‘Read a hundred times and the meaning will appear ...’ Changes in Chinese University students’ views of the temporal structure of learning

It has been shown earlier that while some high school students (younger on the average) do not differentiate between memorization and understanding, others (older on the average) do so (Marton, Watkins and Tang, Learning and Instruction 7, 21–48, 1997). Those who do differentiate impose a sequential ordering on the two: When you learn you memorize first and understand subsequently or When you learn you understand first and memorize later. This sequential ordering is expressed both through the students account of their theory of learning and their account of their own study practices. In the current study a group of 20 students of an elite University in mainland China were interviewed about learning, memorization and understanding in the context of their studies upon entering the University and 1.5 years later. It was found that while on the first occasion the predominant mode of talking about memorization and understanding was by discussing them in terms of either of the two above ways of sequentially ordering them. On the second occasion the most frequent way of talking about memorization and understanding was in terms of two simultaneous events, simply two different aspects of the very same learning process. The students spoke about using both repetition and variation in their study practice at the same time. Unlike when you read the same presentation of something several times in the same way and thus repeat the same thing again and again, when you read different presentations of the same thing or when you read the same presentation in different ways, something is repeated and something is varied. To the extent that repetition enhances remembering and variation enhances understanding – as the students seem to believe – they will likely remember that which is repeated and understand that which is varied. And when the two are intertwined they will remember what they understand.     

Determinants of Teachers’ Decision to Help Students with Behaviour Problems

The present study explored the link between teachers’ perceptions of students’ problem behaviours, their emotional reactions, and their likelihood to help such students. One hundred and thirty five teachers responded to four written vignettes which depicted students with either aggressive or withdrawal behaviours. The effects of teacher gender and the nature of problem behaviours in male and female students on teacher's willingness to help were also explored. Results showed that teachers were least sympathetic and most angry with aggressive students. These students were more likely to be held responsible for their behaviours. Teachers were, however, willing to help all students regardless of their problems. Female teachers were more willing to help students than male teachers. The results supported the “empathy‐altruism” hypothesis with regard to helping behaviour. The influence of role expectation of teachers in the context of Chinese culture was also discussed.     

Singapore: Review of Educational Events in 1994 and 1995

The period under review, 1994-1995, is best regarded as one of consolidation with some fine-tuning following the adoption of a range of educational initiatives in the preceding three years. As reported in the earlier two reviews in 1992 and 1993 (in the Singapore Journal of Education), some of these initiatives stemmed from the recommendations of the report entitled Improving Primary School Education (1991). Refinements made to other aspects of the education system were also announced in the period under review. All these refinements principally ensure that the central aim of the education system continues to be achieved.     

Violence on television in Asia

Tan Yew Soon and Soh Yew Peng The Development of Singapore's Modern Media Industry Times Academic Press, Singapore 1994, pp. 263     

To what extent does Hong Kong primary school students’ Chinese reading comprehension benefit from after-school private tuition?

The reading attainment of the 3,875 primary 4 Hong Kong primary school students participating in the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study ranked first among 49 countries and regions surveyed worldwide. Analysis of the association between (a) participating students’ reading attainment and (b) responses to questionnaires completed by the students and their parents revealed that classroom teaching, the school curriculum, the reader’s social and economic background and support from home had all helped shape reading performance. It is not unusual for school students in many Asian countries to receive after-school tuition in various areas of the curriculum to boost performance in impending examinations. The study reported here focussed (1) on the Chinese language reading attainment of students who had attended private tutoring classes after school in this subject against the scores of fellow students who had not and (2) asking whether such after-school tutoring had been of any notable benefit to their reading. Although a majority of the parents questioned said they paid for extra tuition for their children after school, analyses of the data found there was a statistically significant difference between the scores of students who received extra tuition and those who did not, the score of the latter group being superior. It is suggested that the Hong Kong education authorities reassure parents about the quality of teaching in primary schools and publicly pronounce on the potential value of after-school private tutoring.     

The Follow-Up Studies Project: A Brief Report

Studies following up on student teachers who have started full-time teaching constitute part of the programme evaluation scheme at the Institute of Education. Since 1982 two surveys have been conducted to find out the perceptions that former Certificate and Diploma students had of their training programmes and whether there was any noticeable shift in their views about teaching.     

Catching up with Harvard: results from regression analysis of world universities league tables

This paper uses regression analysis to test if the universities performing less well according to Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s world universities league tables are able to catch up with the top performers, and to identify national and institutional factors that could affect this catching up process. We have constructed a dataset of 461 universities across 41 countries. We found consistent evidence of a moderate degree of catching up, especially amongst non-US universities. Larger universities as well as universities located in English speaking countries not only perform better on average, but also catch up more over 2003–2009. Universities located in lower income countries are also catching up more. The performance of private universities, as compared to that of public universities, varies substantially between the US and the other countries.     

Enhancing orthographic knowledge helps spelling production in eight-year-old Chinese children at risk for dyslexia

We investigated the effects of enhancing orthographic knowledge on the spelling of Chinese characters and words in 131 eight-year-old Chinese children at risk for dyslexia. The traditional approach (37 children) emphasizing memory and repeated writing was the control condition. The analytic and synthetic approach (ASA, 33 children) stressed insight into character structure. The integrated analytic and synthetic approach added to ASA self-correction and metacognitive activities (INA, 61 children). The children were first asked to write down as many words as possible associated with pictures of home, school, and community; the correctly written words formed the baseline information. The children were then instructed by their classroom teachers in six especially designed short texts and assessed in eight measurable bujian or radical tasks subserving three constructs: morpheme completion, bujian analysis and synthesis and bujian compounding. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that the children in the INA condition outperformed those in the other conditions in three of the measurable bujian tasks. A confirmatory factor analysis verified the stability of the eight tasks and their clustering into three constructs. From these results, we tentatively propose a “bujian sensitivity hypothesis” as a means of helping young Chinese children at risk for spelling disorders.     

Does the gender of the teacher matter in the teaching of reading literacy? Teacher gender and pupil attainment in reading literacy in Hong Kong

A study of 148 primary school teachers and 4867 Grade 4 pupils in Hong Kong found no support for the proposal that boys learn to read better when taught by men teachers. In fact, it was found that both boys and girls learnt better when taught by women. Responses to a teacher questionnaire indicate significant differences in the preferred patterns of teaching favoured by male and female teachers. Responses from men teachers suggest they are more authoritarian, prefer to control pupils' learning, engage pupils in whole-class reading and like to read passages aloud while pupils follow the text. Responses from women teachers suggest they prefer to teach reading in groups, to group pupils according to reading ability, set tasks that suit pupils' stage of learning, allocate more time for pupils to read books and use the school library and encourage pupils to discover for themselves the meaning of new vocabulary encountered in text. The implications of these findings are discussed.