Lifelong learning for elders in Hong Kong: policy and practice

ABSTRACT

This article explores non-traditional student and graduate views of the university in Ireland and Portugal as it relates to their expectations of, and experiences in, the labour market. The research is based on in-depth biographical interviews with 61 non-traditional students and graduates conducted longitudinally (85 interviews in total). The article contextualises the research in relation to the expansion of higher education internationally as well as national and EU policies aimed at supporting a ‘knowledge-based economy’. It offers an overview of the meaning of precarity. It then outlines key empirical findings from the research related to student expectations of their degree and their post-graduation experience in the labour market. In particular, it explores the phenomenon of precarity amongst graduates how this is experienced and handled in various ways. Using a critical and egalitarian lens the overall aim of the research is to widen the focus of widening participation debates and explore how educational and institutional initiatives impact, or not, on wider social and employment inequalities.     

Connecting Marginal Rice Farmers to Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems in Vietnam Uplands

Abstract

In Vietnam, agricultural extension has contributed to rural development and poverty alleviation over the past two decades of agricultural decollectivization, but it was not very effective in reducing disparities within farmer communities. The study examined how better interactions of extension services with other agencies and information sources may help marginal farmers in catching up with the general improvement of living conditions in a mountainous area in northern Vietnam. It combined three complementary viewpoints on this issue: that of the agricultural extension staff, that of farmers and that of development experts with a long working experience in the mountains of Vietnam. The analysis of existing structures and functions of the extension system revealed a number of obstacles to the participation of marginal farmers in extension programmes and helped to identify relevant domains of intervention.     

Is the learning approach of students from the Confucian heritage culture problematic?

This article is concerned with the learning style adopted by Asian students who come from a Confucian heritage culture (CHC) such countries as China, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan are considered countries with Confucian heritage culture (Phuong-Mai et al. 2005). These students are generally viewed as typically passive, unwilling to ask questions or speak up in class and often based on memorising rather than understanding knowledge delivered by teachers. This learning style is claimed to be shaped by the CHC in Asian countries and receives massive criticism in the literature. This article aims to challenge this criticism of the passive learning style adopted by Asian students who come from the CHC. By conducting in-depth interviews with 10 Asian students from the CHC currently studying tertiary education in Australia, this article addresses the confusion between passive learning style and CHC, between memorising and understanding and between quietness and passiveness. Finally, if passiveness of Asian students is indeed observed in both Asian CHC countries and English-speaking countries, it is more because of situation-specific factors of teaching methodologies, learning requirements, learning habits and language proficiency rather than cultural factors.     

对标枪技术中纵轴用力教法的讨探

通过教学实践，对标枪技术中沿纵轴用力的这一关键技术在教法手段上进行了探讨，力求探索出一条使学生在有限的教学时数内，较快、较好地掌握掷标枪技术。     

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN VIETNAMESE PHYSICS TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME THROUGH THE LENS OF CONSTRUCTIVISM: A CASE STUDY OF A STATE UNIVERSITY IN MEKONG DELTA REGION,VIETNAM

Constructivism was introduced to Vietnam through many ways such as workshops, books, the Internet, and so on. However, due to the lack of professional education, fundamental ideas of constructivist learning perhaps were missing or neglected through classroom activities. Furthermore, due to the influence of culture and society, Vietnamese constructivism certainly has its own agenda. This paper adapted the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) which was originally developed by Taylor and Fraser (1991) to investigate the classroom environment in a Physics Teacher Education programme in Vietnam, as well as to illustrate Vietnamese teacher educators’ views in employing constructivist learning. Fifteen teaching periods in seven different classrooms were observed, and five teacher educators from those classes were interviewed. Participants are lecturers and bachelor students of the Physics Teacher Education programme at Can Tho University, Mekong Delta region, south of Vietnam. Results showed that all five scales of the CLES in these classrooms are at the intermediate level. All the lecturers indicated positive attitudes about constructivism and have certain methods to perform these constructivist issues in their classes, but they have problems in practical instructional strategies for some scales. Therefore, we suggest that professional development programmes on how to apply constructivist theory, based on each particular scale of the CLES, are essential. This is especially true in scientific uncertainty, critical voice, and shared control. Yet, in a country that highly appreciates Confucianism with social order, not all aspects of an ideal constructivist learning environment should be equally improved. Generally, we believe that constructivist learning will be a key answer to the problem of the generally passive learning style in Vietnam.

     

A Sociocultural Perspective on Scholars Developing Research Skills via Research Communities in Vietnam

Minerva - Given the importance of research communities and research mentoring activities in developing research skills, universities around the world have paid special attention to improving these...     

Barriers to and facilitators of female Deans’ career advancement in higher education: an exploratory study in Vietnam

Although the slow progress of female academics compared to their male colleagues and the challenges that female academic leaders have to face in taking leadership roles have been well-documented, very little is known about female academic leaders and managers’ career advancement in developing countries like Vietnam. This paper reports on an exploratory study of a research project funded by the Cambridge—Viet Nam Women Leadership Programme, which aims to advance an understanding of the status of, and identify strategies to empower, female academic managers in Vietnamese higher education. The focus of this paper is on university leaders and female Deans’ perceptions of the barriers to female academic Deanship and female Deans’ reflections on the facilitators for their career advancement. The study found that the main barriers are strong family obligations, negative gender stereotypes regarding females as leaders, and female academics’ unwillingness to take management positions. The major facilitators of female Deans’ career advancement are self-effort, strong family support, and, what is perceived to be, a favourable or ‘lucky’ selection context. The paper provides empirical evidence to support the view that family support is a crucial factor for female academic career advancement in Vietnam. Women are both an agent and an object of change in empowering female academic leadership.     

Limitation on the development of skills in higher education in Vietnam

This study investigates the perceptions of higher education students, recent graduates and employers in Vietnam on the issue of skill development in the higher education system in Vietnam. Enhancing skill development is considered essential for students, not only to pursue their study, but also for their success later, at work and in life. The results suggest that though there is evidence of effort to change, to include and to develop soft skills in the system, the central-controlled curriculum, the traditional teaching method, the prevalence of passiveness among students and cultural features all hinder the effort of developing skills for university students. The limitation in skill development during university is considered one of the biggest barriers preventing university graduates from making a smooth transition to the workplace.     

Hong Kong and Australian seniors: Views of aging and learning

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the findings of qualitative, semistructured interviews conducted with 40 older Australian participants and 39 participants in Hong Kong who either did or did not engage in organized learning in the last 6 months. Phenomenology was used to guide the interviews and analysis to explore the experiences and perspectives of these older people. The meaning older people attribute to aging and learning and their possible relationship in their lives in both societies is described and compared.     

Middle-level Academic Management: A case study on the roles of the Heads of Department at a Vietnamese university

Although information technology is increasingly used to deliver distance and conventional courses, there have been few studies of the effect of technology‐enhanced education on the organization and purposes of academics’ instructional work. I explore this issue in undergraduate and masters level education through the vehicle of case analyses of technology‐rich classes taught in a public research university in the United States. What the cases illustrate is an emergent pattern of what I am calling ‘Mode III’ instructional production, in which the production of a course involves a matrix of non‐faculty support personnel, and may be oriented to commercial purposes reflective of an increasingly embedded academic capitalism in the new economy.