International schools aim to provide students with a multicultural experience, equipping students with a global-minded education to succeed in future higher educational or professional careers abroad. For students to succeed in international schools, native and international staff members should have a well-rounded knowledge of professional…

Grammar is "a system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence" (Brown 1994) which can facilitate the acquisition of a foreign language and is conducive for cultivating comprehensive language competence. Most teachers regard grammar as a frame of English learning. The grammar teaching beliefs…

A Cognitive Grammar (CG) analysis of linguistic constructions has been claimed to be beneficial to second language teaching. However, little empirical research has been done to support this claim. In this study, two intact classes of Chinese senior high school students were given a 45-minute review lesson on the usages of the English simple…

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the roles that assessment plays in promoting learning. Formative assessment is considered a powerful strategy for improving student learning; however, its learning potential has been less extensively explored in contexts where summative assessment dominates, because summative assessment is…

This study centres on the questions and tasks in geography textbooks written before and after the curriculum reform in China. The aim of the study is to reveal the recent changes in amount, learning outcomes and types of questions and tasks in geography textbooks as well as the extent to which the ideas and intentions advocated by the curriculum…

This study focuses on teacher talk in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching in China. Framed against China's current focus on "thinking, imagination and innovation" as stated in the National English Curriculum Standards (NECS), this paper reports the findings of a qualitative study aimed at understanding how the…

This article presents findings of a qualitative study on school leadership and professional learning community in two high achieving senior high schools in Northeast China. The findings show that teachers participated in school-based communities of professional learning, such as Teaching and Research Groups, Lesson Preparation Groups, and Grade…

To improve mathematics achievement, students' errors should be treated as a source to stimulate their understanding of the conceptual and procedural basis of their errors. The study investigated 20 Chinese and 20 U.S. high school teachers' interpretations and responses to a student's errors in solving a quadratic equation. The teachers' responses…

This article starts with an overview on China's MOOC phenomenon and social media, and then reports a comparative, multiple case study on three selected MOOC communities that have emerged on social media in China. These representative MOOC communities included: (a) MOOC Academy, the largest MOOC community in China, (b) Zhejiang University of…

Educational change is intrinsically bound to the cultural characteristics of the society. However, the relationship between educational change and societal culture is rarely explored, especially in the context of mainland China. Following a 3-year qualitative research project, the present study explored the influence of societal culture on…

Research on students' views on nature of science (VNOS) in Asian countries such as China is notably lacking. This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument to measure South China high school students' VNOS. Based on the previously acquired qualitative data, the instrument included seven VNOS dimensions which reflect the crucial aspects of…

Climate change is not local; it is global. This means that many environmental issues related to climate change are not geographically limited and hence concern humans in more than one location. There is a growing body of research indicating that today's increased climate change is caused by human activities and our modern lifestyle. Consequently,…

Textual memorisation is a widely used yet underexplored language practice in foreign language teaching and learning in China. The research addresses the need for a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the practices and beliefs of Chinese learners regarding the use of textual memorisation in foreign language learning. This article reports on…

The purpose of this study was to explore the first-year academic experiences and achievement of Chinese international undergraduate students in American higher education. To do so, I tracked a cohort of Chinese international undergraduates through their first-year at a public research university in the United States. Both qualitative and…

Drawing on an ecological perspective, this paper reports on an investigation into the changes in one first-year college student's beliefs about English teaching and learning since his enrollment. These changes in beliefs are part of the empirical findings of a multiple-case study conducted in the Chinese EFL context. Semi-structured interviews,…