Factors influencing school connectedness: Chinese adolescents’ perspectives

This study explored the concept of school connectedness and the factors that may influence its development with a sample of Chinese adolescents. Six focus groups involving 52 high school students were conducted using a set of predetermined discussion topics. Results indicated that the students fully understood the notion of school connectedness and could identify a number of key influences affecting its development. These factors could be grouped under several domains including teacher care, peer relations, broader school relationships, school disciplinary policies and practices, activities within the school’s guidance and counseling program, and opportunities for talent development. The students were also able to suggest practical strategies that schools might introduce to enhance and strengthen students’ acquisition of connectedness to school. The implications from the findings are discussed with particular reference to implementing comprehensive school guidance and counseling program in Hong Kong.     

东亚五大城市幼儿园教师工资待遇比较分析

分析深圳、香港、首尔、东京和新加坡五大东亚城市幼儿园教师的工资待遇发现:(1)香港幼儿园教师的工资架构最简单,很难客观反映教师的实际工作表现;深圳和首尔的工资架构最具全面和综合性;东京和新加坡的工资架构相对全面、均衡.(2)东京幼儿园教师的工资水平最高,首尔、香港、深圳随后,新加坡的工资水平最低.(3)从食物购买力角度考察,东京幼儿园教师的实际购买力最强,香港第二,首尔和深圳随后,新加坡最弱.(4)从租房能力角度考察,东京幼儿园教师的实际购买力最强,首尔和深圳随后,香港倒数第二,新加坡倒数第一.针对香港和新加坡幼儿园教师工资待遇偏低问题,研究者建议当地政府进一步完善幼儿园教师工资架构,考虑发放住房、交通、子女教育等津贴,以切实解决幼儿园教师的生活困难,吸引更多优秀人才从事幼儿教育工作.     

Private Demand,Social Equity and Adult Education in Singapore

There are currently two views about the relationship between education and economic development. One rather narrow view treats education as an investment in people — in human capital — that raises productivity and national income just like investments in physical capital. Rational individuals invest in themselves when they see that private returns exceed private cost. Governments should invest in education that gives favourable social rates of returns. Their main function is to respond to the established pattern of demand for education. The second, and broader, view sees education not as a pure investment good, but as a powerful force that increases people's knowledge, changes their values and attitudes, and thus expanding their ability to absorb new technology. In this view, the expansion of educational opportunities is vital to the making of a modern society. Governments should provide education with the objective of creating a fully educated society — a society where everyone has at least six to ten years of formal education. They should create educational and training opportunities ahead of demand, with subsidies and compulsory schooling laws if necessary.     

Government revenue and expenditure on education in Barbados

There is a need for studies containing hard data on the extent of the financial squeeze on the education sector in individual Third World developing countries. This essay deals with the extent of the financial squeeze on the education sector in the newly-independent country of Barbados. The key matters which are discussed include Barbados' long-standing tradition of educational development, the state of the economy and of government operations, actual public expenditure on education since 1966, and policy-measures which have recently been adopted to reduce the rate of increase of educational costs.     

ELECTRONIC VERSUS TRADITIONAL STUDENT RATINGS OF INSTRUCTION

At a large university, ratings of faculty infive academic areas were collected from two groups ofstudents using paper-and-pencil and electronic surveyadministration modes. Factor analyses performed on both sets of data showed that the two modesyielded similar factor patterns. A 2 5 MANOVA indicatedthat ratings were significantly influenced by academicarea (p < .001) but not by survey method. A high percentage of students in both groups feltconfident that their ratings were anonymous, thoughanonymity ratings were significantly higher (p <.001) in the paperand-pencil group. Students'satisfaction with the mode of administration wassignificantly higher (p < .01) for the electronicgroup than for the paper-and-pencil group. Overall,results suggest that the electronic survey mode is aviable alternative to the paper-and-pencil mode ofadministration.     

A social neuroscience perspective on physical activity

The objective of this investigation was to examine the cognitive characteristics of individuals who demonstrate successful and unsuccessful self-regulation of physical activity behavior. In Study 1, participants articulated 1-week intentions for physical activity and wore a triaxial accelerometer over the subsequent 7 days. Among those who were motivated to increase their physical activity, those who were most and least successful were administered an IQ test. In Study 2, a second sample of participants completed the same protocol and a smaller subset of matched participants attended a functional imaging (fMRI) session. In Study 1, successful self-regulators (SSRs) scored significantly higher than unsuccessful self-regulators (USRs) on a test of general cognitive ability, and this difference could not be accounted for by favorability of attitudes toward physical activity or conscientiousness. In Study 2, the IQ effect was replicated, with SSRs showing a full standard deviation advantage over USRs. In the imaging protocol, USRs showed heavier recruitment of cognitive resources relative to SSRs in the anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex during performance of a Stroop task; SSRs showed heavier recruitment in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.