Little research exists on humility in human learning and from a cultural perspective. This article reviews current research and conceptualizes humility as a basic human potential that can become a virtue when cultivated. But the cultivation depends on the cultural values placed on humility. Although humility is recognized in the West, ambivalence…

This forum article contributes to the understanding of how science teachers' identity is related to their worldviews, cultural values and educational philosophies, and to eco-transformation of science education. Special focus is put on "reform-minded" science teachers. The starting point is the paper "Science education reform in…

Against a backdrop of an international trend to shift from a teacher-centred to a learner-centred education, this article explores a Confucian conception of education. Focusing on an ancient Chinese text "Xueji" (Record of Learning), the essay examines its educational ideals and practices based on the principles of "choice",…

Confucian education is often associated with rote-memorisation that is characterised by sheer repetition of facts with no or little understanding of the content learnt. But does Confucian education necessarily promote rote-memorisation? What does Confucius himself have to say about education? This article aims to answer the above questions by…

This paper investigates the transformation in the Zhou dynasty China (1046-256 BC) of the concept of education in relation to the process of social selection, which concerns the distribution both of knowledge and of social ranks. An approach in terms of historical semantics, mainly influenced by Luhmannian sociological theory with some reference…

The Chinese government has attached great importance to the development of e-learning since its emergence in the 1990s. As a consequence of the implementation of a series of policies, China has made significant achievements in the e-learning arena with respect to infrastructure construction, production of resources, academic education,…

It is part of a global trend today that new relationships are being forged between religion and society, between spirituality and materiality, giving rise to announcements that we live in a "postsecular" or "desecularized" world. Taking up two educational movements, the mindfulness movement in the West and the revival of…

Nowadays, there is still a widely held view that the Chinese and Western modes of thought are quite distinct from each other. In particular, the Chinese mode of thought derived from Confucianism is considered as comparatively less rational than the Western one. In this article, I first argue that although the analogical mode of argumentation,…

The phrase "the two cultures debate" has a particular connotation in the British context. It was prompted by a lecture given in the 1950s by the novelist C.P. Snow. Snow's first career had been in science, and he drew on his inside knowledge of that domain in a sequence of novels, known collectively as "Strangers and…

How to read the Confucian Classics today? Scholars with philosophical training usually emphasize that the philosophical approach, in comparison with the classicist and historical ones, is the best way to read the Confucian Classics, for it can dig out as much intellectual resources as possible from the classical texts in order to show their modern…

The intellectual foundation of early modern Japan was provided by Confucianism--a system of knowledge set forth in Chinese classical writings. In order to gain access to this knowledge, the Japanese applied reading markers to modify the original Chinese to fit the peculiarities of Japanese grammar and pronunciation. Confucian education started by…

In this essay David Black claims that, if one pieces together the many sketches of educational decorum found in the Confucian "Analects," one will discover three types of misguided student; that is, one will come to recognize that Confucius admonishes three types of insensitive learners who, due to the lure of personal advantage and…

This article explores the discourses concerning, and actors promoting, the recent 'rise' of East Asia in the global trend of education policy borrowing. It focuses on the ways in which English policymakers and media have represented the 'success' of East Asian education systems in international large-scale tests. Taking the Organization for…

This review essay analyzes the historiography of Confucian academies ("shuyuan") in imperial China, focusing on five representative books published in China between 2008 and 2014, including two new editions of books originally published in 1995 and 2004. The five authors share a deep concern about the nature of academies, particularly…

This theoretical paper begins with a reflection on the dominant conceptions of "high ability", based on psychometrics, and examines claims that the ethos of a particular cultural heritage is essential to what "high ability" signifies. The article semantically distinguishes "giftedness" from "ability", using…