The Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE) put forth the aim for the top university project (ATU) in 2005 with the aim of improving the worldwide academic competitiveness and ranking performance of selected Taiwanese universities. With the conclusion of the second phase of the project at the end of 2017, this study aims to critically examine and reflect on the ministry’s fundamental assumptions regarding the idea of the world-class university (WCU) and how such an institution should be governed. To gain an in-depth and critical perspective on the policy, this study takes the form of a Foucauldian analysis. The empirical data are sourced from a range of material, including qualitative interviews, official policy documents, website resources and other relevant documents. Interview data were collected in collaboration with two MOE officials who were directly in charge of this project. This study concludes that assumptions made about the WCU by MOE officials have evolved during the last decade, indicating that the management of funding recipients is moving, in Foucauldian terminology, from top-down disciplinary power to networked governance. While higher education funding is a zero-sum game, the ATU risks creating a vicious circle in which non-ATU institutions and their students are increasingly marginalised, especially in the case of private universities. As a result, the MOE should rethink the ATU, focusing on higher education as a whole. Careful consideration of the relative advantages and disadvantages that have arisen from the launch of the ATU will help to ensure that the project is open to further improvements in the future.
School leader training has become a critical strategy in educational reform. However, in China, there still exists a big gap in terms of how to transfer leadership knowledge into practice. Thus, tools that can integrate formal knowledge into practice are called for urgently in school leader training. This paper presents the results of a research and development (R&;D) approach to adapt an existing online computer simulation, Making Change Happen?, for use in Mainland China. The paper describes the process used to inform and assess our cultural adaptation of the simulation, as well as the response of Chinese principals to learning through this innovative method. Results affirmed the necessity for cultural adaptation of ‘Western’ curricula and tools for use in the Chinese context. The positive response of the Chinese school principals to learning via an online computer simulation suggested future potential for employing technology-facilitated, active learning modes in China. Implications are outlined for theory, research, and practice. 相似文献
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the level of sexual abuse knowledge and self-protection skills in a sample of female Chinese adolescents with mild mental retardation. It was hypothesized that the participants would exhibit impoverished knowledge on sexual abuse and related self-protection strategies. METHOD: A total of 77 female Chinese adolescents aged from 11 to 15 years old who met the inclusion criterion of the study were recruited from four special schools for mental retardation. The Chinese versions of the Personal Safety Questionnaire and the "What If' Situation Test (Wurtele, 1990) were administered orally to the participants during individual interviews. RESULTS: Participants were more able to accurately recognize inappropriate than appropriate touches and sexual requests, and possessed limited information about sexual abuse. They were also inadequate in protecting themselves against sexual abuse, and had the most difficulty in reporting the sexually abusive incident and characteristics of the offender. Regression analyses also showed that their sexual abuse knowledge was the best predictor for self-protection skills. CONCLUSION: The present findings provided strong cross-cultural support to previous Western studies that found females with mild mental retardation of high risk to sexual abuse and in need of specially designed prevention program to enhance their competency against sexual victimization and exploitation. With modification and refinement, measurement scales used in the Western general population could be extended to Chinese adolescents with mental retardation. Suggestions on the design of the sexual abuse prevention programs, limitations of the present study, and recommendations for future studies were also discussed. 相似文献