Due to grades as a primary concern in school selection in China, parents tend to choose a better school when their children enter secondary school from primary school resulting in the changing peer group (reference group). According to the Social Comparison Theory, individuals are affected by comparing with the people around them to get their own…

Analysis of the applicability of a learning technology requires evaluating how the affordances of the technology respond to the users' needs. We examine affordances of a digital learning environment. We concentrate on organizational and socio-interactional affordances, which are based on technological affordances. The analysis shows how…

This paper challenges the prevailing understandings of homogenous Chineseness in the context of children's mathematics learning in Sydney. Recent research which examines the influence of culture on student's mathematics performance tends to see Chinese as one homogenous group. Research data collected from six Chinese families living in Sydney,…

This study was designed to initiate the process of building professional development learning communities for pre-service math teachers through revealing those teachers' conceptions/beliefs of students' learning and their own learning in China. It examines Chinese pre-service math teachers' conceptions of student learning and their related…

This paper examines the historical evolution of career development in China and Hong Kong. It reports that, according to Zhang (1994), the evolution of career guidance in China can be divided into six stages: the rise of vocational guidance and education (1917-1949); reorientation (1950-1965); abandonment (1966-1976); transition (1977-1986);…

While construction of early childhood education curricula requires the use of educational and developmental theories, significant differences between the two domains exist. Whereas educational theories are particularistic and maximalist, developmental theories are universalist and minimalist. Developmental theory views change in individuals as…

Changes and development in Chinese television (CCTV) over the past 28 years have had profound effects on Chinese society. National News, which has the biggest television audience, has enabled the populace to know what is happening in China. Educational programming is given high priority through special telecourses presented for society in general,…

Chinese higher education has undergone dramatic changes since the mid-1980s. Over the past two decades, the traditional public system of higher education has transformed to be more diversified with increasing non-government involvement. This paper tries to examine the recent reforms in the light of governance with a particular emphasis on policy…

The aim of this paper is to provide a socio-historical perspective on the continuity and change of the Chinese press in Hong Kong. Divided into four sections, the paper examines (1) the partisan press structure as a microcosm of China's interparty struggle; (2) the rise of the market-oriented centrist press since 1970 as a result of Hong Kong's…

This paper reports on research designed to explore the status of children and the relationship of patterns of child care to social structure and social change. The study is based on interviews with scholars and government officials, an analysis of statistical data and research reports, and visits to day care centers, playgrounds, and other…

In the western literature, mathematics achievement and its related student self-concept are important education outcomes reciprocally linked and mutually reinforcing. The reciprocal relation model is examined in this study to assess its generalization in a cross-cultural setting. Hong Kong is the site of choice because of its exposure to…

This paper proposes the use of international media events as instructional tools in the basic college communications course. The international media event examined, as one such application, is the spring, 1989 student protests in China. This type of instructional tool offers an excellent means of integrating world events into the curriculum. As…

A study of social and cultural factors that affect the appropriateness of verbal expressions in different languages focuses on the comparative uses of three common expressions ("thank you, I'm sorry, excuse me" and their equivalents) in English and Chinese. First, the usage patterns of the three expressions are explained briefly, and the…

Compares the educational systems, particularly nonformal education, of India and China, and the impact on education of sociopolitical factors, history, government, ideology, languages, and cultures. Includes differences and similarities in educational facilities, personnel, methods, some national statistics, and charts of the education systems in…

An empirical approach is adopted in this paper to explore a possible model for prediction of students' science achievement in China and the United States. Construction of the model is based on the ninth-grade data base from Phase 2 of the Second International Education Association Science Study (SISS) in the United States and the SISS Extension…