Asians as stereotypes and students: Misperceptions that persist

Although Asian Americans today are lauded as a model minority and Asian students are praised as whiz kids, racial prejudice toward Asians is as true today as it was in the past. American stereotypes of Asians appear characterized by persistent perceptual homogeneity and attitude-behavior inconsistencies. This review aims to: (a) display and analyze the basic stereotype toward Asians, (b) hypothesize an explanation for the basic Asian stereotype, (c) examine the Asian student stereotype by analyzing three factors commonly used to account for the achievement of Asian students, and (d) provide suggestions for research. Arguments for Asians' inherited advantages in IQ and cognitive abilities appear to be questionable. However, the factor of family encouragement and support as well as the work ethic and drive for education factor are found to be advantageous and disadvantageous to achievement, depending on how they are applied. The article discusses homogeneity-heterogeneity of perceptions, attitude-behavior consistency, achievement motivation, parent-child social interaction, mental health, and counseling needs relative to Asian students.     

Utilizing Information and Communication Technologies to Achieve Lifelong Education for All: A Case Study of Myanmar

This paper examines the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in advancing the cause of education for all and livelong learning. After examining the claimed benefits of ICTs for promoting education and schooling, and the characteristics of education and the basic education movement in Asia, the paper focuses on providing a case study of one country in South-East Asia, that of Myanmar, regarding the use of ICTs to achieve lifelong education for all. The paper reports on a research study being undertaken by the author which examines how ICTs are being harnessed to support educational needs in the formal education system in Myanmar, including basic education, teacher development, and in the higher education institutions under the Ministry of Education. The study focuses specifically on the applications of ICTs for increasing access and improving quality in the context of the Information Age. The research is based on a field survey and case studies of best practices and innovations in the applications of ICTs to education in the Myanmar education system. By identifying the conditions that must be addressed in making effective use of ICTs for learning and teaching, the results of this study provides much needed feedback to assist the Ministry of Education in Myanmar to operate most cost-effectively in this area. Although the paper specifically examines the situation regarding one particular country, lessons learnt from the experience of Myanmar have much to offer researchers, policy makers and practitioners regarding the applications of ICTs to education development in other parts of Asia, and indeed in other parts of the world. However, the extent to which the results of this research study are generalizable to other developing countries has yet to be ascertained, since this is beyond the scope of the study reported on in this paper.     

Portrayals of pro-Beijing Workers�� Night Schools in Hong Kong from 1946 to post-1997

This study focuses on the transformation of pro-Beijing labour education in the socio-political context of Hong Kong. It explores the reasons that Hong Kong pro-Beijing educators initiated Workers’ Night Schools for adults; the organisation of schools in many locales and the transformation of labour education that workers received in these educational settings. The history of the development of this organization is deeply intertwined with the politics of education and the social transformation of that period. That development provides an understanding of how the pro-Beijing educators constructed an alternative culture that opposed the colonial government and was later transformed to serve as a pro-hegemonic force in the post-1997 era. In addition, rapid and widespread changes were taking place throughout Hongkongese life. Labour education was once viewed as a radical project to enhance working-class’s anti-hegemonic consciousness, socialist practices and political activism in the colonial Hong Kong. The introduction of international standards, global benchmarks for career and technical education and the transfer of sovereignty have created a new situation forcing these pro-Beijing educators to respond quickly. This article aims to see how the pro-Beijing educators related to international standard for vocational training and how the schools transforms itself to fit into the industrialized, market-oriented and globalized society of HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region).     

Testing the effectiveness of the Developing Inclusive Youth program: A multisite randomized control trial

The Developing Inclusive Youth program is a classroom-based, individually administered video tool that depicts peer-based social and racial exclusion, combined with teacher-led discussions. A multisite randomized control trial was implemented with 983 participants (502 females; 58.5% White, 41.5% Ethnic/racial minority; M_age = 9.64 years) in 48 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classrooms across six schools. Children in the program were more likely to view interracial and same-race peer exclusion as wrong, associate positive traits with peers of different racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds, and report play with peers from diverse backgrounds than were children in the control group. Many approaches are necessary to achieve antiracism in schools. This intervention is one component of this goal for developmental science.     

Youth in a global world: attitudes towards globalization and global citizenship among university students in Hong Kong

Despite the wealth of theoretical literature on globalization and global citizenship, empirical studies on the topic are lacking, especially in the context of pedagogical needs in relation to global citizenship education. In order to address this gap, a study was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate the attitudes of university students towards various dimensions of globalization and global citizenship. The initial results indicate that Hong Kong university students are generally quite aware of globalization's impact on the economy and personal consumption choices and that while there is considerable apathy towards international affairs, there is also a great interest in cross-cultural service learning opportunities that is not being met by the available programmes. Moreover, this study finds almost no association between age, gender, and religion and any of the measured dependent variables on attitudes towards globalization and global citizenship, the only exception being the factor of past intercultural experiences, where a significant difference in measured attitudes was found between respondents who had and respondents who had not participated in such experiences before. Explanations of the findings and the implications of findings for policy and future research are discussed.     

Teachers’ perceptions of and responses to student evaluation of teaching: purposes and uses in clinical education

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) only becomes an effective tool for improving teaching and learning when the relevant stakeholders seriously consider and plan appropriate actions according to student feedback. It is common practice in medical education to provide clinical teachers with student feedback. However, there is limited evidence about how teachers in higher education, and medical education in particular, systematically apply student feedback to improve the quality of their teaching practice. The focus of this case study was to examine clinical teachers’ perceptions of and responses to SET with respect to its purposes and uses for enhancing their teaching. An explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from the clinical coaches. These clinical coaches perceived the main purpose of student evaluation as quality assurance, and were moderately receptive to student feedback. Four key factors enabling or inhibiting their responses were revealed: institutional requirements, operational practices, personal biases and provision of support. Future research should further explore the interrelationships among the above factors as the core mechanism in influencing clinical teachers’ perceptions of and responses to student evaluation.     

Effect of angle stimulation during development on adult discrimination ability in rats

Hooded rats were reared in very restricted environments with angular, curved, or white-field stimulation. The extent of transfer from this exposure was assessed in adulthood by testing subjects for (a) learning ability in form, brightness, and pattern discrimination tasks, and (b) exploration and activity differences in an open field. The angle-reared group performed better than the other two rearing groups in all three discrimination tasks. Moreover, the curved and white-field groups were equivalent. These learning differences did not appear to result from differences in (a) exploration or activity or (b) dependence on kinesthetic cues. The results demonstrated that one type of early visual stimulation produced transfer to discrimination tasks that varied in difficulty and in degree of relevancy to the rearing forms. This effect was related to the results and interpretations from previous form-rearing studies. Three interpretations were proposed for this transfer and for the advantage of angular vs. curved stimulation.     

香港初小学生识字测试报告

本文汇报了香港初小学生识字测试的工作。识字测试兼及汉字字音、字形、字义的认识。测试的汉字从香港小学语文大纲所列生字表分级随机抽出。测试结果显示香港初小学生对初小阶段的字,字音得分较高,字义次之,字形得分最低,表明学生对初小阶段的字的字音掌握较佳,字形掌握较低。当加入高小的字测试时,字音,字形,字义得分相对地下降,字音、字形、字义每项得分差别不大。识字测试结果也显示香港初小学生最先掌握字的音义,其次才掌握字的形义,最后才掌握字的音形。     

Teachers’ professional knowledge construction in Assessment for Learning

This article attempts to unpack the complexity of teachers’ professional knowledge construction in Assessment for Learning (hereafter, AfL). It presents a qualitative study of a school‐based AfL Project which took place in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Thirty lessons video‐recorded in the AfL Project and nine teacher interviews conducted after the Project were analyzed. The findings enrich our understanding of professional knowledge construction in four aspects: (1) personal nature of teachers’ practical knowledge construction in contrived situations; (2) confined integration of AfL into pedagogical content knowledge in terms of ‘skill progression that accompanies experience’; (3) more sophisticated integration of AfL into pedagogical content knowledge as ‘practicalizing theoretical knowledge’; and (4) reflection, conscious deliberation, and ‘theorizing practical knowledge’ associated with more sophisticated professional knowledge integration. Implications for enhancing teachers’ professional learning are discussed.     

Reflections on teaching and research: two inseparable components in higher education

Teaching and research are two inseparable components in higher education. There are continuous debates about the relationship between the two. Does good teaching always lead to good research, and vice versa? This paper critically examines the impact of current policy on the two academic practices and discusses how it shapes one’s professional values and career development. It begins with a discussion of the education policy development and the global trends in higher education, the ontological and epistemological positions of knowledge and education and proceeds to the set of axiological beliefs that educators should embrace. The critical reflective review presented connotes with notions of self-interrogation towards the improvement of professional practice. Its relevance to other disciplines is illustrated though examples contextualised in the marketing discipline.