Cross-and same-race friendships of Vietnamese immigrant adolescents: A focus on acculturation and school diversity

The purpose of this study was to examine friendship developments of 153 Vietnamese immigrant adolescents who resided in an East Coast metropolitan area of the United States. We examined the influences of school diversity and acculturation on the quantity and quality of cross-and same-race friendships. Surprisingly, students who came from schools that are more diverse reported fewer cross-race friendships and lower levels of social support from their cross-race friends. American acculturation predicted greater levels of social support from cross-race friends. For same-race friendships, students who went to schools with higher percentage of Asian students reported more same-race friendships; however, percentage of Asian students was not a significant predictor of social support from same-race friends. Students who reported greater levels of Vietnamese acculturation reported greater levels of social support from their same-race friends. This study has implications for understanding the impact of school diversity and acculturation on friendship development of Vietnamese immigrants. Also, suggestions on how to better conceptualize and measure diversity are discussed.     

School desegregation in Hong Kong: non-Chinese linguistic minority students' challenges to learning Chinese in mainstream schools

The enactment of the revised School Places Allocation Systems at the compulsory stage in 2004 had the aim of desegregating Hong Kong's non-Chinese linguistic minority (NCLM) students by including them into ethnic Chinese-dominated mainstream primary and secondary schools. Because of the presumed cause-consequence relationship between “desegregated” school participation and academic achievement, in specific second language Chinese (CSL) acquisition, the challenges that such students face in participating in mainstream education and learning Chinese, no doubt, deserve to be examined. This qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 18 secondary students of South Asian/Southeast Asian minority backgrounds enrolled in mainstream schools. Drawing on both cultural and institutional paradigms of explanation for educational achievement, we argue that the reasons inhibiting the minority students' academic involvement are not simply their linguistic challenges but also the institutional constraints in the mainstream education system unique to this population. This study calls for a shift in school desegregation arrangement from one focusing narrowly on physical desegregation to a more comprehensive set of policies that embrace the institutional factors including teacher expectation, resource availability, and bilingual support, crucial to reduce racial differences in achievement.     

Multimedia e-Learning and Self-Regulated Science Learning: a Study of Primary School Learners’ Experiences and Perceptions

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Multimedia-supported e-learning is considered useful as it can offer an enjoyable independent learning experience to learners. However, the...     

Changing Ideopolitical Emphases in Moral Education in China: An Analysis of the CCP Central Committee Documents

With the understanding that moral education is interpreted as both ideological and political education in China, this paper attempts to look at the ideopolitical emphases in government moral education documents since the adoption of the open policy in 1978. The analysis will be focused on three particular aspects, namely (1) the changing perception of the role of moral education, (2) the changing emphasis on what moral education should achieve, and (3) how such change of emphases would reflect the changing social and political circumstances in China. In sum, this paper argues that government documents on moral education can be a significant indicator for tracking social transition in China.     

Youth in a global world: attitudes towards globalization and global citizenship among university students in Hong Kong

Despite the wealth of theoretical literature on globalization and global citizenship, empirical studies on the topic are lacking, especially in the context of pedagogical needs in relation to global citizenship education. In order to address this gap, a study was conducted in Hong Kong to investigate the attitudes of university students towards various dimensions of globalization and global citizenship. The initial results indicate that Hong Kong university students are generally quite aware of globalization's impact on the economy and personal consumption choices and that while there is considerable apathy towards international affairs, there is also a great interest in cross-cultural service learning opportunities that is not being met by the available programmes. Moreover, this study finds almost no association between age, gender, and religion and any of the measured dependent variables on attitudes towards globalization and global citizenship, the only exception being the factor of past intercultural experiences, where a significant difference in measured attitudes was found between respondents who had and respondents who had not participated in such experiences before. Explanations of the findings and the implications of findings for policy and future research are discussed.     

High school students' use of diagrams during reading

This study examines how high school students use diagrams and summaries during reading and the effects of such on comprehension. The roles of verbal and spatial ability are also examined. Seventy-four Year 7 (13-year-old) students each read a text presented on a computer screen. The text was presented one sentence at a time and subjects could call up a diagram or content-equivalent summary of the main ideas of the text at any time. Time to read the sentences and the adjunct aids was controlled by the subject and recorded by the computer. In addition, the computer kept a record of where in the text subjects made a text-to-aid move. After reading, the subjects completed a 10-minute filler task and then produced free recalls of the text. The free recalls were examined for the inclusion of details and main ideas. Path analyses showed a significant direct effect of verbal ability on the recall of details and main ideas as well as a significant indirect effect through time on diagram. Spatial ability was not found to have any effect on recall, either directly or indirectly. Analyses of text-to-diagram moves showed more inspections in the first few sentences followed by an essentially random inspection pattern. Instructional implications are discussed.     

Environmental education in primary schools: a case study with plastic resources and recycling

This paper aims to examine teachers’ use of strategies and approaches in integrating Plastic Resources Education (PRE) into primary school life in order to overcome the challenges encountered during implementation to promote environmentally friendly practices. Case studies with eight Hong Kong teachers from PRE-participating primary schools were invited to take part in focus group interviews, to explicate their personal stories and experiences associated with the PRE implementation in primary schools. Based on the data collected from the teachers’ sharing, several challenges which are commonly reported in the previous literature, including lack of time, shortage of manpower, and insufficient pupil engagement were found. The teachers tackled the barriers by using different strategies to improve pupils’ involvement as well as getting support from the relevant stakeholders of school management and parents. The case studies provide crucial and relevant information which can be used as a reference for other schools to integrate PRE more efficiently to facilitate learning.     

CAN ABILITY AND WORKING CONDITIONS EXPLAIN THE WAGE DIFFERENTIAL ACROSS INDUSTRIES AND FIRMS?

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Rethinking the mission of internationalization of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region

This article adopts the critical theory approach to reflect and analyse the impacts of globalization on the internationalization process of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. It argues that globalization forces many of the higher education institutions in the region to follow global practices and ideologies of the Anglo-American paradigm without developing their own unique systems and honouring the rich cultures of their own countries. While higher education institutions are indulging in internationalization in terms of marketization and economic pragmatism, they have to ask themselves, ‘What is missing in the process of internationalization?’ This article argues that internationalization of higher education contributes to building more than economically competitive and politically powerful states. It represents a commitment to the development of an internationalized curriculum where the pursuit of global citizenship, human harmony and a climate of global peace is of paramount importance.     

The influence of social interaction on meaning construction in a virtual community

As proposed by social constructive theorists, meaningful learning and individual development were achieved through social interaction. To foster social interaction among students, this study formed an online learning community in which they played multiple roles as writers, editors and commentators. In playing different roles, they read peers' texts, edited peers' errors, evaluated peer editors' corrections and finally reconstructed their own texts. Results of this study showed that the multiple roles they played allowed them to have opportunities to view their own texts from others' perspectives. Based on these perspectives, they were more willing to acquire information from and contribute information to peers. All of this extensive information acquisition and contribution resulted in meaning construction of texts as active students improved their final drafts in both local revision (grammatical correction) and global revision (the style, organisation and development of a text) after receiving and evaluating feedback from peer editors. Their final drafts were very different from those of passive students whose first and final drafts were almost the same despite some grammatical revisions. This study suggests that, rather than relying only on an examination of students' final drafts, there may be benefits in teachers encouraging students to actively participate in social interaction by reading peers' texts, editing peers' errors and evaluating peer editors' corrections during text revisions.