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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between teacher leadership and collective teacher efficacy in Chinese urban primary schools in the education change context using quantitative research methods. Based on valid answers from 1117 teachers, the results of path analysis revealed that the dimensions of teacher leadership including recognition, collegiality, participation, and positive environment, had significant relationships with the dimension of group competence of collective teacher efficacy. Additionally, the teacher leadership dimensions of developmental focus, participation, and positive environment had significant relationships with task analysis in collective teacher efficacy. Furthermore, the teacher leadership dimensions of developmental focus, congeniality, participation, and positive environment had relatively significant effects on collective teacher efficacy as a single variable. The findings contribute to an understanding of educational management in Chinese primary schools, and advance the transferability of leadership theories to different cultural contexts.

This paper explores instructional leadership practices in China. It has three interrelated purposes. The first purpose is to report data which contributes insights into how Chinese principals understand and enact instructional leadership. The second purpose is to examine how the societal context impacts the enactment of leadership and the third is to suggest implications for international understandings of successful school principalship. The study adopted a qualitative approach and interviewed 101 primary school principals across six regions in China. A model of instructional leadership comprising six dimensions and a set of sub-dimensions emerged from the data. The study also provides insights into how societal context shapes how Chinese principals enact leadership. The paper concludes with six propositions that attempt to capture the fluidity and complexity of the working lives of school principals in China.

This paper focuses on the linguistic landscape (LL) of four towns along the rural-urban line in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, which is located in southwest China and is the main residence of the Yi ethnic minority group. In recent years, the status of the Yi language has been challenged by Han (Chinese Mandarin) and English both in the field of education and general society in Liangshan. Recognising this, the local government has issued a range of policies to revitalise the Yi language, including ensuring its use on public signage. The aim of this study is to explore the LL of Liangshan, which has not been looked at before, and the actual implementation of these signage policies. 1497 language signs were analysed, including commercial signs, government signs and public signs in four schools. The findings indicate that the visibility of the Yi language on public signage is closely related to the intensity of policy support. However, in order to make signage policies effective, a holistic approach is in need at both prefectural and regional levels, and in 'micro spaces' such as education spheres and workplaces.

School governance is a topic of general interest worldwide in educational research, and in recent years, it has also drawn widespread attention in China. In order to examine the problems faced in the process of promoting the modernization of school governance at Chinese primary and secondary schools, we conducted interviews with different stakeholders such as experts, principals, teachers, and parents, and as a result, we found that the problems currently in urgent need of attention are concentratively reflected in the areas of pluralistic co-governance and accountability, specifically including: A low degree of and few channels for teachers' participation in school governance; shallowing and superficializing of parents' participation in school governance; no establishment of checks and balances and accountability mechanisms in the internal operation of power. The causes producing the problems are complex and multifarious, including both causes in the area of social psychology and causes in the area of school leadership styles. Recommendations addressing the problems and their causes are provided at the end of the paper.

Global policy transfer has become increasingly popular in recent years, and one recent example of such policy transfer is the England-China Teacher Exchange, which was initiated in 2014 with the explicit aim of raising attainment in maths in English primary schools by trialling concepts used in Shanghai schools, Shanghai rising to the top of the PISA rankings in 2009. However, as this paper will argue this is an overly simplistic attempt to transfer a policy between two wholly different contexts, the lack of success of the policy seen in the very limited impact on student attainment in the participating schools. Whilst such policy transfer has increasingly taken place in the context of isomorphism and global pressures to adopt policy from high performing education systems, it is argued that policy needs to be explicitly reconsidered in terms of the local context it is being imported into if it is to be embedded in an effective manner, as well as rooted firmly in research. It is also argued that the England-China Teacher Exchange reflects a broader ideological focus in coalition government policy on the marketisation of education alongside the PISA rankings, rather any wider consideration of how this particular policy would drive up standards.

Leadership is enacted through relationships. Relationships between leaders and followers entail building emotional connections. A successful leader facilitates and supports mutually beneficial relationships with teachers, students and other community members. They do this through displaying high levels of emotional competence, confidence and empathy. Using data collected from 101 primary school principals from six Chinese provinces, this paper explores how principals build reciprocal relationships with teachers via the display and enactment of paternalistic leadership. That is, the principals adopted a paternal leadership approach where they provided protection and care for teachers' professional and personal lives while maintaining high expectations of quality teaching and cultivating a shared understanding of what teachers should and should not do. Many of the principals managed to win trust from teachers, which appeared to signify a strong personal bond founded on positive emotions. As such, the study provides an empirical basis to reflect and revisit the concept of paternalistic leadership and relationship between culture, leadership and emotional relationships.

Anemia is a global public health problem, especially common among children in developing countries, which affects their physical and mental health development. However, there is currently a lack of research on the relationship between anemia and academic performance. The objective of this study was to explore the association between anemia and academic performance, and the possible factors mediating this association among Chinese children. The data for this study came from the baseline survey of the Chinese Education Panel Survey Elementary School Cohort. The cohort was conducted from September 2018 to June 2019 in 160 elementary schools, covering 20 provinces and 40 counties/districts throughout China. Paper-based questionnaires were used, completed by 4th grade students, parents, head teachers, main teachers, and principals. The data used included questionnaire responses, physical measurements, and academic performance of 17,695 students. Based on students' hemoglobin levels and school altitude data, we grouped them into anemia and nonanemia categories using WHO criteria. The anemia group had 1,154 individuals, while the nonanemia group had 16,541 individuals. An ordinary least squares regression and mediation effect analysis were conducted. Our findings found the prevalence of anemia was 6.52% among Chinese Grade 4 students. Students without anemia had a higher average test score for three academic subjects than students with anemia (P < 0.001); their test scores for Chinese, Mathematics, and English were also higher (P < 0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed a negative association between anemia and average test scores as well as individual test scores for the three subjects. Mediation analysis found that anemia affected academic performance directly (P < 0.05), and indirectly by decreasing the cognition score (P < 0.05). The indirect effect was 19.9% of the total effect. Findings highlighted anemia affected academic performance both directly and indirectly. Nutrition-related interventions should be implemented to prevent a decrease in academic performance among students with anemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to its relevance to the history of education, the study of changes in curriculum design also provides insights into changes in educational attitudes. This paper examines the historical evolution of the Changshi curriculum in China's mainland, explains the concept of Changshi and its different understandings in Changshi or general knowledge courses, and then applies the concept to the narration and classification of history. It also includes a brief discussion on related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physical and educational exclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities from effective and relevant education is a persisting issue in Chinese schools. To move beyond 'lazy inclusivism' and support authentic change towards inclusive education, this paper explores the wisdom of Chinese educators and investigates how inclusion can be interpreted and practised through a qualitative study in an inclusive urban school in East Coast China. The headteacher and eight teachers were interviewed. The findings give voice to teachers and highlight the importance of understanding inclusion in its broad sense as respecting and valuing all members of the school community. Specific strategies were also shared by participants such as parental involvement, teacher training, themed campus décor, emphasis on rich extra-curriculum activities, and the innovation of 'micro-semester'. Through analysing teachers' reported 'successful' experiences in inclusion, the discussions explore how these teachers exercise agency to actively promote inclusion despite structural constraints. The paper analyses teachers' interpretations and practical strategies in an inclusive school from the perspective of teacher agency and contributes to building up a strong base of empirical evidence that enriches the concept and facilitates the implementation of inclusive education in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the call to foster computational thinking (CT) in every child has received considerable attention. However, there is little understanding of whether children are developmentally ready to think computationally and what specific CT concepts and skills can be developed at various ages. This study explored the developmental and gender differences in CT skills of 197 Grade 4–6 students (aged 9–13) before being exposed to instruction and investigated the age–gender interaction effects on their CT acquisition in an intervention combining both programming and non‐programming (unplugged) activities. Results show that students' CT skills followed a developmental progression before instruction. Gender difference across ages was insignificant in conditionals, logical operators, pattern recognition and generalization skills. Additionally, students of different ages developed CT differently during the intervention, and their CT acquisition was unaffected by gender. Implications for practice and research in CT education were discussed. Lay Description: What is currently known about the topic: Learning progressions for computational thinking have been defined in K‐12 curricula globally.Engaging in programming and non‐programming (unplugged) activities can increase students' CT skills.Controversial results have been reported on the age–gender interaction effects on CT development.Lack of understanding on children's actual progressive development of CT. What this paper adds: A developmental progression was found in CT skills of students aged 9–13. Students aged 12 and above had some a priori understanding of CT.No gender difference across ages existed in conditionals, logical operators, pattern recognition and generalization skills before instruction.Students aged 9–11 benefitted the most from an intervention combining both programming and unplugged activities compared to older students. Students' CT acquisition in the intervention was unaffected by gender.Given the intervention, students aged 9 and above developed conditionals, logical operators and pattern recognition skills. However, generalization skill was developed only for students aged 12 and above. Implications for practice and policy: The findings lay the foundation for designing evidence‐based age‐appropriate CT learning progression and pedagogies.Age‐appropriate learning content: Given appropriate learning experiences, students aged 9 and above may be ready to learn certain CT concepts and skills, including conditionals, logical operators and pattern recognition.CT pedagogies: Using programming and unplugged activities to develop CT requires careful consideration of students' cognitive development and gender needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall reform experiment of elementary and middle school education is a reform exploration that touches the whole process of education. Horizontally, it includes various educational factors within the school and vertically includes multiple educational stages. This experiment is based on the overall idea, from the beginning of the experiment in some areas to the whole of China, and systematically designs and comprehensively reforms the various factors that constitute school education at multiple stages. Starting from the background of the overall reform experiment, this paper elaborates on the experiment's content, history, and impact to objectively and truthfully summarize the experiment, inspire most educators, and explore practical methods for improving the experiment quality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to 1) identify linguistic features important for Chinese text complexity with a theory-based and systematic approach, and 2) address how feature sets and algorithms affect the performance of Chinese text complexity models. Texts from Chinese language arts textbooks from Grades 1 to 6 (N = 1,478) in Mainland China were analyzed. The predictor variables were 265 linguistic features of texts: 154 lexical features and 111 sentence and discourse features. The outcome variable was the complexity level of texts; a one-semester-scale was applied, thus 12 levels in total (two semesters per grade). Features of the categories of character and word frequency, character and word semantic features, lexical diversity, part-of-speech syntactic categories, and referential cohesion were found the most important. With the important features identified, we found that text complexity models with features at all levels outperformed those with features at only one level. Models using the two machine learning algorithms (Random Forest Regression and Support Vector Regression) outperformed those using Linear Regression. This work clarifies important linguistic features for Chinese text complexity, and points to the necessity of considering features across levels and using machine learning algorithms in future text complexity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global mandates for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, rural regions face significant hurdles in delivering high-quality language instruction. Generalist teachers in these areas often lack specialized training in EFL, yet are tasked with its instruction. Referred to as L2 generalists, these educators hold a pivotal role in EFL education. However, a notable gap exists in understanding the motivation propelling generalist teachers to undertake EFL instruction, particularly within Chinese rural primary schools, where various challenges persist. Grounded in self-discrepancy theory and possible selves theory, this study examined the way L2 generalist teachers' teaching motivation linked to their various self-concepts as well as their responses to various challenges when delivering EFL teaching in rural elementary schools in China. The study uncovered that the alignment between L2 generalist teachers' ought selves (i.e., the selves that they believe they should be) and ideal selves (i.e., the selves they aspire to become) acted as motivating factors, guiding their active involvement in EFL teaching. However, challenges such as a lack of professionalization and high contextual expectations led to a discrepancy between their actual selves (i.e., the selves they perceive themselves to currently be) and their ought/ideal selves, diminishing their teaching motivation. Furthermore, the presence of ambiguous and conflicting school policies further complicated matters, confusing generalist teachers and eroding their motivation for teaching. Despite experiencing a decline in motivation for EFL teaching, their commitment to their students fostered consistency between their ideal and ought selves, inspiring them to innovate pedagogical strategies within their capabilities. The study's findings hold significance for policymakers and teacher educators, highlighting the necessity of implementing strategies to enhance the professional growth of rural L2 generalist teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calligraphy is the treasure of traditional Chinese culture and it is ubiquitous in China. Because of the unique aesthetic characteristics of calligraphy, the difficulty of calligraphy teaching lies in the assessment of calligraphy works. The major problems concerning calligraphy assessment are the low time efficiency of calligraphy assessment and low engagement of students in the assessing process. As an active learning method, peer assessment (PA) has been widely applied to education. This research aims to explore the application of PA to the calligraphy class. With reasonable training, elementary school students can act rationally as an assessing group. On the basis of students' scores, this study further takes the most reasonable scores based on clustering analysis as the final score. Through the comparative analysis of the students' scores and the teachers' scores, it shows that the students' scores of calligraphy writing can obtain results that are close to the teachers' scores. The significance of the study lies in enhancing the time-efficiency of calligraphy assessment and maintaining the learners' high levels of engagement in the assessing process. The results show that the use of PA in the assessment of calligraphy writing is an effective and accurate method of calligraphy assessment, which contributes to students' command of the key points of calligraphy marking and plays an integral role in guiding students' future calligraphy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining which antecedent variables affect employees' work engagement has always been a concern for both managers and researchers. The present study investigated the effect of workplace democracy on teachers' work engagement and explored the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of school performance. A two-phase sampling-chosen method was used and a total of 1682 elementary and secondary school teachers in China were asked to complete a survey questionnaire. In addition to identifying descriptive statistics and undertaking group difference analysis, PROCESS macro and bootstrapping approaches were applied. It was found that workplace democracy was positively related to teachers' work engagement both directly and indirectly through job satisfaction. Meanwhile, school performance moderated the relationship between workplace democracy and work engagement. Specifically, workplace democracy was more strongly associated with teachers' work engagement in high-performing schools than in low-performing schools. Thus, teachers' work engagement in elementary and secondary schools need to be improved comprehensively through boosting workplace democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recognizing the need for a reliable and valid instrument to assess psychological distress among children and adolescents, the present study translated the newly developed Depression Anxiety Stress Scale for Youth (DASS-Y) into Chinese, while also comparing its psychometric properties with those of the well-established DASS-21 within a primary and middle school demographic. Methods: Utilizing a combination of convenience sampling and purposive sampling, a cohort comprising 1,507 primary and 1,131 middle school students was recruited. Rasch analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used in the data analysis. Results: Significant differences were observed between the DASS-Y and the DASS-21, notably within the anxiety subscale. The proportions of individuals with clinical mood disorders identified by the two scales demonstrated a significant disparity. Both scales, following an adjustment of responses, exhibited satisfactory internal consistency and convergent validity, with the acceptance of a three-factor structure. Furthermore, the DASS-Y showed superior discriminant validity relative to the DASS-21, providing more compelling evidence regarding concurrent validity. Conclusion: Overall, the Chinese version of the DASS-Y demonstrated superior robustness to the DASS-21 in terms of psychometric properties. The findings provide initial evidence for the psychometric properties of the DASS-Y from another culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored a model of the interplay between mother's parental psychological flexibility of Chinese primary school students (grade 3–6) and self-reliance behaviors, as well as whether resilience mediates this association. Participants were N = 497 children attending three primary schools in Jiangsu Province (N = 240, Mage = 10.51 years, SD = 3.60; 47.6% boys) and two primary schools in Fujian Province (N = 257, Mage = 10.92 years, SD = 3.31; 45.3% boys), People's Republic of China. Assessments were employed, with children rating their mother's parental psychological flexibility, as well as their own resilience and self-reliance behaviors. Results indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between mother's parental psychological flexibility of Chinese primary school students (grades 3–6), resilience, and self-reliance behaviors. Moreover, resilience played a complete mediating role between mother's parental psychological flexibility and self-reliance behaviors; the mediating effect of goal focus and emotional control (two subfactors of resilience) between mother's parental psychological flexibility and self-reliance behaviors was significant, while the mediating effect of positive thinking, family support, and interpersonal assistance (the other three subfactors of resilience) was insignificant. The findings understress the importance of considering the meaning and implication of mother's parental psychological flexibility and resilience in Chinese culture. Highlights: Mother's parental psychological flexibility was associated with self-reliance behaviors among Chinese children. Mother's parental psychological flexibility was indirectly associated with self-reliance behaviors via a mediated pathway through resilience. Mother's parental psychological flexibility was indirectly associated with self-reliance behaviors via a mediated pathway through goal focus and emotional control (two subfactors of resilience). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies of the relation between teacher-student relationship (TSR) and students' academic achievement (SAA) yielded mixed results, so this study determined the overall link between TSR and SAA, along with their moderators. This three-level meta-analysis of 90 independent effect sizes in 74 empirical studies of 233,961 students showed an overall positive link between TSR and SAA in China (r =.259, 95% CI = [.227;.290]). This relationship was higher in: (a) China's central region (.305) than its eastern (.238) or western regions (.166); (b) senior high school (.345), followed by junior high school (.251), then primary school (.221); (c) English (.302), followed by math (.272), Chinese (.269), and science (.202); and (d) females (B =.507) than males. These results suggest the value of improving teacher-student relationships in policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of attention has been focused on technological innovation, for example, face recognition, which has been used in some countries in various fields. Nonetheless, there has been little attention paid to parents' acceptance of the use of face recognition systems on campus. To address this gap in the literature, this study examined how different degrees of technological innovativeness and dangerous beliefs in the virtual world (DBVW) influence parents' perceived value of using and intention to continue supporting schools' use of face recognition systems. This study adopted snowball sampling to collect data through questionnaires, and received 380 valid responses from parents living in Xuzhou, China. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data, with results indicating that: (1) DBVW was negatively related to perceived value; (2) technological innovativeness was positively related to perceived value; and (3) perceived value was positively related to continuance intention to use face recognition systems. The results suggest that parents support the use of face recognition systems in elementary school; thus, such systems can be adopted by other elementary schools in other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of school bullying has become an important issue over the world. Being in disadvantaged situations of fathers' absence, prior research suggested that left-behind children (LBC) with absent fathers in China are more vulnerable to get involved in school bullying (bullying or being bullied). In addition, fathers' absence brings much pressure to single stay-at-home mothers, leading to more maternal psychologically controlling parenting. Following a three-wave longitudinal design, this study aimed to examine the developmental relationship between maternal psychological control and father-absent LBC's bullying/victimization as well as its mechanism. A total of 348 father-absent LBC aged 7-11 years in China completed a battery of questionnaires at three-time points. The results indicated that there are reciprocal effects between maternal psychological control and father-absent LBC's bullying/victimization. Specifically, maternal psychological control at T1 predicted father-absent LBC's victimization at T2; children's victimization at T2 predicted maternal psychological control at T3; maternal psychological control predicted later children's bullying perpetration stably from T1 to T2 and from T2 to T3; children's bullying at T2 predicted maternal psychological control at T3. Two vicious circles happened in the above relationships. Current findings highlight the stronger effects of mothers' negative parenting on children's school bullying, which bring inspiration for future family education and school intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Physical activity (PA) was significantly associated with cognition and mental health in children and adolescent. However, there were few studies examining the associations of PA with academic achievement (AA) and academic burden (AB) by gender and school grade. Hence, this study aimed to 1) investigate the associations of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) with AA and AB in Chinese children and adolescents, and 2) assess whether these associations vary by gender and school grade.Methods: Using a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling design (at four different regions in Southern east China), 2653 children and adolescents (8-19 years old, 51.2% girls) were included. A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data on study participants' gender, school grade, family social economic status (SES), parental education level, MVPA, AA and AB. Binary logistic regression was applied to examine the associations of MVPA with AA (groups: above-average AA, average and below-average AA) and AB (groups: reporting AB, reporting no AB) with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). After testing gender*grade interaction, those associations were explored by gender and school grade separately.Results: In the overall sample, compared with children and adolescents who did not meet the PA guidelines (at least 60 min MVPA daily), children and adolescents who met the PA guidelines were more likely to have above-average (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.21-2.11) AA, and report no AB (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.13-2.30). In both genders, meeting the PA guidelines was positively associated with above-average AA (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.01-2.03 for boys; OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.43-3.44 for girls). However, the significant relationship between meeting the PA guidelines and AB was observed only in girls (OR = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.17-3.39). Meeting the PA guidelines was positively associated with above-average AA (OR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.18-2.40), and reporting no AB (OR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.08-2.91) only in middle school students.Conclusions: This study suggested that sufficient PA may be a contributary factor of improved AA and lower level of AB in Chinese children and adolescents. However, associations of PA with AA and AB may be different across gender or school grade. Promoting PA among girls or middle school students may be a good approach to improve AA and reduce AB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates Chinese elementary school teachers’ cognition of CLT (communicative language teaching). Prepared interviews were conducted with eight Chinese teachers who teach English in different elementary schools in China, with the interviews being translated and transcribed in English. Through repeated reading of the transcripts, the participants’ thinking about the main features of CLT was analysed from a linguistic perspective to determine their attitudes towards and knowledge of CLT, their view of language acquisition, and their practice in real life. The results indicate that EFL teachers hold positive attitudes towards CLT in elementary school teaching in general; their divergences from the principles of CLT are caused by their previous experience, their knowledge of CLT and considerations that affect teaching practice in classrooms. The study provides a lens for future teachers’ training adaption and exposes the limitations of the current teaching curriculum in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a set of sexuality education textbooks used in a selection of primary schools in Beijing. These textbooks, under the overall name of 珍爱生命 (Cherish Lives), embody a comprehensive sexuality education approach with content designed on the basis of the UNESCO International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. Using feminist critical discourse analysis, we explore these books from three angles: the challenge of engaging with children as sexual subjects, given adult hegemony around sex; confusion about efforts to break the presentation of gender as a binary; and the contradiction between reproducing the myth of universal heterosexuality and attempting to present an education sensitive to LGBT issues. We show that while these textbooks demonstrate progress in sexuality education, they also manifest compromise. Despite this compromise, the books have recently been withdrawn and it is unclear whether their publication heralds a new, high quality approach to primary school sexuality education or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study bridges understandings of character strengths, based on McGrath and Walker's four-factor analysis of VIA-Youth, and a key text in current Chinese moral education: The Code for Primary and Secondary Schools. We utilise two research methods, textual analysis and survey questionnaires, to garner data theoretically and empirically. Our research has three aims. First, through analysing 'the Code' from a VIA-Youth perspective, we identify 30 implicit character strengths, of which 11 are nominally in common with VIA-Youth. Second, we fit all the 30 strengths into the four-factor model through textual analysis. Third, we test the model by factor-analysing student self-report surveys based on the Code. Our analysis reveals that one of the six extracted factors matches the adaptation of the four-factor model while the remaining five present a mix of virtue categories. Moreover, the nine clusters that constitute the Code present a high resemblance with the structuration of the components' matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]