Exploring the definitions of quality early childhood programmes in a market‐driven context: case studies of two Hong Kong preschools

Set within the market‐driven context in educare for young children in Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, this paper points to the importance of exploring the definitions of quality in early childhood programmes from the multiple perspectives of school stakeholders. This study describes two preschools that were rated highly in the quality assurance inspections. Data collected in semi‐structured, individual and group interviews indicated that the views of the school stakeholders on the quality of early childhood programmes shifted from childrearing to developmental nurturing but still emphasised academic learning and preparedness. This was largely due to the ‘backwash effect’ of primary education creating academic pressure on the local preschools. The two case study schools formulated successful strategies for reconciling conflicts between professional values of learning through play and parental expectations of academic preparation for primary education. In addition, the schools put a lot of effort into sharpening their competitive edge. They did this by maintaining close communication with their parents through various channels and offering free after‐school custodial care, emotional and financial support. These are outside the primary duties of a preschool but highlight the way in which schools in the local field address and give high priority to parents' needs and expectations. In line with Woodhead's 1998 Woodhead, M. 1998. Quality in early childhood programmes: contextually appropriate approach. International Journal of Early Years Education, 6(1): 5–13. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] contextually appropriate approach to quality, the study sets a challenge for our understanding of quality frameworks for early childhood programmes. These should not be based mainly on a universalist view of developmental appropriateness but should also take into account the multiplicity of stakeholders' views on quality in a market‐driven context. The data also demonstrate that the provision of preschooling in Hong Kong is shaped by market forces. The implications for quality educare are discussed.     

Evaluating taught postgraduate awards from the student’s perspective

There is a need for a questionnaire designed specifically to evaluate taught postgraduate (TPg) awards for quality assurance or enhancement purposes. Comparison of undergraduate and TPg awards suggests that as the former have broadened their ambit to better nurture generic graduate attributes, TPg awards have concentrated on advanced specialised knowledge and skills. Those enrolling in TPg programmes are often mature part-time students working in a field associated with the subject studied. A set of interviews with TPg students revealed that they had clear expectations of the knowledge and skills they were expected to acquire from their studies and were able to comment critically on curriculum design. This made it clear that instruments designed for undergraduate degrees would not be suitable. Therefore, a TPg questionnaire was designed based on a model derived from a qualitative study, which adopted a grounded theory approach to collect views from 21 part-time TPg students from seven programmes offered by six institutions in Hong Kong. The conceptual model underpinning the questionnaire design was tested using structural equation modelling. As the results showed a good fit to the data, the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. Use of the instrument in a routine quality assurance exercise across a university revealed that results from the questionnaire were highly diagnostic, so providing constructive feedback for curriculum reform.     

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND ONLINE INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE READING: EVIDENCE FROM EYE TRACKING

This study employed eye-tracking technology to examine how students with different levels of prior knowledge process text and data diagrams when reading a web-based scientific report. Students’ visual behaviors were tracked and recorded when they read a report demonstrating the relationship between the greenhouse effect and global climate change in 2 diagrams and 4 textual sections. Based on the pretest scores, 13 participants were categorized into high and low prior knowledge (PK) groups. Eye-tracking measures including the total reading time, total fixation duration, and total regression number on each area of interest of the 2 groups were compared. A heat map was further used to show the overall visual distribution of each group. In addition, the inter-scanning transitions between the textual and graphical information of the 2 groups were compared and further confirmed by the patterns of the scan paths. The results revealed that overall students spent more time reading the textual than the graphical information. The high PK students showed longer fixation durations and more regressions on the graphics than the low PK students. Meanwhile, the high PK students showed more inter-scanning transitions than the low PK students not only between the text and graphics but also between the 2 data diagrams. This suggests that the high PK students were more able to integrate text and graphic information and inspect scientific data which is essential for online inquiry learning. This study provides eye-tracking evidence to show that low PK students have difficulties integrating scientific diagrams with expository texts and inspecting scientific data diagrams that are commonly shown in websites. Suggestions are made for future studies and instructional design for online inquiry-based science learning.     

Shaping education policy research in an Asia-Pacific context

Globalization increasingly calls for comparing educational policies across countries. In this study, we assemble and analyze academic journal publications of the past decade in order to shape education policy research within an Asia-Pacific context. After examining Asia-Pacific research publication data from the Web of Science, we find a few stylized facts: (1) increasing research collaboration, (2) growing policy evaluation research, (3) swelling empirical research with quantitative methodology and (4) growing attention to higher education. Moreover, education stakeholders show exclusive interest on globalization, private tutoring, and language education policies within and across countries. Finally, we find a significant difference in research impact and diffusion between Asia-Pacific and American education policy studies. Further, we examine what determines research impact and diffusion. Our results indicate that research collaboration, national context, publication year and issue, policy area, and research methodology are significantly associated with publication citations. Based on the findings, we suggest useful implications for future directions on education policy research in an Asia-Pacific context.     

Preschool predictors of dyslexia status in Chinese first graders with high or low familial risk

The present 4-year longitudinal study examined preschool predictors of Grade 1 dyslexia status in a Chinese population in Hong Kong where children started learning to read at the age of three. Seventy-five and 39 Chinese children with high and low familial risk respectively were tested on Chinese word reading, oral language skills, morphological awareness, phonological skills, rapid naming, and print-related skills from age 4 to 6 and a standardized dyslexia test at age 7. Results showed that children of the high risk group performed significantly worse than the low risk group in Chinese literacy, phonological awareness, and orthographic skills at age 7. All the children with dyslexia had word reading difficulties in at least one preschool year. Results of the logistic regression showed that preschool verbal production, syllable deletion, and letter naming were the best predictors of dyslexia outcome at age 7. As in alphabetic languages, preschool oral language skills like verbal production, phonological skills, and print-related skills are the most significant predictors of children’s later reading difficulties.     

The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis in Singapore: The Roles of Socioeconomic Status,Mass Media,and Interpersonal Discussion on Public Knowledge of the H1N1 Flu Pandemic

This study applies the knowledge gap hypothesis to examine the direct and interactive influence of socioeconomic status, mass media, and interpersonal discussion on public knowledge of the H1N1 flu pandemic in Singapore. Using a nationally representative random digit-dialing telephone survey of 1,055 adult Singaporeans, results show that attention to newspapers was not associated with a widened knowledge gap about the H1N1 pandemic between the high and low socioeconomic status individuals. Conversely, attention to television news and interpersonal discussion were associated with a narrowed knowledge disparity between the high and low socioeconomic status individuals. Findings suggest that the knowledge gap hypothesis was not supported in this study. Instead, results suggest that attention to television news and interpersonal discussions were associated with a reduced knowledge gap. Household income and risk perceptions were also found to be positively associated with public knowledge about the H1N1 flu pandemic. Both theoretical and practical implications were discussed.     

Independent research of China in Science Citation Index Expanded during 1980–2011

The study explores the characteristics of China's independent research articles published from 1980 to 2011, based on the database of Science Citation Index Expanded. The publication outputs of seven major industrialized countries including Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the USA were compared with China. Annual production, field performance, research emphases and trends, top articles, as well as main institutional and individual contributors by its top cited articles were analyzed. Some newly developed indicators related to words in title, author keywords, KeyWords Plus, first author, corresponding author, and Y-index were employed to provide in-depth information on topic and author contributions. Results showed that China has been closing the gap with the USA with the greatest growth, and has stood the second since 2006. Most top cited articles were published in 2000s, made up approximately seven tenths of total articles. Pronounced activities were found in chemistry and physics related categories. The core categories included multidisciplinary chemistry, physical chemistry, multidisciplinary materials science, and applied physics. Moreover, China's performance of nanotechnology and science, especially carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanowires, and nanostructures showed dramatic growth. Six top articles with at least 1000 citations were examined, and were observed to concern medicine, nanotube, and adsorption. In addition, main contributing institutions and authors were also revealed and evaluated. Chinese Academy of Sciences played a dominant role, and Tsinghua University, Peking University and five universities in Hong Kong showed good scientific performance.     

On Generalization and Variation Theory

The variation theory developed by Marton has quickly become popular as a framework for providing guidance for making learning possible. However, the epistemological assumption behind the theory is often accepted without critical scrutiny. This paper poses an apparent problem of the possible occurrence of learning in the situation of generalization, where one aspect is kept invariant, while other aspects vary. Eventually some of the learners can learn the invariant aspect. However, variation theory entails that the experience of variation in an aspect is necessary for learners to discern that aspect. How then is it possible for the learners in a situation of generalization to fully discern the invariant aspect? Through scrutinizing the epistemological assumption, I hope to foster discussion toward further improvement of the theory.