The influence of traditional beliefs on Vietnamese college lecturers’ perceptions of face

In an East Asian context heavily influenced by Confucian ideas on principles for living and behaving, ‘face’ plays a significant role in Vietnamese people’s thinking and behaviour. In the context of education, Vietnamese teachers’ concerns of saving face in classrooms have been implicitly taken for granted but not yet seriously examined in academic research. The paper addresses this gap in the research literature by presenting the results of interviews with 15 lecturers in a Vietnamese Teacher Training College. It is argued that the concepts of face and saving face are significant to the participants and their ideas of saving face are largely influenced by traditional Confucian standards in education. In particular, teachers are believed to save face by upholding the belief that they represent an unquestionable source of knowledge, maintaining a ‘noble distant image’ in relations with their students, and receiving respectful behaviours from their students. These beliefs could be one source of resistance to educational reforms regarding interactive pedagogies in Vietnamese higher education. It is argued that teachers’ concerns of saving face in Vietnamese classrooms deserve more attention from educational planners and researchers.     

‘Will I learn what I want to learn?’ Usable representations, ‘students’ and OECD assessment production

Amid growing debates around international assessment tools in educational policy, few have critically examined how students themselves are cast in policy tool production processes and discourse. Drawing on Stuart Hall's concept of representation, we show how higher education (HE) ‘students’ are constructed, fixed and normalized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) initiative. Based on an analysis of AHELO texts, we argue that the OECD, during the early stages of test production, fixes and circulates the meaning of ‘students’ as represented objects. We identify and analyze two distinct representational practices at work in AHELO texts: classifying and organizing, and marking. We posit that by fixing images of the student as an object of learning and as a consumer–investor subject, the OECD creates ‘usable’ representations of ‘students’ to claim jurisdiction over teaching and learning in HE and to justify intervention through standardized testing.     

Why We Think We Can't Dance: Theory of Mind and Children's Desire to Perform

Theory of mind (ToM) allows children to achieve success in the social world by understanding others' minds. A study with 3‐ to 12‐year‐olds, however, demonstrates that gains in ToM are linked to decreases in children's desire to engage in performative behaviors associated with health and well‐being, such as singing and dancing. One hundred and fifty‐nine middle‐class children from diverse backgrounds in a Northeastern U.S. metropolitan area completed the study in 2011. The development of ToM is associated with decreases in self‐esteem, which in turn predicts decreases in children's willingness to perform. This shift away from performance begins at age 4 (when ToM begins to develop), years before children enter puberty.     

Dean-flow-coupled elasto-inertial three-dimensional particle focusing under viscoelastic flow in a straight channel with asymmetrical expansion–contraction cavity arrays

In this paper, 3D particle focusing in a straight channel with asymmetrical expansion–contraction cavity arrays (ECCA channel) is achieved by exploiting the dean-flow-coupled elasto-inertial effects. First, the mechanism of particle focusing in both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids was introduced. Then particle focusing was demonstrated experimentally in this channel with Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids using three different sized particles (3.2 μm, 4.8 μm, and 13 μm), respectively. Also, the effects of dean flow (or secondary flow) induced by expansion–contraction cavity arrays were highlighted by comparing the particle distributions in a single straight rectangular channel with that in the ECCA channel. Finally, the influences of flow rates and distances from the inlet on focusing performance in the ECCA channel were studied. The results show that in the ECCA channel particles are focused on the cavity side in Newtonian fluid due to the synthesis effects of inertial and dean-drag force, whereas the particles are focused on the opposite cavity side in non-Newtonian fluid due to the addition of viscoelastic force. Compared with the focusing performance in Newtonian fluid, the particles are more easily and better focused in non-Newtonian fluid. Besides, the Dean flow in visco-elastic fluid in the ECCA channel improves the particle focusing performance compared with that in a straight channel. A further advantage is three-dimensional (3D) particle focusing that in non-Newtonian fluid is realized according to the lateral side view of the channel while only two-dimensional (2D) particle focusing can be achieved in Newtonian fluid. Conclusively, this novel Dean-flow-coupled elasto-inertial microfluidic device could offer a continuous, sheathless, and high throughput (>10 000 s⁻¹) 3D focusing performance, which may be valuable in various applications from high speed flow cytometry to cell counting, sorting, and analysis.     

DOCTORAL TRAINING AND RESEARCH IN FRANCE: BIBLIOGRAPHY

This bibliography is a complement to the article analyzing graduate training in institutions of higher learning in France between 1971 and 1985. Original results of doctoral dissertations are usually published in abridged form, which eliminates much of the critical review of relevant literature as well as methodological details. Topical coverage of this bibliography is multidisciplinary. The references are classified into five sections: biology, psychology/behavior, social sciences, health, literature and arts. This list of references forms a resource which, for the most part, cannot be found in published literature.     

The Renovation of Higher Education Governance in Vietnam and its Impact on the Teaching Quality at Universities

Tertiary Education and Management - Significant changes in the policies of higher education in Vietnam have changed the structure and governance of the system since the mid-1990s. The most commonly...     

Why is school reform sustained even after a project? A case study of Bac Giang Province, Vietnam

This paper reports on a case study of schools in Vietnam wherein teachers are engaged in school reform activities known as professional teacher meetings (PTMs), which is based on an approach called lesson study for learning community (LSLC). The PTMs under LSLC were introduced in 2006, but the teachers involved are still conducting the activities despite scarcity of resources, particularly technical ones. This study addresses the following research question: Why have teachers continued to organize PTMs after the project ended? Three aspects will help address the research question. First, teachers had faith in the effectiveness of the PTMs. Second, enthusiasm and support of seniors and authorities such as school principals could have also helped sustain the PTMs. Third, the need to maintain a respectable reputation before external parties could also be an important factor.     

Using a situation awareness approach to determine decision-making behaviour in squash

Situation awareness (SA) refers to the awareness of all relevant sources of information, an ability to synthesise this information using domain knowledge gained from past experiences and the ability to physically respond to a situation. Expert-novice differences have been widely reported in decision-making in complex situations although determining the small differences in expert behaviour are more elusive. This study considered how expert squash players use SA to decide on what shot to play. Matches at the 2010 (n = 14) and 2011 (n = 27) Rowe British Grand Prix were recorded and processed using Tracker software. Shot type, ball location, players’ positions on court and movement parameters between the time an opponent played a shot prior to the player’s shot to the time of the opponent’s following shot were captured 25 times per second. Six SA clusters were named to relate to the outcome of a shot ranging from a defensive shot played under pressure to create time to an attempted winner played under no pressure with the opponent out of position. This new methodology found fine-grained SA differences in expert behaviour, even for the same shot type played from the same court area, beyond the usual expert-novice differences.     

An inquiry-based practicum model: What knowledge,practices, and relationships typify empowering teaching and learning experiences for student teachers,cooperating teachers and college supervisors?

The author examines an inquiry-based teaching/learning model involving diverse members of learning communities. A triad of cooperating teachers, student teachers, and a college supervisor engaged in ongoing and purposeful discourse to explore the teacher–learner (expert–novice) reciprocity, school culture and social relations. In their efforts to broaden and deepen their intellectual exchange, they interrogated their own and one another's beliefs, values, and perspectives about who owns knowledge and how knowledge is distributed/shared. This reflective and reflexive process helped to enhance their knowledge, practices, relationships, and practicum experience.