Search

Psychological variables (e.g. L2 grit) remain a much under-investigated sub-category of individual differences compared with cognitive ones (e.g. aptitude). The present paper aims to gain a better understanding of the psychological effects of multilingualism by investigating tolerance of homosexuality (TH), which has received little scholarly attention from multilingualism researchers. Relevant data from the 2015 Chinese General Social Survey, which utilised a representative national sample (N = 10968) from China, were analysed. Out of the 11 initial independent variables, multilingualism and Internet use emerged as statistically significant predictors for TH; their effect sizes fluctuated around the typical-effect benchmark, suggesting that both were important predictors. Although gender role belief was also a statistically significant predictor, its effect sizes fell well below the small-effect benchmark and hence its link with TH was negligible. As the first systematic attempt to link multilingualism with TH in the field of applied linguistics, the present multidisciplinary study: (1) confirms and expands previous studies which show that multilingualism can be considered as an enduring social factor contributing to the shaping of individuals' psychological profiles, and (2) helps broaden the scope along the research line on homophobia in gender studies by linking it with more social correlates (e.g. multilingualism).

Much psychological research depends on participants' diligence in filling out materials such as surveys. However, not all participants are motivated to respond attentively, which leads to unintended issues with data quality, known as careless responding. Our question is: how do different modes of data collection--paper/pencil, computer/web-based, and smartphone--affect participants' diligence vs. "careless responding" tendencies and, thus, data quality? Results from prior studies suggest that different data collection modes produce a comparable prevalence of careless responding tendencies. However, as technology develops and data are collected with increasingly diversified populations, this question needs to be readdressed and taken further. The present research examined the effect of survey mode on careless responding in a repeated-measures design with data from three different samples. First, in a sample of working adults from China, we found that participants were slightly more careless when completing computer/web-based survey materials than in paper/pencil mode. Next, in a German student sample, participants were slightly more careless when completing the paper/pencil mode compared to the smartphone mode. Finally, in a sample of Chinese-speaking students, we found no difference between modes. Overall, in a meta-analysis of the findings, we found minimal difference between modes across cultures. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Abstract: With the progressive acceleration of globalization in the world, the study of intercultural communication is accordingly flourishing day by day on both domestic and international levels. In order to discern the current trends of intercultural communication research in China and abroad and furthermore provide suggestions for future research, the present study has made an analysis of 368 intercultural communication articles published between 2001 and 2005 in 11 major international and domestic academic journals, among which 203 articles are from 10 major domestic academic journals and 165 ones from the American journal entitled International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Each article is analyzed from two perspectives: the research contents and research methods. The results indicate that intercultural communication research in China is sharply different from research abroad with regards to research contents and methods. The main concern of researchers abroad is intercultural adaptation and intercultural training while the Chinese researchers are mainly concerned with cross-cultural pragmatics. As far as research methods are concerned, most studies abroad are conducted using empirical research methods, the majority of which adopt the quantitative research method. On the contrary, most studies in China are non-empirical research. Of the small number of empirical studies, considerable attention is paid to the mixed use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. At the end of the paper, constructive suggestions are made for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The study of grammar has been paid much attention and the grammar instruction becomes an emphasis and key problem in English language teaching and learning. How to instruct students grammar appropriately becomes controversial for some English teachers increasingly. Some linguistics, theorists and teachers hold that the grammar instruction should be taught traditionally and normally. There should be a standard in classroom instruction. However, others argue that grammar instruction should be approached scholastically, especially in cultural or religious practice since scholastic grammar is of great essence in language itself. On the basis of the theories of second language teaching and learning and acquisition and the viewpoints of Otto. Jespersen and H. Poutsma about scholastic grammar, this paper conducts a survey of grammar instruction at colleges and universities and analyzes the current situation of grammar instruction from scholastic perspective and finds that it is necessary to reconsider the role of grammar instruction and enhance its importance in English teaching and learning. Finally, the paper ends with a conclusion about the deficit of scholastic grammar at colleges and universities and some implications of grammar instruction in the real English language teaching and learning. The survey put forward a basis and reference for Chinese education system especially for liberal education and humanistic quality.

Responding to globalization trends, many engineering schools are internationalizing their courses and curricula to prepare graduates for careers that involve working across countries and cultures. As a result, both students and staff are looking beyond study abroad to international work, research, and service learning opportunities as alternate pathways for high-impact experiential learning in global context. However, such programs can also pose unique challenges related to preparing students for professional practice abroad and systematically evaluating program outcomes and impacts among students and other stakeholders. This paper responds to these challenges by reporting on International Research and Education in Engineering (IREE) 2010 China, a summer engineering research abroad program. It describes orientation strategies designed to improve student readiness for global practice, and presents mixed-method assessment methods and results for global engineering competency and other key learning outcomes. The main audience for this paper includes faculty and staff who develop and support global learning experiences in engineering and other professional degree programs.

An increasing proportion of information technology (IT)/information system adoption research collects data using online surveys. However, a paucity of research assesses the equivalence of paper-based versus Internet-based surveys in collectivistic cultures. Furthermore, no theoretical or empirical research investigates how cultural differences between collectivistic and individualistic cultures influence the measurement equivalence (ME) of these survey modes. To explore these issues, online and paper-based surveys with comparable samples were carried out in both an individualistic (the USA) and a collectivistic culture (China). Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the ME across both survey modes in these different cultures. Results indicate that the relatively larger satisficing discrepancy between paper and online surveys causes respondents in collectivistic cultures to have an increased likelihood of providing responses that vary as compared to respondents in individualistic cultures. The disparate responses, in turn, result in increased measurement variance between the two survey modes. The findings of this study bridge a gap in the literature and address the question of how culture influences online satisficing behaviour and how that behaviour causes measurement invariance across survey modes. This study also explains the possible underlying mechanisms by which different national cultures exert their influence on survey results. The findings provide important implications for IT researchers, especially those in collectivistic cultures or those who need to collect data in collectivistic cultures using online surveys or mixed-mode surveys that include an online survey mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This analysis estimates the association between smoking-related knowledge and smoking behaviour in a Chinese context. To identify the specific knowledge most directly related to smoking status, we used a novel latent variable analysis approach to adjust for the high correlations between different measures of knowledge about tobacco smoking. Method Data are from the Global Adult Tobacco China Survey, a nationally representative sample of 13 354 household-dwelling individuals 15 years of age or older. Multinomial logistic regressions estimated the association between smoking status (ie, never smoked, current smoker or past smoker) and four smoking-related beliefs: whether or not smoking causes lung cancer, heart attack and stroke, and whether or not low-tar cigarettes are less harmful. A latent variable approach reassessed these associations while taking into account the general level of knowledge about smoking. Results After demographic variables and general knowledge about smoking had been controlled for, the belief that low-tar cigarettes are not less harmful was more prevalent in persons who had never smoked than in current smokers (OR=1.3 (95% CI 1.0 to 1.7) in men and OR=2.8 (95% CI 1.3 to 5.9) in women); this association was even stronger when past smokers and current smokers were compared (OR=2.1 (95% CI 1.5 to 3.0) in men and OR=5.0 (95% CI 1.3 to 20.1) in women). Conclusions Compared with those who have never smoked and those who have ceased smoking, current smokers in China are more likely to believe that low-tar cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern society, the essence of social competition is the competition of talents who are in need of education, and the education's quality can decide a nation's future and destiny. With the continuous development of China, Chinese educational system is also facing a new stage of development. Starting with analyzing the case of New Oriental School, a very popular training institution in China, this paper finds its sponsoring characteristics and the current situation of education in China by surveying and comparing some data. It is found that New Oriental School's success is the integration of Chinese and western culture. On the one hand, New Oriental School pays attention to training teachers and learning advanced teaching ideas and methods of western countries, on the other hand, its education is directed towards Chinese examination-oriented education, which results from the current situation that China has a large population and sharp competitions and the examination-oriented education can not be replaced in this moment. Chinese education can get a lot of inspirations from New Oriental School's successful experience. This paper makes a suggestion that China can benefit from the mode of New Oriental School, learning the advanced concepts and teaching methods of western countries, and doing some improvements to explore a suitable way for Chinese educational development.

Since 2010, the number of urban Chinese high-school students applying to US universities has rapidly grown. Many of these students have chosen emerging international curriculum programs established by elite public high schools in China. These programs prepare wealthy Chinese students for the US college application process by exposing them to an internationalized curriculum. These emerging curriculum programs are public, but their expensive tuition excludes disadvantaged students and creates unequal access to internationalized education. Given China's history of merit-based student enrollment measured by test scores, this is a new phenomenon that promotes the marketization of education.This paper examines one of these "public" international high-school curriculum programs through ethnographic data, policy documents, webpages, and news sources. Drawing upon Ong's critiques of neoliberalism and Collier and Ong's notion of global assemblage, this paper straddles the fields of critical curriculum studies and critical policy studies to ask: who designs what kinds of curriculum, for whom, for what purposes, in what ways, under what circumstances, and with what effects? This paper validates the mapping of network connections as a way to reveal the social actor networks, interactions, and power relations connected to the development of a particular international curriculum program. Such mapping serves as a new starting point for tracing the movement of neoliberal education policy practices and techniques. By examining certain global forms such as international curriculum, partnerships, and educational experiments, the paper reveals the complicity of various agents involved, the privatization of state education, and the Chinese state's sovereign power.

This paper presents a case study of the microeconomy of a typical underdeveloped village in southwest China and the role of elementary education in the village economy. The paper begins with a brief review of relevant theories on the economics of education and the current social conditions and state of education in the village under study, and then tabulates and summarizes the income and living expenses of the villagers. The results of this analysis of income and expenses show an enormous gap, where a large proportion of the meager income earned by the villagers is "missing." Further analysis explained the "missing" money: first, it was largely invested in compulsory and higher education; and second, an unusually high proportion of the villagers' income was spent outside the village. These findings at least partially explain the impoverishment of the village under study (i.e., due to overinvestment in education, a skewed orientation toward external spending, and investment in education outside of the village). This structure of investment and spending siphons off the villagers' disposable income, smothers economic activity in the village, and ultimately exacerbates the impoverishment of the village under study. [This article was translated by Carissa Fletcher. ]

The article analyzes the concept of soft power in East Asia as it relates to the so-called decline of U.S. power and the simultaneous increase of military and diplomatic power exercised by China in the region. The author reviews soft power survey data and argues for the benefits of analyzing public opinion data in determining political power and influence in East Asia. A broad survey is utilized by the author to measure soft power in East Asia and the overall soft power of China is compared to other regional powers in categories such as economics, culture, and politics. The author concludes that the data show that Chinese soft power is relatively weak in East Asia.

The unemployment problem of college students in China has drawn much attention from academics and society. Using the 2011 College Student Labor Market (CSLM) survey data from Tsinghua University, this paper estimated the effects of college quality on initial employment, including employment status and employment unit ownership for fresh college graduates. The propensity score matching method was employed to account for the potential endogeneity of elite college attendance. The empirical evidence suggested that students who attended Project 985 colleges were more likely to find jobs immediately after college graduation. Moreover, students graduated from Project 211 universities gained a competitive edge by entering into public working sectors, such as the government or state-owned enterprises (SOEs), compared with students from non-elite colleges. The results imply the students who graduated from non-elite universities faced labor market segmentation. They not only had obstacles in finding jobs, but also ended up in the secondary labor market.

Collaborative case studies and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) play an important role in the modern education environment. A number of researchers have given significant attention to learning design in order to improve the satisfaction of collaborative learning. Although collaboration engineering (CE) is a mature method widely used for collaboration design, there is limited research as to whether CE is useful for learning design, in particular, case studies. Therefore, in this paper, we designed a contrastive case study in two small classes of a Chinese university. In the first part, we encouraged a teacher to use CE tools to design a learning process. Since Chinese students had limited access to CE platforms, we used our special tool--the Discussion Platform as the main CE tool. A total of 40 students and a teacher collaborated in our first experiment and were asked to complete a survey upon completion of the interviews. In our comparison study, the teacher gave the same task to another 31 students, yet omitted the use of CE tools to design the learning process. In this paper, we compare the results obtained and determine the advantage that CE methods have on learning effectiveness and student satisfaction.

Students grown up with digital technology and Internet are called digital natives or net generation. All others, who grew up without so much immersion with digital technologies are called digital immigrants. Researchers held different ideas on whether a new generation of learners existed. One of the foci of the debate is on the appropriateness of using age as the criteria to divide "digital native" and "digital immigrants". In order to reconcile the debate, the term "digital learner" was used in this paper, with the hypothesis that the time length for using technology could be used as the criteria for dividing digital learners. It is also noticed that there were few studies focused on the learning preferences of today's learners in Chinese context. In order to understand learners' learning preference and test our hypothesis, a large-scale survey with 44470 participants and 7 focus group interviews were conducted with 28 participants. Results showed NetizenYears that indicated the number of years passed since he/she first time got online could be used as the criteria of digital learners. Digital learners could be labeled as 1-NetizenYear digital learners, 2-NetzizenYears digital learners, and so on, and non-digital learners are those with 0 NetizenYear. Results revealed that non-digital learners and digital learners had significantly different Internet use patterns. More positive attitudes to Internet, more active participation online and more tendency to Internet addiction were found for digital learners with increasing NetizenYears. The gap between digital learner's preferred learning approach and teaching methods in classroom was discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion on using the time length of using technology as the criteria for digital learners.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a series of interviews conducted with a number of managers of Chinese private higher education institutions on the growth of the private higher education sector in China and the relationship it has with the government. Private higher education managers in China do seem concerned with the regulatory impediments to their institutions' development and the difficulties involved in competing with state-funded institutions. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a series of interviews conducted with a number of managers of Chinese private higher education institutions on the growth of the private higher education sector in China and the relationship it has with the government. Findings: The research found that private higher education managers in China do seem concerned with the regulatory impediments to their institutions' development and the difficulties involved in competing with state-funded institutions. Originality/value: This work is the only one of its kind in the academic literature.

Aims: The aim of this study is to introduce the Copenhagen Multi‐Centre Psychosocial Infertility (COMPI)‐Fertility Problem Stress Scales (COMPI‐FPSS) into China and test its applicability in Chinese infertile population. Background: Infertility‐related stress not only influences patients' psychological well‐being but is also strongly associated with reduced pregnancy rates and poorer assisted conception outcomes, thus warranting focussed attention. Design: The design used in this study is a cross‐sectional survey. Methods: A total of 418 participants were recruited by convenience sampling from March to July 2022. The data were randomly divided into two parts: one for item analysis and exploratory factor analysis and the other for confirmatory factor analysis and reliability test. The critical ratio and homogeneity test were used to verify the differentiation and homogeneity of the COMPI‐FPSS; the construct validity was determined by explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses; Cronbach's α coefficient and Spearman–Brown coefficient were used to assess the reliability; and criterion validity was expressed using correlation coefficients for the Perceived Stress Scale and the Negative Affect Scale as the validity criteria. Results: The revised Chinese version of COMPI‐FPSS has 11 items and 2 dimensions (i.e., personal stress domain and social stress domain). Exploratory factor analysis showed that the cumulative variance contribution rate of the two factors was 68.6%, and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the model fitted well. The score of the COMPI‐FPSS was significantly and positively associated with perceived stress and negative affect. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the total scale was 0.905, and the Spearman–Brown coefficient was 0.836, explaining excellent reliability. Conclusion: The revised Chinese version of COMPI‐FPSS shows good reliability and validity, and it can be used to evaluate the infertility‐related stress of infertile patients in China. Summary statement: What is already known about this topic? With the number of infertile people on the rise globally, infertility‐related stress needs attention.Copenhagen Multi‐Centre Psychosocial Infertility (COMPI)‐Fertility Problem Stress Scales (COMPI‐FPSS) with its brief and accessible entries is extensively applied abroad.China currently lacks such a tool. What this paper adds? This study translated the COMPI‐FPSS into Chinese and the Chinese version of COMPI‐FPSS contains 11 items and 2 dimensions, including personal stress domain and social stress domain, which has good reliability and validity. The implications of this paper: The Chinese version of COMPI‐FPSS could provide a short and reliable tool for clinical practice and research, which will reduce the burden on researchers and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapidly expanding university system aims to balance quantity and quality through a variety of measures, including internationalization. This paper employs data from a survey of 1264 students from 39 higher education institutions in order to understand students' view on institutional approaches to internationalization. The data show that "the Project 985" universities (elite research universities in China) have used internationalization to sustain two objectives: elite education and innovative research for quality, because there are high levels of agreement on three indicators with internationalization of these universities: student and faculty mobility, internationalizing curriculum and program, and international research collaboration and partnership. In "the Project 211" universities (second-tier research universities), the data show that internationalization activities are highly related to curriculum reforms and faculty mobility. While the other degree-offering universities provide less opportunity for internationalization, the non-degree-offering institutions find their distinct way for institutional internationalization by providing more "international internship" opportunities. Our analysis also indicates that institutional internationalization is disciplinary oriented. In disciplines like law and art, students do not think that many activities are taken for internationalization by their institutions, while such disciplines as economics, management, and education have a higher level of internationalization. The paper will explain these findings in detail.

This paper reflects on a team translation project on Aboriginal culture designed to enhance university students' intercultural communication competence and understanding through engaging in an interactive team translation project funded by the Australia-China Council. A selected group of Chinese speaking translation students participated in the project and two English books on Australian Aboriginal history and culture were translated to Chinese from August 2011 to May 2012. The two bilingual books were published by Aboriginal Studies Press in May 2013. After the one-year translation project was completed, the author conducted a survey and audio-taped interviews about the participants' translation experience. Using social constructivist theory (SCT), the author coded the data, conducted critical analysis of the contents, and categorised the themes. It was found that the participants not only improved their translation skills through combining theories with practices, but also got better knowledge of Australian Aboriginal cultural tradition and history than before. Having understood cross-linguistic differences, they combined translation theory with practice and raised their intercultural awareness after going through various organized learning activities centering on the translation project. Such an interaction-based student engagement learning approach helped student translators achieve meaningful communication and learner autonomy through individual reflections, group discussions, and seminars. Finally the pedagogical implications of the team translation project were discussed.

The primary goal of this paper is to examine what makes Chinese college students dissatisfied with entrance opportunities for higher education. Based on the author's survey data, we test two parameters which could be a potential cause of this dissatisfaction: 1) distributive inequality, which emphasizes the individual's dissatisfaction caused by unequal quota distribution; and 2) relative deprivation, which emphasizes the individual's dissatisfaction caused by social comparison relative to a reference group. Results show that relative deprivation has a significant effect on individual's dissatisfaction compared to unequal quota distribution. As a conclusion, college students' dissatisfaction was caused by the fact that they realized they could not get a fair distribution comparison to their reference groups. Individual subjective valuation gradually becomes an important standard of judging educational inequality, that makes educational inequality more complex to be resolved. Considering the ingrained household registration system and admission policy, we propose that individual's relative deprivation will probably persist or even worsen during the period of social transition.

Embedded librarianship service describes the practice of librarians integrating actively into the user's environment, rather than remaining in the library to await requests for service. This paper examines the concept of embedded service in the recent literature, within the past 5 years. It reports on a survey of embedded service in Chinese academic libraries conducted mainly in the "985 Project" universities. The paper focuses on some incipient embedded librarian programs, as well as the obstacles to achieving embedded practice, and identifies some best practices in China. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the beliefs of undergraduate business students studying in Canada and partners in China about the quality of the program; what they consider effective signals of quality; and their willingness to pay to improve the quality. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was designed and distributed to 481 students in the transnational program during the 2009 and 2011 academic years. Statistical tests were conducted to examine mean differences in the perception of quality, different signals of quality and willingness to pay to improve quality. Findings: The findings of the study indicate that Canadian University and Chinese partner students, mostly in their final years of study, have similar beliefs about the quality of the program. They consider the program as good quality but not top rated. Chinese partners' students in their earlier years of study have a lower perception of quality but this gets better as they progress through the program. Students perceive high quality reputation and professional accreditation as equally important in terms of signalling quality. Finally, many students are willing to pay more to improve the quality of the program. Research limitations/implications: Some limitations of the study include convenience sample selection and size, translation of survey, the framing of the survey questions and controlling for factors such as grade point average, gender and other factors. Practical implications: The paper provides important information to monitor quality and to place a value on pursuing accreditation and tuition fee increases. Originality/value: Students' perception of quality has remained under-examined in the literature. The research establishes a framework which can lead to future explorations. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables and 7 notes.)

Although universities have expanded in size, it is unclear whether the poor have benefited. If there are high returns to college education, then increasing access of the poor to college has important welfare implications. The objective of this paper is to document the rates of enrollment into college of the poor and to identify the hurdles to doing so. Relying on several sets of data, including a survey of college students from universities in three poor provinces in China, we have found that the college matriculation rate of the poor is substantially lower than students from non-poor families; the same is true for rural women and minorities. Clearly, there are barriers that are keeping the rural poor out. The paper also demonstrates that the real hurdles are not during the years of secondary schooling or at the time of admissions to college. The real impediments keeping the rural poor from pursuing a college education arise long before high school--as early as preschool and elementary school years--and are present throughout the entire schooling system.

Chinese children with an urban household registration ("hukou") normally attend subsidized preschools for three years prior to primary school. This is an experience available to relatively few of China's many millions of migrant children whose families are registered as rural residents but choose to migrate to urban areas. This paper presents research, in the form of a case study, which examined an informal playgroup for rural-registered migrant children whose parents worked in a Beijing market. The playgroup was established by volunteers to provide an affordable, though limited, alternative preschool experience for migrant children. The original programme was derived from community concepts that initially underpinned the "Sure Start" intervention in the United Kingdom. In the paper, survey data is utilized to determine if an informal playgroup can be a positive alternative in a context where migrant children have little capacity to access the preschool programmes available to their urban counterparts. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The Changing Academic Profession (CAP) international survey was designed in part to consider the effects of globalization on the work context and activities of academics in 19 countries or regions around the world. This paper draws from a subset of these data to explore the extent to which academics are globally connected in their research and teaching, and the ways this connectedness relates to global migration. Across multiple measures, immigrant academics (i.e., academics working in countries where they were not born and did not receive their first degree) were more globally connected than national academics (i.e., those working in the countries of their birth and first degree). Global migration by academic staff is clearly a major contributor to the internationalization of higher education institutions, yet there was no evidence these contributions led to enhanced career progress or job satisfaction for immigrant academics relative to national academics. The international expertise and experience of immigrant academics may not be sufficiently recognized and valued by their institutions.

The focus of this paper is on the work-related values, preferences, and future expectations among female students at two elite business schools in China and Norway. The paper argues that while gender theory predicts no significant differences between these two groups, both cultural and economic development theory imply fundamental differences. The overall picture we get from this study is mixed, in that while both cultural dimensions and economic development dimensions generally have a significant impact on the variations in job-related values between the selected Chinese and Norwegian female business students, there are also commonalities that are ascribable to gender. That is, while there clearly are differences between the two groups there are also a number of significant similarities. (Contains 4 tables.)

Based on the survey on voluntary service in western China by students from Nanjing Agricultural University and Agricultural University of Jiangxi, this paper analyzes agricultural university students' participation in and understanding of the Western China Program as well as the major problems various universities confronted while implementing the program. The paper then puts forward some relevant measures and proposals. (Contains 3 tables.)

Language choice is often studied as choices made by the state at the level of national language planning or as individual choice of language or variety in language use. There has been little research to directly connect these two aspects of language choice. This paper attempts to incorporate the two aspects and other related phenomena in a multi-agent model of language choice and illustrates the proposed model with some data on circumstances in China. The agents involved are: policy-makers, educators, family members, learners and other language users. After outlining the model, the discussion focuses on how choices made by policy-makers in China at the language planning level relate to choices made by individual learners or language users at the level of personal language development in China. It draws upon findings in the Language Education in China Project based on three main types of data: policy statements, survey statistics (on 415 Han Chinese learners, the majority ethnic group in China, and 60 learners from different minorities in China) as well as interviews of 35 Han Chinese learners and 17 learners from ethnic minorities. The paper presents brief accounts of the policies and some survey trends before focusing on interview data on six Han Chinese learners and three minority learners. It is argued that realization of national language planning goals depends on whether individual learners abide by the choices made by the state and whether the intermediary agents such as teachers and parents cooperate; it is also suggested that learners learn well if they choose to do so, where choice assumes active investment of learning time and energy into learning or using the target language(s). (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper investigates the traits of a successful EFL teacher at a Chinese University by collecting qualitative data, including surveys with questionnaires and interviews, from Miss H and a group of her students and her colleagues. The purpose is to detect what special qualities she has and what other roles she undertakes in her teaching position. The data indicate that to fulfil her role as both a teacher and a "tour guide", Miss H has the qualities of being knowledgeable, responsible, enthusiastic, patient and kind. She also has a strong ability to utilise her teaching methods in accordance with what her students need and to train them to learn in a communicative and independent way. She serves as both a friend to her students, giving them support and helping them with learning, and as a coordinator among her colleagues, encouraging professional development and cooperative teamwork.

This paper describes the results of an investigation into the use of portfolio assessment (PA) in Chinese context, beginning with a survey of the rationale for the use of portfolios with students. Then the empirical study is presented and the teachers' and the students' as well as the English teaching advisors' voices are revealed through excerpts collected from the questionnaire and the interviews. The findings show that portfolio assessment is in its infancy. The factors that might have hindered its progress are discussed.

Knowledge about different health-related attitudes, beliefs, and risks is of significant interest to scholars in different Social Science disciplines. Usually knowledge is collected in a form of multiple variables and then constructed as a composite indicator. The question any researcher working with knowledge-related variables faces is: what is the best way to measure and summarise different dimensions of health-related knowledge? The main goal of this paper is to evaluate and compare simple score and latent class approaches to measuring and summarising health-related knowledge using population data on HIV knowledge collected in five selected countries (China, India, Kenya, Malawi, and Ukraine). The advantages and shortcomings of both approaches (simple score and latent class approaches) to measuring and summarising health-related knowledge are evaluated and discussed.

Aim s : The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between caregiving burden and pre‐death grief, with a specific focus on adult‐child caregivers in mainland China. Additionally, the study explored whether coping strategies played a mediating role in this correlation. Methods: A convenience sample of 320 adult‐child caregivers of older parents with dementia from Kunming, mainland China, was recruited for the study. Data were collected using the Chinese version of the Marwit‐Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory‐Short Form, the Burden Scale for Family Caregivers, and the Ways of Coping Checklist‐Revised. Results: Results using linear regression and multiple mediation analysis with Hayes' process model indicated that caregiving burden was positively related to pre‐death grief and that active coping mediated the relationship between them. In the female group, active coping partially mediated the association between caregiving burden and pre‐death grief, but in the male group, this mediating effect did not exist. Conclusion: The study found evidence supporting the link between caregiving burden and pre‐death grief among adult‐child caregivers of older parents with dementia in mainland China. Furthermore, the caregiving burden prevented the use of active coping, and this decrease in coping increased the perception of pre‐death grief. These associations only existed in the female group. Implications: This paper presented the importance of active coping skills in the dementia caregiving process. Impact: The findings of this study emphasize the necessity for health practitioners to provide targeted interventions regarding pre‐death grief among dementia caregivers and strengthen caregivers' active coping strategies to reduce their pre‐death grief. Community‐based and personal care support services should be promoted to alleviate their caregiving burden. Reporting Method: We have adhered to the transparent reporting of evaluations with quantitative design statements and the corresponding checklist was followed. Patient or Public Contribution: 'No patient or public involvement'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial revolution can be termed as the catalyst of human growth. The establishment of various industries has been detrimental to the meteoric rise of any commodity, product or service across the world. Industries fuel the economy of countries and form the main constituent of their GDP. Industries not only generate the production of the market ready material but also generate the employment for the citizens of the country, which drives multiple factors of any country progress. In order to keep the industries thriving, we need commendable industrial engineers who have not only the skills of a technician but also as a manager to run the plant successful. Indian Government initiative "Make in India" to establish the industries in India, will not be successful without the capable Industrial Engineers. This paper focuses on the engineering education structure of India with regard to Industrial Engineering from diploma level to post doctoral level and assesses how our education system is incubating future industrial engineers. We have made some suggestions why this engineering discipline should be offered as a regular engineering discipline in India and highlighted the contribution of the Indian government to this discipline. We have given a brief view on the comparative status of industrial engineering with other countries and provided the suggestions to improve the industrial engineering education in India. Thus, Industrial Engineering plays a pivotal role in the field of engineering for the proper development of industries in any nation. Indian government's initiatives in laying the framework of the industries for those commodities, which India is purchasing from the other parts of the world since independence is praiseworthy. These production plants across the country will see the advantage in the manufacturing and production engineering. Present scenario of industrial engineering education seems in its premature stages in India. With a mere number of colleges offering this stream in undergraduate studies leaves a chasm to be filled promptly in near future. Although the platform set in India regarding industries at present gives a kick start for employment and research opportunities in Industrial Engineering.

This paper aims to examine whether and how the US-based Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric-Design Standards for Online and Blended Courses apply to the Chinese higher education environment. Suitability and matchability of QM Standards are respectively examined through a questionnaire and course reviews at Fudan University, a leading research institution in China, with which Quality Matters™ has an exclusive five-year cooperation agreement to develop an adapted Chinese rubric based on the QM Standards. Cross-referencing the dimensions of suitability and matchability, QM Standards are divided into four categories, namely, Perfect, Challenging, Potential and Chicken-ribs standards. This classification helps to identify what standards are ready for adoption and what standards need to be adapted. It is found that most QM Standards are thought to be suitable for the Chinese higher education environment, but China has a long way to go to meet these standards. On the whole, QM Standards on course format, function, and basic quality elements are relatively easy for Chinese online courses to meet while the advanced standards on course quality, particularly those relating to learning outcomes, assessment and evaluation, interaction and other aspects of course design remain challenging at the present time. The research findings not only show areas of course design in China that need improvement, but also lay a solid foundation for the development of QM-Fudan Standards, which will be supplemented and improved by future practice and research based on the actual condition and progress of online education in China.

While various quantitative measures for assessing teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) have developed rapidly, few studies to date have comprehensively validated the structure of TPACK through various criteria of validity especially for content specific areas. In this paper, we examined how the TPACK survey measure is aligned with the TPACK lesson plan measure and how they are related to the measure of epistemological beliefs about chemistry. The participants were 280 Chinese preservice chemistry teachers enrolled in a university in China. Both exploratory and confirmatory factory analyses were performed on the TPACK survey measure to help to establish validity, including considerations for convergent and discriminant validity. This was followed by the invariance test to examine factorial validity as related to gender. To establish the predictive validity of TPACK, the relationships among teachers' epistemological beliefs, TPACK, and their capacity for planning technology-integrated lessons were also examined. Overall, the results showed that all four types of validity looked at in this study (i.e., convergent, discriminant, factorial, and predictive) were satisfactorily established. Implications for TPACK research and teacher education are also discussed.

Research studies agree on the role formal education can play in facilitating students building a sense of life purpose. This paper examined the influence of Chinese college students' perceived competence of their teachers for supporting purpose on these same college students' purpose status. Portions of the Revised Youth Purpose Survey were adapted for Chinese college student and teacher populations, and then administered to 52 teachers and 213 students from a mid-size teacher training university in north-east China. There was inconsistency between teachers' self-evaluations and students' evaluations, with teachers rating themselves as more supportive of purpose than they were rated by their students. Upperclassmen reported higher levels of teacher competence for supporting purpose than lowerclassmen, and arts teachers were rated as more supportive of purpose than teachers of other subjects . Students who ranked obviously other-oriented goals as their most important purposes also rated their teachers as more competent in purpose support than students who endorsed other types of goals. Significant positive associations were found among students' ratings of teachers for purpose support and reports of purpose from students, including associations with students' purpose search and purpose identification; however, no relationship was found between students' purpose engagement and perceptions of teachers' purpose support.

Students' presentation is a research-based in-class activity to present views, supporting details or research results on a given topic. Undoubtedly, teachers play important roles in presentations and teachers' roles are quite different from students' roles in this activity due to the different role expectations between them. However, in most cases, neither teachers nor students are very clear about the differences between teachers' role expectations and students' role expectations, which results in problems such as misunderstandings, low efficiency, information asymmetry, etc. This article intends to explore these differences by conducting a questionnaire survey. The research was carried out among 60 postgraduates who major in English and 10 teachers from a normal university. Research results show great differences between teachers' and students' role expectations and suggestions for narrowing the gaps are also addressed in the paper.

This study investigates the mismatch between the educational attainment of a graduate with a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree and the industry needs in China. A competency list for MEng graduates from the perspective of industry needs was constructed. And a survey was conducted among MEng graduate students, alumni, and employers to assess the listed items. The analysis of the survey data yielded five competencies. Mismatches were found for all five factors. Each discrepancy is discussed in detail in this paper.

This paper investigated pre-service mathematics teachers' mathematics beliefs, beliefs about information and communication technology (ICT), and their relationships. 787 pre-service mathematics teachers in China completed a survey questionnaire measuring their beliefs about the nature of mathematics, beliefs about mathematics learning and teaching, attitudes toward ICT, and beliefs about ICT use in mathematics education. Descriptive statistics, simple correlation analysis, and step-wise progression analysis were performed in the data analysis. The results indicate that pre-service mathematics teachers' dynamic belief about the nature of mathematics, constructivist belief about mathematics learning and teaching, and positive attitudes towards ICT are more likely to be correlated with their constructivist belief about ICT use. In contrast, their traditional beliefs about the nature of mathematics and its learning and teaching are more likely to be associated with their traditional beliefs about ICT use.

In this paper, we report on how authors of academic writing in Chinese (AWC) refer to themselves as single authors in the area of language studies. We find that AWC writers rely on the 1st-person plural 我们 women "we," 3rd-person NPs such as 作者/笔者 zuozhe/bizhe "this author," and inanimate NPs such as 本文 benwen "this article/paper" for self-reference. Based on these findings and subsequent surveys of journal style guides and interviews of authors, we propose that (1) these self-referring expressions are a set of conventions; (2) the motivation for these conventions is modesty, a deep-routed value of Chinese society; and (3) these expressions serve as indexicals to the writers' identity of a modest scholar in the particular discursive context: the genre of academic writing. By so doing, our work links language use to social values, to identity studies, as well as to genre analysis, thus contributing to the literature in all these fields of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]