This paper begins by reflecting on the significance of the 16th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies which was held at Beijing Normal University (BNU) in August 2016. Part I focuses on China’s experience in educational development since the late 1970s, and the support provided by organizations such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the World Bank, which facilitated the rapid restoration of China’s universities after the Cultural Revolution and supported a dramatic social and economic transformation. Part II goes on to profile China’s rich educational civilization and suggests that the normal university is uniquely suited to bringing that to a wider world. Part III overviews China’s programs of support for educational development in Africa and Southeast Asia, and suggests that these embody forms of dialogue and reciprocity that have the potential to open up refreshingly new approaches to educational thought and practice in the global arena.
The present study investigates the effects of shared singing of a picture book on the Chinese vocabulary recall and retention of young bilingual learners in Chinese immersion programs using an experimental study design. One hundred and six immersion kindergarteners from three different school districts in the U.S. Midwest were assigned to the experimental group (n = 53) and the control group (n = 53) at the class level. The experimental group listened to a song-based storybook (also known as a story song) and shared in singing it, while the control group heard the same story, read aloud and shared in reading it. The pre-test was administered to determine the participants’ vocabulary level before the study. Immediate and delayed post-tests were used to assess their immediate recall and delayed retention of vocabulary targeted in the shared reading/singing. Independent t-test and one-way ANOVA analysis were employed to examine differences between the two groups in vocabulary recall and retention. The results showed that the experimental group achieved greater improvement in their vocabulary than the control group. This finding suggests that shared singing can be a useful pedagogical tool for spoken vocabulary acquisition and retention in picture books.
The use of role models for learning and publicity is widespread in China. By comparing four sets of primary school textbooks complied and published by People’s Education Press between 1999 and 2005, this study reveals the similarities and differences between these textbooks with regard to the positive role models covered and the virtues conveyed. The major role models in both versions of the textbooks can be characterized as representing four main types of persons: children, Han Chinese, males, and modern people. However, the occupations of these role models are more diverse in the new textbooks, and the more recent editions place more emphasis on moral values such as “protecting the environment,” “loving peace,” and “promoting democratic cooperation.” The implications of the findings and the potential problems arising in the textbooks are discussed at the end, particularly noting the changing mode of regulation with regard to the individual-collective relationship.
Formative assessment originated and developed in a Western context. With its function of learning improvement being evidenced in research, formative assessment has been adopted in assessment initiatives in multiple contexts including that of China. Research, however, reveals that formative assessment as implemented in Chinese contexts is by no means equivalent to what is understood and implemented in the West; rather, in many cases, it is decontextualised and recontextualised, or culturally appropriated. This paper presents findings of a study which examined the culturally appropriated representation of formative assessment within eight universities in a mid-western province of China. Senior administrators in each university were interviewed face-to-face and individually to fulfill three purposes: (1) To clarify understandings of formative assessment in the area of college English education; (2) To explore the existing gap between formative assessment principles and their representation in College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR), and the gap between formative assessment initiatives at the national level and local contexts; and (3) To distill implications for policy-borrowing and effective implementation in the Chinese context.
This narrative study explores four Chinese students’ academic socialization experiences in one research-intensive public university in the US. By drawing upon Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice and Gee’s (2000) theorizing on identity as the synthesized theoretical framework, this research uncovers four Chinese students’ academic socialization stories nestled in the shifting cross-cultural landscape. Meanwhile, this study reveals that the Chinese students’ academic socialization intersects a matrix of factors, which can be categorized into “personal landscape” and “professional landscape.” Last, this narrative case study concluded that the Chinese students’ academic socialization involves the continuous negotiations of their multiple identities embedded in the cross-cultural contexts.