables in a complete golf swing cycle

Golf requires proper dynamic balance to accurately control the club head through a harmonious coordination of each human segment and joint. In this study, we evaluated the ability for dynamic balance during a golf swing by using the centre of mass (COM)–centre of pressure (COP) inclination variables. Twelve professional, 13 amateur and 10 novice golfers participated in this study. Six infrared cameras, two force platforms and SB-Clinic software were used to measure the net COM and COP trajectories. In order to evaluate dynamic balance ability, the COM–COP inclination angle, COM–COP inclination angular velocity and normalised COM–COP inclination angular jerk were used. Professional golfer group revealed a smaller COM–COP inclination angle and angular velocity than novice golfer group in the lead/trail direction (P < 0.01). In the normalised COM–COP inclination angular jerk, the professional golfer group showed a lower value than the other two groups in all directions. Professional golfers tend to exhibit improved dynamic balance, and this can be attributed to the neuromusculoskeletal system that maintains balance with proper postural control. This study has the potential to allow for an evaluation of the dynamic balance mechanism and will provide useful basic information for swing training and prevention of golf injuries.     

Reliable automatic word spacing using a space insertion and correction model based on neural networks in Korean

Automatic word spacing in Korean remains a significant task in natural language processing owing to the extremely complex word spacing rules involved. Most previous models remove all spaces in input sentences and insert new spaces in the modified input sentences. If input sentences include only a small number of spacing errors, the previous models often return sentences with even more spacing errors than the input sentences because they remove the correct spaces that were typed intentionally by the users. To reduce this problem, we propose an automatic word spacing model based on a neural network that effectively uses word spacing information from input sentences. The proposed model comprises a space insertion layer and a spacing-error correction layer. Using an approach similar to previous models, the space insertion layer inserts word spaces into input sentences from which all spaces have been removed. The spacing error correction layer post-corrects the spacing errors of the space insertion model using word spacing typed by users. Because the two layers are tightly connected in the proposed model, the backpropagation flows are not blocked. As a result, the space insertion and error correction are performed simultaneously. In experiments, the proposed model outperformed all compared models on all measures on the same test data. In addition, it exhibited reliable performance (word-unit F1-measures of 94.17%～97.87%) regardless of how many word spacing errors were present in the input sentences.     

Assessing cultural values: developing an attitudinal scale

Effective measurement of cultural value is often elusive because of its multidimensional nature. It is also influenced by sociodemographic characteristics (manifest variables) and attitudinal characteristics (latent variables) of populations. While the former is easily available to researchers, the latter has not been fully studied. This paper suggests the use of a cultural worldview scale that was developed to measure cultural attitudes of people, using factor and cluster analysis. Four factors comprise the scale: cultural linkages, recognition of cultural values, cultural loss and preservation of traditions and customs. Some advantages of using this scale are demonstrated, and relationships with sociodemographic variables are investigated. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.