Recent studies have accumulated to suggest that children, akin to adults, exhibit a processing advantage for formulaic language (e.g. "save energy") over novel language (e.g. "sell energy"), as well as sensitivity to phrase frequencies. The majority of these studies are based on formulaic sequences in their canonical form. In…

The purpose of the present study was to explore the issue of a perceived lack of cohesion in moral education in mainland China, and place it in an international academic context, by comparing three student cohorts: grade three and grade six in Primary School and the third year in Junior High School. The study employed mixed research methods;…

Reading is a complex task that requires cognitive and emotional engagement. The integrated instruction approach, incorporating strategy instruction and literature circles, was developed to improve Chinese students' reading comprehension, reading motivation, and strategy use in reading fiction books. The current study adopted a quasi-experimental…

Researchers debate whether one represents the magnitude of a fraction according to its real numerical value or just the discrete numerosity of its numerator or denominator. The present study examined three effects based on the notion that people possess a mental number line to explore how children represent fractions when they compare fractions…

Growing evidence suggests that teachers in developing countries often have weak or misaligned incentives for improving student outcomes. In response, policymakers and researchers have proposed performance pay as a way to improve student outcomes by tying concrete measures like achievement scores to teacher pay. While evidence from randomized…

Knowledge of compound word structures in Chinese and English was investigated, comparing 435 Chinese and 258 Americans, including second, fourth, and sixth graders, and college undergraduates. As anticipated, the results revealed that Chinese speakers performed better on a word structure analogy task than their English-speaking counterparts. Also,…

The purpose of this research was to explore the long-term outcomes of either participating or not participating in early childhood science education on grade 6 students' conceptual understanding of science. The research is situated in a conceptual framework that evokes Piagetian developmental levels as both potential curriculum constraints and…

This dissertation presents two studies designed to examine the topic of fraction division in selected Chinese and US curricula. By comparing the structure and content of the Chinese and "Everyday Mathematics" textbooks and teacher's guides, Study 1 revealed many different features presented in the selected curricula. Major differences…

This study reports findings from comparative samples of sixth-grade Chinese and U.S. students' interpretations of the equal sign. Ninety-eight percent of the Chinese sample correctly answered 4 items indicating conceptions of equality and provided conceptually accurate explanations. In contrast, only 28% of the U.S. sample performed at this level.…