Personal strengths and perceived teacher support as predictors of Singapore students’ academic risk status

Abstract

This study explored the relative salience of students’ personal strengths and teacher support in predicting academic risk status. The participants were Secondary One (S1, Grade Seven) students from Singapore who scored below the cohort’s mean score in a national test administered at the end of primary education, and were identified as low risk (n = 309) or high risk (n = 396), based on their S1 achievement score in the English Language subject. Logistic regression analysis was conducted with academic risk status as criterion variable and the following potential predictors: students’ background variables (i.e. socio-economic status, cognitive ability and initial achievement), personal strengths, teacher–student relatedness, and teacher autonomy and competence support. After controlling for the effects of the students’ background variables, teacher trust emerged as the strongest (negative) and most stable predictor of high-risk status; teacher alienation and teacher–student communication were found as significant positive predictors of students’ placement in the high-risk group.     

Computer-based collaborative problem-solving assessment in Taiwan

Abstract

The current study explores students’ collaboration and problem solving (CPS) abilities using a human-to-agent (H-A) computer-based collaborative problem solving assessment. Five CPS assessment units with 76 conversation-based items were constructed using the PISA 2015 CPS framework. In the experiment, 53,855 ninth and tenth graders in Taiwan were recruited, and a multidimensional item response analysis was used to develop CPS scales and represent the students’ collaboration and problem solving performance. The results show that the developed H-A approach is feasible for measuring students’ CPS skills, and the CPS scales are also shown to be reliable. In addition, the students’ CPS performance scores are further explored and discussed under the PISA CPS framework.     

Cognitive profiling in Chinese developmental dyslexia with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders

The cognitive profiles of children with Developmental Reading Disorder (RD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) have been extensively studied in alphabetic language communities. Deficits in phonological processing and rapid naming have been implicated as core features of RD although whether the latter is a deficit specific to RD remains controversial. Similar research aiming to explore the cognitive profiles of children with both RD and ADHD in non-alphabetic language communities is limited. The specificity of rapid naming deficit to RD among Chinese has yet to be studied. In the first study, 43 Chinese children with confirmed diagnoses of RD + ADHD were assessed on their cognitive abilities in relating to reading. In the second study, the specificity deficit hypothesis of rapid naming to RD but not ADHD was examined. A digit naming test was administered to the RD + ADHD group (43 subjects) and an ADHD only group (49 subjects). In regard to cognitive profiling, rapid naming and orthographic knowledge were found to be the most common deficits among the Chinese RD + ADHD group. This co-morbid group was also found to have a significant deficit performance on the rapid naming task than the ADHD only group. The present findings support the double dissociation hypothesis in cognitive deficit between RD and ADHD. The results of both studies are discussed with reference to the findings of the Western counterparts.     

Predictors of Chinese reading and literacy skills among Chinese school children: a 3-year longitudinal study

Abstract

This study aims to identify the predictors of Chinese reading and literacy skills among Chinese school children in Taiwan. Participants recruited in the study were 182 Grade 1 elementary school students. First, data were collected on these students’ literacy skills, which comprised morphological awareness, orthography processing, visual perception skills, phonological awareness, and rapid automatised naming. In Grade 2, data were collected from these students on their word decoding skills, which comprised character recognition and reading fluency. Finally, in Grade 3, data were collected on the Chinese comprehension skills of the same students. A structural equation model examined the direct and indirect effects of students’ literacy skills at Grade 1 on their reading comprehension at Grade 3, with students’ word decoding at Grade 2 acting as a mediator. Results showed that reading comprehension of students at Grade 3 was predicted by their literacy skills at Grade 1.     

Number sense strategies used by 6th‐grade students in Taiwan

In an interview setting, 21 6th‐graders from four public schools in south Taiwan were asked a series of questions, related to whole and decimal numbers, designed to assess their number sense. Eight students were randomly selected from both low and middle performance levels, and five were selected from a high‐performance level, according to their mathematical capabilities. Results indicated that, regardless of performance level, very few number sense strategies (e.g. using benchmarks, estimation or numbers of magnitude) were used. The evidence also revealed that Taiwanese students tended to apply rule‐based methods and standard written algorithms to explain their reasoning. Their inclination to use paper‐and‐pencil procedures narrowed their thinking and reasoning powers: this heavy reliance on written algorithms seemed to be a major impediment to the development of number sense.     

Challenges confronting beginning researchers in conducting literature reviews

Conducting literature review is a complicated, sometimes confusing and laborious process that beginning educational researchers, especially graduate students, often find challenging. However, in the past these challenges were hardly considered, but in more recent times they have been increasingly considered by various faculties and graduate schools due to the expanding needs from growing enrolments. To further develop and strengthen the responses to these identified needs, this article reviews literature concerning challenges faced by beginning educational researchers in conducting literature review, aiming to help unpack this complicated phenomenon by constructing a coherent story. Based on our review, we propose a framework to conceptualize four types of challenges. We term them LMCO (linguistic, methodological, conceptual, and ontological) challenges. Discussions centers on the four identified challenges, recommendations for future studies and implications to graduate preparatory programs.     

论科学信念在化约性与复杂性之间的关系——以系统论的发展为例

科学信念一直是影响科学研究人员的重要因素 ,也是一般大众对科学认识的深层印象。本文从科学信念的三组对立概念入手 ,针对“有序与混沌”、“部分与整体”、“偶然与必然”三项议题深入探讨 ,并直接举系统论的发展为例 ,说明因应三组概念所导引出的三个阶段 :类型学的系统论、方法学的系统论、形上学的系统论。由此而知 ,科学信念转变的关键乃在于其化约性与复杂性之间的拉距或协调     

崇澍蕨属(Chieniopteris Ching)——中国蕨类植物的一新属

 A new fern genus, Chieniopteris Ching, based upon  Woodwardia  harlandii Hook. from South China, is here proposed.  Its systematic position seems to be apparently inter- mediate between Lorinseria Presl of the east North America and Woodwardia  Sm.  of the Old World, from the former the genus is distinguished by its upland habitat, by the uniform fronds of chartaceous or rather subcoriaceous texture  with  straw-colored stipe and rachis of the leaves; from the latter by the long  creeping  rhizome with  distant fronds, by the simple trilobed or generally simply pinnate lamina with a few pairs of entire or sometimes irregularly lobated lateral pinnae, which are connected at the base by a narrow wing on each side of the rachis, by the superficial and longer sori and by the veins anastomosing between the sori and the leaf margin.      While describing the plant as a Woodwardia, Hooker properly noted that it is very distinct from the oriental Woodwardia japonica (Linn. fil.) Sm. and W. prolifera Hook. Later Baker transferred Hooker's species under Woodwardia sect. Lorinseria in Synopsis Filicum in a juxtaposition with Woodwardia areolata (Linn.)  Moore, the type of the genus Lorinseria Presl.  It is J. Smith, who referred the southern Chinese plant to Lorin- seria Presl, with which it is somewhat similar in habit, but differs in characters diagnosed above, besides a distinct habitat and geographic area.      The new genus is now represented by two species, C. harlandii (Hook.) Ching and C. kempii (Cop.) Ching, all indigenous in South China, extending  southwardly  to  the northern part of Vietnam and eastwardly to the islands of southern Japan.      The new genus is named after professor S. S. Chien, director of the Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, and president of the Botanical Society of China, to celebratehis 80th. birthday last year.     

Myth of the Inferior Status of Vocational Education: The Case of Hong Kong

Abstract

In this article, factors contributing to the poor perceptions and inferior status of vocational education in Hong Kong are discussed. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed as the methodology in examining the discursive construction of vocational education in the policy context. A total of five policy documents published between 1970 and 2015 are included. Our findings show that the socioeconomic transformation of Hong Kong in recent decades, massification of higher education, and cultural factors such as parental expectations are pertinent to the stigmatization observed in vocational education. This article discusses the implications from the findings and concludes with possible solutions for the future development of vocational education in Hong Kong under the novel vocational and professional education and training (VPET) initiative launched by the government.