Teachers’ misconceptions and questionable practices when using Putonghua 1 as the medium-of-instruction: a case study of Hong Kong

Immediately after the handover of Hong Kong to China, the teaching of Chinese in Putonghua was promulgated by the Hong Kong SAR government as a long-term goal. However, no clear definition and guidance regarding Putonghua instruction has been provided to teachers to facilitate the smooth implementation of this change. A review of the literature indicates that teachers’ beliefs have great value in assisting them to make sense of changes and govern their thoughts and behaviours. However, little is known about how teachers’ beliefs help teachers to understand the transition to a new medium-of-instruction (MOI). Thus, the aim of this case study is to examine how teachers’ beliefs help teachers to conceptualize the Putonghua medium-of-instruction (PMI) and how these beliefs affect their curricular decisions as well as the implementation of PMI. Data were collected from 10 secondary Chinese Language teachers in one school using semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The findings revealed that since teachers held misconceptions about PMI in the initial phase, the implementation of PMI led to a shift of focus away from Chinese content knowledge. In the second phase, PMI was perceived merely as a code-switching device, and, as a result, only a surface change occurred that appeared unlikely to facilitate effective teaching and deep learning. This paper concludes with the observation that code switching alone is insufficient to achieve a successful transition of MOI if the deeper issue of teachers’ beliefs is neglected.     

Triadic Relations in a Game of Pachisi

A triad is the smallest network form where one can study how a link affects a link or a node affects a link indirectly connected. Through triads, one can glimpse the more complex relational dynamics in larger networks. Studies of various triadic relationships have gained growing interest among OM scholars in recent years as both researchers and practitioners recognize that such a triadic framework allows us to appreciate the relational complexity in larger supply networks. We adapted the Pachisi game to demonstrate the triadic relational dynamics among firms in a supply network. We have played this game in various undergraduate and graduate classes. This simple game has enabled us to introduce such topics as supply networks and coalition strategies in a lively classroom environment. We have received positive feedback from the students validating an effective learning experience.     

Pre-service teachers' beliefs about the switch of medium-of-instruction and their influence on lesson planning and teaching practice

Studies suggest that pre-service teachers' existing beliefs often serve as a lens to interpret the subject matter to be taught, guide their thoughts in lesson planning and shape their behaviour in classroom practices during their teaching practicum. This study examines how these beliefs affect pre-service teachers' conceptualization of Putonghua-medium-of-instruction (PMI) and their teaching. The findings indicate that the conceptualization of pre-service teachers about PMI ranged from code switching to curriculum integration. Their focus of lesson planning and teaching practice varied from transmission of Putonghua knowledge and detailed explanation of text information to integration of Chinese Language and Putonghua.     

Doing poststructural ethnography in the life history of dropouts in South Korea: methodological ruminations on subjectivity,positionality and reflexivity

This paper addresses the issue of positionality in researching the researcher’s own culture and discusses its epistemological implications. Drawing on the researcher’s own field experience in which she entered teenage cultural space, this paper is an attempt at a self‐reflexive analysis of the relationships between the researcher and the participants (teenage youths, former dropouts). In so doing, it aims to discuss the methodological significance of the researcher’s subjectivity, positionality and reflexivity. The paper unpacks the researcher’s journey with first‐person voices, intending to illuminate a poststructural thesis regarding the knower’s implicatedness, multiple and shifting subjectivities, and the negotiated and situationally contingent nature of stories.     

Students’ Written Arguments in General Chemistry Laboratory Investigations

This study aimed to examine the written arguments developed by college freshman students using the Science Writing Heuristic approach in inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory classrooms and its relationships with students’ achievement in chemistry courses. Fourteen freshman students participated in the first year of the study while 19 freshman students participated in the second year of the study. Two frameworks, an analytical and a holistic argument framework, were developed to evaluate the written argument generated by students. The analytical framework scored each argument component separately and allocated a Total Argument score while the holistic framework evaluated the arguments holistically. Three hundred and sixty-eight samples from 33 students were evaluated. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that the evidence and the claims–evidence relationship components were identified as the most important predictors of the Total Argument and the Holistic Argument scores. Students’ argument scores were positively correlated with their achievement, as measured by the final grade received for the general chemistry laboratory and the general chemistry lecture course.     

How can we assess and evaluate the competitive advantage of a country’s human resource development system?

The purpose of this study was to develop an index to assess and evaluate the competitive advantage of a country’s human resource development system. Based on an extensive literature review, a theoretical model of a human resource development system at the national level (named National Human Resource Development: NHRD) was constructed. The model consists of four factors—supply conditions, demand conditions, environment, and supporting systems—and NHRD system competitiveness was measured by the cumulative sum of a country’s achievement in each of these four factors. The four factors were divided into 10 sub-categories, and 45 indicators were selected based on criteria such as relevance, international comparability, reliability, timeliness, and accessibility. Finally, by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the individual weights of the 45 indicators were calculated. In addition, the relationships between the NHRD competitiveness scores of OECD member countries and other relevant variables, including GDP per capita and the scores from other national competitiveness studies, were analyzed to examine the validity of the index.     

Psychological correlates of physical abuse in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To understand the associations between adolescent family physical maltreatment and psychiatric morbidity or psychological problems. METHODS: questionnaire survey on 489 secondary school students in Form 2 from 10 schools in Hong Kong. Questions regarding three forms of family physical maltreatment were measured: corporal punishment within the past 6 months, beaten without any reason within the past 6 months, or ever been beaten to injury. MAIN RESULT: Corporal punishment was not associated with the psychological variables after Bonferroni adjustment was made. Those who experienced the two other forms of physical maltreatment had significant and strong associations with positive Achenbach CBCL outcome (OR from 3.26 to 3.27), drug abuse problems (OR from 2.60 to 20.38), self-injurious behaviors (OR from 3.34 to 8.47) and poor perceived parental support. In addition, those who had ever been beaten to injury scored significantly lower in the "physical appearance" and "behavioral conduct" subscales of the Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: In Hong Kong, some forms of family physical maltreatment (beaten for no reason and beaten to injury) were associated with a number of psychiatric/psychological problems. Further studies should be carried out to clarify whether the relationships are causal in nature.     

Attentional inertia reduces distractibility during young children's TV viewing

The longer a look at TV is maintained, the conditional probability that it will be further maintained rapidly increases for about 15 sec, after which it increases slowly. This increase in the conditional probability of maintaining a look is called "attentional inertia." An external audiovisual distractor stimulus was presented during 3- and 5-year-olds' TV viewing. The distractor was less effective in eliciting a head turn from the TV if it was presented after a look at the TV had been continuously maintained for at least 15 sec. If a head turn to the distractor following such a maintained look did occur, moreover, its reaction time was significantly increased. Parallel effects were found for the nonviewing pauses between looks. The results provide evidence of increasing attentional engagement as a look at TV is maintained.     

Testing a cultural orientation model of electronic word-of-mouth communication: a comparative study of U.S. and Korean social media users

Expanding electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) literature and cross-cultural literature, this study proposes a horizontal–vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism (HVIC)-eWOM model in a cross-cultural context. We employed HVIC at the individual level to explain the variance of eWOM communications on social media. We collected data from American and Korean social media users to examine how the hypothesized model fits the samples from each country. The analysis of the HVIC-eWOM model within and between the two countries revealed that there are some similarities and differences in influential cultural dimensions on eWOM communications in the two countries. The results suggest that vertical aspects of individualism and collectivism are significant drivers of opinion-leadership and opinion-seeking tendencies for both countries.