China's National English Curriculum Standard, launched in 2001, clearly reflects a philosophy and characteristics of learner-centeredness. However, limited evidence is available as to how far the learner-centred philosophy has, through interacting with the local contexts, influenced teachers' beliefs, which will translate into a core philosophy…

English language education has always been accorded paramount importance in China since the mid-1980s. In order to improve English teaching quality, China has initiated several rounds of English curriculum reform at various levels against the backdrop of the unprecedented spread of English as a lingua franca. Drawing upon the texts of the national…

China and the US have responded to the challenges of a knowledge-based society, technological advancement, and global competition by implementing educational reforms to impart skills or competencies required of 21st century students. This study compares the rationales, content, and curricula design of both countries' key competencies frameworks…

Using Dewey's method of resolution for resolving a dualism exemplified in "The Child and the Curriculum," this article reconciles and brings together two rival schools of thought--curriculum theory and didactics--in China. The central thesis is that the rapprochement requires a reconceptualisation of curriculum theory and didactics in…

This paper reports on an emerging type of international school, which we refer to as the Chinese internationalized school. This school caters to Chinese citizens and aspires to offer a fusion of national and international curricula. The majority of internationalized schools in China are to be found in large metropolitan centers. Accordingly, the…

This research compared how the scientific literacy-related goals of the current Chinese and Finnish national science curricula at primary school level are actualised using a revised Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scientific literacy framework in the content analysis of the curricula. The content of the curricula focuses…

The hidden curriculum is an important part of curriculums, and constructing the primary school English hidden curriculum is helpful for the implementation of the new National English Curriculums, the development of students' key competencies and the reform of basic English teaching in China. However, according to the survey conducted with 40…

The implementation of moral and national education (MNE) in Hong Kong came to a stand-still when in 2012 anti-MNE student protests triumphantly saw it being shelved. Many perceived MNE as indoctrination and politically motivated by the leadership. Five years have gone by since the demise of the MNE. Ostensibly, the struggle for hegemonic control…

The national curriculum reformers, regarded as members of the social elites and intellectuals, projected their vision of identity onto the curriculum which they constructed and influenced the next generation's national consciousness. In the tangled relationship between politics and education, the selection of the reformers in a sense dictates the…

This paper presents the Sichuan case study: Badi Primary School, a semi-agro-pastoral town primary school in Danba County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Section 1 introduces the context of the town and the school. This is done by analyzing discourses of education policy in the town and the school. Through this analysis…

This article analyses and compares the motivations and (re)actions of the education authorities and parents in South Korea and mainland China towards schooling reform. The focus is on two policy initiatives -- Free Semester Programme in South Korea and Comprehensive Practical Activity Curriculum in China. Applying the theoretical constructs of…

In China, developing students' overall communicative competence was set as the central goal of the current college English curriculum requirements since 2004. However, this goal has remained largely unfulfilled, particularly with regard to writing competence. This study proposes that the genre-based pedagogy in systemic functional linguistics may…

In this paper, Chinese curricula in the contexts of China and Singapore on primary level are compared and contrasted by both quantitative (Word Segmenter and Text Analyzer) and qualitative methods (in-depth thematic analysis). The research shows challenges for educational administrators, teachers and other professional staff in Chinese education…

This book describes how different nations have defined the core competencies and skills that young people will need in order to thrive in the twenty-first-century, and how those nations have fashioned educational policies and curricula meant to promote those skills. The book examines six countries--Chile, China, India, Mexico, Singapore, and the…

The scale of English language education in China is astounding, but recent research has shown that the latest national English education policy for Chinese schools has not been implemented successfully due to various reasons. One reason given for the lack of success is the impracticability of the top-down policy itself excluding teachers'…