Creating a Vision for Teacher Education between East and West: The case of the Hong Kong Institute of Education

This paper might be described as a case study, depicting the process of vision development for a new institution of teacher education, established in a time of political transition for Hong Kong. The focus is on issues of cultural identity, and the first part of the article lays out a framework for civilizational dialogue in the post Cold War period. Next the context of educational development is analysed, including the emergence of this new institution, and the demands placed upon it to support a range of educational reforms after Hong Kong's return to China in 1997. The third part of the paper describes the process of developing a vision statement, and the ideas that informed it. The fourth part provides a careful look at four of the nine guiding values chosen for the Institute, showing the particular shape they give to the development of the vision, and the ways in which they are linked to the dialogue of civilizations.     

An Exploratory Analysis of a Subjective Well-Being Model for Chinese University Students

College students experience great stress due to many factors, such as an uncertain future, academic responsibilities, and pressures imposed by social communication. Many institutions of higher education are focusing on how to mediate stressful situations and increase the subjective well-being (SWB) of students to sustain a lifestyle focused on wellness. The online survey used for this study focused on testing an exploratory SWB model by implementing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques. The participants were 470 college-aged students enrolled in seven different institutions in six cities across China. Findings yielded a good model fit (the Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual [SRMR] = .054) with the validity of manifest variables, reliability of the latent variables (LVs), and overall SWB model indicating moderate predictiveness (GoF R2 = .476) by the LVs. Additionally, all of the direct path coefficients and indirect path coefficients that consisted of four partial mediators and one full mediator yielded statistically significant results via bootstrapping. Furthermore, path coefficients for utilization of emotion to life satisfaction for the cognitive exercise group were significantly higher than for the non-cognitive exercise group. The findings illustrated a good model fit for an exploratory SWB model that can predict an individual’s SWB, and cognitive and non-cognitive exercises had different effects on the individuals’ SWB.     

The Role of Intuitive Rules in Science and Mathematics Education

During the last two decades many researchers in mathematics and science education have studied students’ conceptions and ways of reasoning in mathematics and science. Most of this research is content‐specific. It was found that students hold alternative ideas that are not always compatible with those accepted in science. It was suggested that in the process of learning science or mathematics, students should restructure their specific conceptions to make them conform to currently accepted scientific ideas. In our work in mathematics and science education it became apparent that some of the alternative conceptions in science and mathematics are based on the same intuitive rules. We have so far identified two such rules: “More of A, more of B”, and “Subdivision processes can always be repeated”. The first rule is reflected in subjects’ responses to many tasks, including all classical Piagetian conservation tasks (conservation of number, area, weight, volume, matter, etc.) in all tasks related to intensive quantities (density, temperature, concentration, etc.) and in all tasks related to infinite quantities. The second rule is observed in students’, preservice and inservice teachers’ responses to tasks related to successive division of material and geometrical objects and in seriation tasks. In this paper, we describe and discuss these rules and their relevance to science and mathematics education.     

Writing across the academic languages: introduction

Reading and Writing -     

Metacognition and Human Performance Improvement Originally published in 1988, PIQ 1.1

An understanding of the uses of metacognition provides a powerful tool toward developing quality and efficiency in task learning and performance. Metacognition is the executive controller of cognitive processes responsible both for self regulated learning and work performance outcomes. Comprehension monitoring and motivation are two prime components of metacognition which are responsible for commitment to, and definition of, goals, monitoring progress toward goals, and activating the appropriate thinking skills to achieve goals. Specific thinking skill categories of attention, organization, and elaboration are described with examples of how specific techniques in each category can optimize learning and job performance. Research on training of metacognitive skills through both detached and embedded skill-development programs is reviewed. In addition, ways to compensate for metacognitive skills when training is not cost-effective are described. The relationship between metacognitive skills and effective management of work performance is stressed.