An overview of curriculum reforms implemented in China during the 1980s is provided in this paper. A brief historical sketch of educational policy from early Chinese civilization to the present is offered. Two phases of curriculum reforms occurred in the 1980s: those for restoration of the social order and those for structural adaptation and…

This paper outlines the manner in which education is provided for children with intellectual disabilities in China, focusing on programs offered in two special primary schools and a special kindergarten. The paper concludes that there appears to be a very large group of school-aged children who remain unserved by the educational system, especially…

Surveyed 4,000 third and sixth graders and their parents and teachers, from 4 Chinese provinces. Found that, although only children scored higher on tests of verbal ability, were taller, and weighed more than firstborn and later born children, other measures of academic and personality development were similar between the groups. (MDM)

This article examines the discourses of cultural values and beliefs constructed in Chinese language textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. By applying story grammar analysis in the framework of critical discourse analysis, the article critically investigates how the discourses are constructed and what ideological…

This document consists of three issues of the journal "Seedbed," an outcome of the Teachers' Center Project at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIUE). Issue Number 29 contains 67 articles on teachers' ideas that they thought worth sharing with other teachers. Issue Number 30 consists of a single paper, "Children and…

Assessed the arithmetical competencies of 105 American and 104 Chinese elementary school students at the beginning and end of the U.S. school year. Results suggest the Chinese advantage in early mathematical development is related to a combination of language- and school-related factors. (MDM)

Only 25% of fifth- and sixth-grade Chinese students (n=186) correctly solved a division-with-remainder computation task, about the same success rate as with American students, and only one-sixth of the students could interpret the result. (MKR)

Describes the school-based extracurricular programs in several societies in East Asia, suggesting that Americans use such information to develop more effective extracurricular programs. In those countries, schools are responsible for developing and conducting extracurricular programs, which they consider important for keeping students productively…

Through a study of teacher job satisfaction in impoverished rural areas in northwest China, the authors examine the factors leading to satisfaction among teachers serving poor rural communities. A survey of rural primary school teachers, principals, and village leaders conducted in the year 2000 in Gansu is analyzed. In this article, the authors…

A Chinese version of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale was developed to find out the subjective PSSM of Mainland immigrant and local Hong Kong students. Five schools participated with 295 boys and 252 girls from Primary years 4, 5, and 6 taking part. Among those, 264 students were local Hong Kong students, while 283 were…

This study compared the performance of 300 Chinese children on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Revised (BTBC-R) with that of American children from the standardization sample of the BTBC-R. Subjects were in kindergarten, first, and second grade, and completed the test at the end of the 1996-97 school year. The focus of the comparison was to…

Examined achievement goals and their correlates in physical education in 180 Chinese students and 121 Anglo-American students in grades 4, 5, and 6. The same two-dimensional factor structure of goal orientation (task and ego orientation) cut across the two cultural groups in physical education, but relationships seemed to vary as a function of…

The status of environmental education at all levels in China are outlined including education for school-aged people and adults. The role of schools, broadcasts, periodicals, and professional associations are discussed. (CW)

In recent years, the thrust of reform in general education in China has been to implement the guiding principle of all-round development in morality, intelligence, health, and aesthetics; and to strengthen labor education in order to lay a solid foundation for the training of skilled personnel for socialist modernization. (IAH)