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With China's rising role in the global economic market, both local and international employers seek graduates with well-developed communication skills in at least one additional language to complement their specific knowledge and abilities. University graduates are taught English for Specific Purposes (ESP) within their particular disciplines. This article reflects on the first author's action research, using student presentations as a pedagogical practice with first year postgraduate students not majoring in English in a Chinese university. The authors propose that ESP pedagogy needs to progress beyond the monological Chinese Confucian model of education to a dialogic, inclusive, and hospitable model of the classroom as an imagined third space where creative, critical thinking is encouraged. This research aims to contribute to Chinese ESP pedagogy, to inform international educators of developments in the education of graduates for internationalized business practice, and to contribute to the global discourse on ESP pedagogy.

Yulin Normal University preschool education major existing children's game course instructional model more in passing test knowledge and practice test skills, students used to passively accept knowledge, rarely use critical thinking to treat knowledge, with a critical eye to question, thinking, and discovery, long-term students will not be able to adapt to the needs of the new era of social development of survival ability and professional competitiveness. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (1) to study the factors affecting the development of critical thinking ability, (2) to develop an instructional model based on experiential learning theory and six thinking hats, and (3) to compare the critical thinking ability of Third Year college students before and after the instructional model of experiential learning theory and six thinking hats. The sample group was 30 students from preschool education majors at Yulin Normal University. The research was conducted in three steps: studying the factors that affect the development of critical thinking ability, developing the instructional model, and the experimental and improvement process. The research instruments were a questionnaire about factors that affect the development of critical thinking ability, an interview form about factors that affect the development of college students' critical thinking ability, an observation form about student behavior, an interview form about opinions on teaching, lesson plans, and a critical thinking ability test. The study's results were 1) the main factors affecting the development of critical thinking ability include the instructional environment, the teachers, and the students, respectively, 2) the instructional model based on experiential learning theory and six thinking hats was developed consisting of four core components: a) principles, b) objectives, c) learning process, and d) results, and 3) after the implementation of the instructional model based on experiential learning theory and six thinking hats, the critical thinking ability scores of the students were higher than the critical thinking ability of the students before the experiment, with a statistical significance of 0.01 level. Finally, this paper strives to develop a based on Experiential Learning Theory and Six Thinking Hats instructional model to improve the critical thinking of preschool education students at Yulin Normal University.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the potential of implementing an action competence teaching model as a framework for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education. The paper seeks to draw insights from the students on the potential of this teaching model. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a quantitative research design in exploring the potential of an action competence teaching model. This study used self-report measures to obtain insights into the objective of the study. Findings: The action competence teaching model was seen as useful in equipping students with knowledge about a problem, confidence and willingness to act. However, some issues like the design of the projects, teamwork and instructional practices were identified and discussed. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to implement an action competence teaching model to help draw insights from students on its potential. This paper documents certain aspects of action competence that require attention before being implemented in higher education. This information so far lacking in scientific literature contributes to ongoing discussions on SDGs while unveiling strengths and weaknesses to be considered.

As a unique literary genre, science fiction can serve as a motivating text to develop students' critical analytical skills and to promote critical thinking about new technology and its societal controversies under proper guidance. In the field of English as Foreign Language (EFL) learning, using science fiction films in the classroom affords EFL learners new language-learning experiences. This paper explains how films, as a multimodal resource in EFL classes, can enrich students' multiliteracies--specifically how the science fiction genre can develop students' critical literacies under careful meaning-making curriculum design. A preliminary study, taking 30 students in a foreign language high school in China, is reported in this paper. Findings reveal that carefully selected science fiction films such as "I am Legend" and "Blade Runner" can serve as pivotal sources for developing EFL learners' literacy under the multiliteracies pedagogy. Such films can also connect students with Western ideology to reinforce their identity as participants in globalization. This study further suggests that key points in successful design of the course in an EFL classroom include posing critical questions to promote critical thinking and actively analyzing multimodal texts to uncover underlying meanings in source material.

The course Introduction to Linguistics aims at fostering students' rational understanding of human languages, fortifying students' linguistic and cultural awareness and critical thinking ability, and developing students' language research awareness and interest. The article analyzes the status quo of Introduction to Linguistics teaching in some local colleges and universities in China, elaborates the application of project-based research-oriented learning to Introduction to Linguistics teaching in X University from the aspects of teaching design, teaching implementation and teaching assessment, examines its teaching effects through a case study involving students' cognition and experience of the learning mode, the impact on students' knowledge acquisition and ability development, and students' evaluations about the teaching mode. The paper provides some pedagogical implications from the perspectives of teachers and students.

There are media and research reports of international students from the People's Republic of China as being deficient in the capabilities for thinking critically. This paper argues for a shift in the frame for researching their critical thinking, moving the focus from the ethno-national label of "Chinese students" to "multilingual students" and their full linguistic repertoire. This opens up possibilities for exploring definitions of modes of critical thinking in Zhongwen (the official language of China) and English, and the importance of critical thinking in higher education in Australia, China and elsewhere. Attention then turns to constructions of "Chinese students" as uncritical, with explanations for their learning deficit including poor English language proficiency, lack of relevant knowledge, inappropriate assessment and deficiencies in China's educational system. This paper concludes by suggesting research into post-monolingual education may find a theoretic-pedagogical framework that sees multilingual students use their full linguistic repertoire to develop modes of critical thinking while dealing with the tensions posed by English-only monolingual education.

We examine the effects of computer-based versus paper-based assessment of critical thinking skills, adapted from English (in the U.S.) to Chinese. Using data collected based on a random assignment between the two modes in multiple Chinese colleges, we investigate mode effects from multiple perspectives: mean scores, measurement precision, item functioning (i.e. item difficulty and discrimination), response behavior (i.e. test completion and item omission), and user perceptions. Our findings shed light on assessment and item properties that could be the sources of mode effects. At the test level, we find that the computer-based test is more difficult and more speeded than the paper-based test. We speculate that these differences are attributable to the test's structure, its high demands on reading, and test-taking flexibility afforded under the paper testing mode. Item-level evaluation allows us to identify item characteristics that are prone to mode effects, including targeted cognitive skill, response type, and the amount of adaptation between modes. Implications for test design are discussed, and actionable design suggestions are offered with the goal of minimizing mode effect.

It is widely believed that critical thinking is vital for academic success or effectiveness and innovation in the workplace. However, there is insufficient knowledge about how language teachers conceptualise critical thinking and implement it in teaching. This is especially true in EFL contexts and at the secondary level. Against this background, this paper addresses the research gap to understand EFL teachers' conceptualisation and practice of critical thinking. This study adopts a funnelling approach. A broad overview of 182 EFL teachers' conception of critical thinking skills was investigated through a questionnaire, a smaller group of 12 teachers were interviewed in three focus groups to offer in-depth understanding, and three teachers were observed in teaching. The findings identify the key characteristics and elements of critical thinking from teachers' perspectives and shed light on how teachers use cultural and subject-specific genres to embody critical thinking in their conceptualisation. The findings suggest that teachers actively implement critical thinking in teaching. The classroom extracts reveal teachers' interactional strategies to enhance critical thinking. The findings have substantial implications for teacher learning.

This study explored epistemic beliefs held by Mainland Chinese learners of English. Studies that investigate language learners' personal epistemologies, which include beliefs about the nature of knowledge and the process of knowing, are scarce. For the most part, such studies are quantitative. This paper employed Q methodology, an approach that blends quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, to present a more systematic analysis of and deeper insights into the language learners' subjective opinions. The participants were 20 undergraduate students who learned English in a university in China. They sorted 42 statements pertaining to language-related epistemic beliefs on a grid ranging from -5 (most disagree) to +5 (most agree). During the factor analytic procedure similar Q-sorts formed three factors, each representing a unique set of epistemic beliefs shared by the students. The qualitative interpretation of these factors revealed the following viewpoints: firstly, learning the English language requires time, effort and perseverance; secondly, learning English requires critical thinking; thirdly, it requires talent and hard work. Pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

This paper explores whether the open-end questions, which are constructed to develop critical thinking (CT) in China's English textbook, are effective. All the 405 questions are examined and categorized into non-CT group and CT group, which includes lower-stage CT and higher-stage CT. Findings reveal that most of them fall into non-CT group, therefore ineffective to enhance CT. Some of them are non-text based. Others are unjustifiable. Still others are not hierarchically distributed. Corresponding modifications are then suggested for the improvement of ineffective questions. It enlightens later researchers with the conclusion that effective questions should be text-based, text-justified, integrated with a reader's own judgment and hierarchically distributed.

The education for the engineering masters in the colleges and universities of National Special Needs Talent Cultivation Project (NSNTCP), is an important component of the graduate education system in China, and is one of the important patterns to cultivate high-level application-oriented talents. However, there are some serious problems in the traditional classroom teaching for the education of engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP. In the traditional teaching mode, the interaction between teachers and students is becoming less and less, the students' learning enthusiasm is becoming weaker and weaker, and the students are often passive acceptance. Being faced with the dilemma of classroom teaching for engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP, combined with the practical teaching experience of engineering master education in our university, this paper discusses the core ideas of PAD Class teaching mode for engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP from three aspects: emphasizing the teachers-students dual centers, strengthening 4C core competencies (namely critical thinking, communication skills, collaboration, and creativity), and paying great attention to process evaluation. Moreover, it also elaborates the crux in the implementation process of PAD Class teaching mode for engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP. The results obtained from the teaching practice in the basic course of Advanced Engineering Mathematics is positive and satisfactory. It indicates that PAD Class teaching mode is a kind of new teaching mode which adapts to the growth and development of engineering masters' education in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP, and is an efficient and practical teaching reform that can not only embody the teachers-students dual centers, but also ensure the high-level application-oriented talents training goal of the engineering masters' degree education in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP.

EFL teaching plays a special and important role in development of a country shouldering the responsibility of development of intercultural competence. EFL teaching in China to some extent cannot fully realize the teaching aims due to its narrowed focus on linguistic objectives more than cultivation of interculturality. Integration of intercultural education into EFL and research of how teachers can be oriented with intercultural teaching pedagogy to conduct suitable activities to develop students' intercultural communicative competence are urgently needed. Inspired by the theories of intercultural language teaching, this paper attempts to revise the instructional pedagogy in College English in China by applying the intercultural teaching with the film as the medium, so as to explore the practical way of integrating intercultural communication competence training with language skills training in teaching practice.

We examine the effects of computer-based versus paper-based assessment of critical thinking skills, adapted from English (in the U.S.) to Chinese. Using data collected based on a random assignment between the two modes in multiple Chinese colleges, we investigate mode effects from multiple perspectives: mean scores, measurement precision, item functioning (i.e. item difficulty and discrimination), response behavior (i.e. test completion and item omission), and user perceptions. Our findings shed light on assessment and item properties that could be the sources of mode effects. At the test level, we find that the computer-based test is more difficult and more speeded than the paper-based test. We speculate that these differences are attributable to the test's structure, its high demands on reading, and test-taking flexibility afforded under the paper testing mode. Item-level evaluation allows us to identify item characteristics that are prone to mode effects, including targeted cognitive skill, response type, and the amount of adaptation between modes. Implications for test design are discussed, and actionable design suggestions are offered with the goal of minimizing mode effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education, skills, and the development of an African workforce are at a critical moment. While it is recognized that Chinese firms hire local people, the focus of the debate is more on the position and opportunities for training and advancement. As such, the paper tries to answer the following questions. Does China really contribute to skills development in Africa? Does China employment, education, and skills transfer pattern contribute to Africa's own structural transformation and benefit African workforce? In attempting to answer these questions, this paper first lays out the current magnitude of demand for skills in Africa and the priorities for education and skills transfer that can successfully address Africa's skills shortage. Significantly, this will enable researchers and non-researchers to understand the diversity of Chinese firms' skills transfer patterns and the reasons behind these patterns. In order to present a comprehensive and precise picture as well as understand the context for China and Africa education and skills transfer development, the paper draws from various data collected from diverse sources, including government statistics, firm reports, second-hand academic literature, local and international news media, official government reports, and research studies. The paper suggests that the assessment of skills transfer pattern should not only consider employees' and employers' direct interests, but also in the short run, skills transfer should focus on offering short, practical courses to secondary and higher education graduates involving primarily on-the-job training. In the long run, there is a need to change the way employees and students are trained, including curriculum reforms that favor science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Emphasis should also be placed on critical thinking, problem-solving, discovery, and experiential training.

Critical thinking is one of the important higher-order skills very much treasured in education, but hard to be measured using paper-pencil tests. In line with recent recommendation to measure high-order thinking skills with interactive tasks (vs. static one set of questions), in this study we developed an interactive and automated game-based assessment of critical thinking, using the Toulmin Model. In two real-life simulation stories, through interactive tasks in progressing scenes in the stories, students chose and rated evidence and conflicting reasons as supportive or non-supportive arguments in making the eventual decision. Critical thinking scores were awarded on choosing the appropriate evidence and reasons. The psychometric quality of the game was evaluated with 185 Chinese senior secondary students. Results showed that (i) reliabilities as measured by Cronbach's a of the whole scale and subdomains were reasonable; (ii) parallel form reliability was high; (iii) its correlation and convergent validity with the popular Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment were comparable to those in other studies; (iv) it was generally not related to academic performance; and (v) the game was interesting and engaging. We also noted that students hesitated to query others and they were weak in applying critical thinking to problem-solving, which were in congruent with previous research showing students rarely used critical thinking to solve complex, real-world problems. In sum, we demonstrated successfully the use of interactive simulation tasks in measuring critical thinking. With the advancement of technology, our study suggested the possibility of assessing hard-to-measure important complex higher-order competence with dynamic games.

With the diversification of information and the rapid development of information technology, and the arrival of the era of big data, information literacy has become one of the basic qualities that everyone must possess (Galvin and Jeanne 2006). This paper presents information literacy and review writing, data access autonomy and academic exchange activities to discover and explore, and the benefits of sharing learning resources. The survey shows the evaluation results of students' autonomy of learning and discusses the importance of improving the literature search and assistance provided by campus institutions such as libraries, and through the practical experience of international students to illustrate the teamwork for academic exchanges between China and foreign countries. The cultivation of information literacy driven by academic tasks and review writing plays an important role in developing a mature and universally applicable learning style, which is of great benefit to the academic quality training of graduate students. Through the feedback questionnaire, the student's literature review ability and the mastery of advanced search ability are analyzed to help teachers or scholars review students' ability and provide teaching models.

The selection of an appropriate textbook has always been a great concern of teachers and students. Frameworks for the evaluation of textbook in previous researches are too complex to help a quick decision. This paper firstly gives an account of Chinese students' needs in learning EAP [English for academic purposes]. It then proposes a framework for the suitability of the textbook and applies it to three textbooks for meeting the learning needs in the Chinese context. The result shows that domestically designed textbooks are, to some extent, inexperienced in the arrangement of content and academic skills, and even in the understanding of the nature of EAP learning. It also reveals that the imported classical textbook though quite experienced and shows general good suitability presents some problems in its suitability to a particular culture. Given the limited researches on EAP textbooks, this study sheds light on the selection and construction of EAP textbook in the Chinese context.

Information and communications technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation in educational practice. Among all the educational technological tools, online discussion forums represent one of the most extensively adopted educational media in higher education. Yet a review of the literature indicates a lack of empirical studies investigating how learners utilize this tool to afford their language learning. This study aims to address this gap in the literature. Using thematic analysis, postings of 20 second language (L2) learners in a peer-moderated online discussion forum were analysed. Qualitative thematic analysis of the data revealed that the online discussion forum facilitated the co-construction of subject matter knowledge and enhanced learners' critical understanding. The postings also showed that during the interactive, collaborative inquiry, students encouraged and helped each other emotionally and academically which helped foster group affiliation and learner autonomy. These findings suggest that the online discussion forum has many affordances which are conducive to effective learning. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research.

A geographical education offers more than skills, subject knowledge and generic attributes. It also develops a set of discipline-specific capabilities that contribute to a graduate's future learning and experience, granting them special ways of thinking for lifelong development and for contributing to the welfare of themselves, their community and their world. This paper considers the broader purposes and values of disciplinary teaching in contributing to individual human development. Set in the context of recent debates concerning the role of the university and the neo-liberalisation of higher education this paper explores approaches to developing the geography curriculum in ways that re-assert the educational value of geographical thinking for students. Using international examples of teaching and learning practice in geography, we recognise five geocapabilities: use of the geographical imagination; ethical subject-hood with respect to the impacts of geographical processes; integrative thinking about society-environment relationships; spatial thinking; and the structured exploration of places. A capabilities approach offers a productive and resilient response to the threats of pedagogic frailty and increasingly generic learning in higher education. Finally, a framework to stimulate dialogue about curriculum development and the role of geocapabilities in the higher education curriculum is suggested.

Assessing student learning outcomes has become a global trend in higher education. In this paper, we report on the validation of the Chinese HEIghten® Critical Thinking assessment with a nationally representative sample of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students from 35 institutions in China. Key findings suggest that there was a test delivery mode effect favoring the paper tests over the online tests. In general, the psychometric quality of the items was satisfactory for low-stakes, group-level uses but there were a few items with low discrimination that awaits further investigation. The relationships between test scores and various external variables such as college entrance examination scores, university elite status and student perceptions of the test were as expected. We conclude with speculations on the key findings and discussion of directions for future research.

This paper reports the design, delivery, and evaluation of a mentoring programme which aimed to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in Chinese university students. Several new elements in this mentoring programme distinguish it from many previous such programmes within the context of higher education. These new elements include anchoring on a course which allowed junior year students to mentor senior year students, an equal emphasis on learning by both mentors and mentees, and the specific objectives promoting transferrable generic skills rather than discipline-specific knowledge. Evidence from quantitative and qualitative data analyses suggests that a mentoring programme of this kind can be implemented successfully with Chinese learners, provided that it is well structured. Our experience sheds new light on how this type of programme can be designed and implemented non-traditionally in higher education and will have a broader appeal to educators in higher education teaching learners with passive learning styles.

This paper explores a process-genre approach to teaching academic writing skills to advanced English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students. The 'reading-to-writing' tasks and procedures were designed to examine the feasibility of the approach for a doctoral English-for-academic-purposes (EAP) program in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years. Data for this action research were drawn from a collection of students' written tasks with peer-feedback and revisions spelled out, onsite researcher's observation notes, and two rounds of interviews with two selected groups of students. The results indicate that the participants benefited significantly through reading and analyzing peer-reviewed journal articles and getting familiar with the peer-review criteria for assessing academic texts. The approach stimulated the participants' interest in employing process writing skills and helped them understand the genre of disciplinary-specific academic writing. Issues with and implications for EAP learning and teaching in the Chinese context are discussed.

Through literature study of researches on critical thinking, this paper gives an analysis of the present situation and existing problems of critical thinking cultivation in Chinese college English classes, probes into the rationale for critical thinking cultivation and discusses how to cultivate students' critical thinking in Chinese college English class context through constructing constructive learning environment, designing flexible instructional strategies, and adopting formative, seamless assessment.

This paper presents an educational, experimental research design, aiming at examining the effect of "PAD + microlectures" EAP teaching model on Chinese undergraduates' critical thinking development. It mainly analyzes this experiment from four aspects: research question and hypotheses, difficulties in key term definitions and selection of measuring instruments, potential risks of the design, as well as the challenge of ethics. Such a methodological analysis shows that educational experiments should follow the disciplines of objectivity, feasibility, maneuverability, effectiveness, and innovation.

The increasing importance of English academic writing (EAW) in China requires concerted efforts to explore how to enhance the experience and quality of students' learning of EAW skills. This paper reports on a study that examined the perceived usefulness of College English (CE) textbooks for Chinese college students' EAW development. The study investigated the students' and teachers' views about the textbooks by surveying the students' feedback with a questionnaire and conducting interviews with teachers and students about their experiences. The study used the convergent design data analysis by integrating the questionnaire data and data elicited from students' interviews, and then the integration results regarding students' feedback were compared and contrasted with teachers' feedback obtained from teachers' interviews. The results show that students and teachers believe that CE textbooks are useful in EAW improvement because they help students to acquire language patterns, linking words, analytical skills, and so forth. In addition, the students expected to learn about the genres of argumentation and exposition as well as procedures in CE textbooks, to help them improve their EAW skills. It is suggested that under the explicit guidance of teachers, students could use textbooks effectively to improve their critical thinking ability for EAW. Moreover, the differences between academic writing and high school writing in textual structures need to be explicitly presented in textbooks and classroom activities.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a new approach towards the understanding of teacher-student relationships in the context of management education in China, and to promote collaborative learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper critiqued the current model of management education in China and highlight the reasons from a cultural and historical perspective. With examples from her teaching practices the author argued why a new teacher-student relationship is necessary in developing China's future managers. Findings: Creativity and innovativeness of Chinese learners can be fostered by a collaborative approach of teaching and learning. Practical implications: Management educators in China need to challenge their deeply held assumptions about teaching and learning, and actively experiment with new approaches towards developing students' critical thinking ability and creativity rather than reinforce the established power relations between teacher and student. Originality/value: This paper offers a new perspective towards understanding teacher-student relationships in China which has the potential to transform both teachers and students, and to contribute to the development of a new generation of competent Chinese managers.

This paper revisits the scope of Catherine Malabou's thinking as a development of the ontological turn in continental philosophy. It puts this excursion of thinking alongside an account of education in modernity as the apotheosis of biopower. It aligns biopower, as manifest in education, as form of 'technological enframing'. In this it challenges the dominant assumption that education is somehow, ultimately, independently of its manifest form, a force for good. Foregoing the idealist addiction to education as redemption, then, it sees Malabou's contribution as significant in terms of a fundamental, ontological rethinking of education and the social politics of our time. It is argued that Malabou's contribution offers a significant contribution to rethinking education as biopower and clearing away the dominant, redemptive myths of modern and contemporary ontotheology. This is a position never entertained in the field of philosophy of education.

As an important variable in critical thinking instruction, teacher cognition has been emphasized in recent years, but there is relatively insufficient understanding of how Chinese pre-service teachers perceive the cultivation of critical thinking in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). From the perspective of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, especially the concept of mediation, this paper aims to investigate the cognition of Chinese pre-service teachers about the cultivation of critical thinking in TEFL and the mediating resources concerned. Twenty-four Chinese pre-service teachers were selected from five normal universities. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interview and classroom observation was adopted to seek insights on Chinese pre-service teachers' cognitions about integrating critical thinking into TEFL, and sociocultural theory was used to argue for factors affecting their cognitions. Results revealed that Chinese pre-service teachers understand the connotation of critical thinking to some extent although there are misconceptions, and they are willing to integrate critical thinking into TEFL even though there are many difficulties. Moreover, they perceived that multiple sociocultural factors might be linked with their cognitions, such as previous learning experience, Chinese cultural values, evaluation system, etc. Implications for foreign language teacher education are discussed.

Critical thinking is a key attribute for students in British higher education, but there has been little research on how Chinese students develop critical thinking during their studies at British universities. Based on interviews with sixteen Chinese students at a university in England, this paper reports their experiences of developing critical thinking during their one-year Master's programmes. Developing critical thinking was not always an easy task for these students. In addition to cultural background, other factors that played important roles in influencing how these students developed critical thinking included the teachers' questioning approaches, group discussions in the classes, English language proficiency, and the criteria for assessing critical thinking in writing practices. The findings suggest that it is time to shift the 'deficit' conceptualization in which Chinese students are seen as lacking critical thinking and reexamine the ways that lecturers can facilitate the development of critical thinking of these students.

This case study explores the challenges that Master's students encounter when learning to write in academic English as part of a UK postgraduate course, after having achieved the required IELTS entry score. Interviews with six Chinese and Japanese learners at different stages of the Master's study revealed more sophisticated writing difficulties than they had previously experienced. Although students were largely managing their written work overall, there were recurring challenges with critical thinking, the transition to full academic compositions, using reading to inform academic writing, presenting evidence and conveying a clear written message over demonstrating lexical or grammatical range as required in IELTS writing. Furthermore, candidates on non-standard courses (e.g. film or finance) found their assignments to be quite unfamiliar; the use of one academic test for all disciplines may be disadvantageous to some. In summary, although IELTS had provided an important first step to help students develop basic writing skills, meeting university assessment expectations necessitated considerable further progress. The required support to achieve this may be somewhat underdeveloped in the existing model of international postgraduate study, for the participants in this paper. This research follows as part of a larger project, which focussed on IELTS test preparation in China and Japan (Clark 2018).

This paper intends to investigate the effectiveness of a new course pattern--TED-motivated English Public Speaking Course in EFL teaching in China. This class framework adopts TED videos as the learning materials to stimulate students to be a better speaker. Meanwhile, it aims to examine to what extent the five aspects of language skills are improved. Participants are required to give answers to the questions in the questionnaires. SPSS 15.0 is used to analyze the data. The result shows that students in this course respond very positively to this new pattern and are satisfied with their improvements in language skills; they have shifted their roles from a learner to a creator; their critical listening and thinking abilities are greatly enhanced at the same time.

In recent years, increasing numbers of Chinese international secondary school students have come to study in Canada. Upon arriving in their international context, their academic studies are influenced by socio-economic and cultural forces circulating between the home and host spaces of China and Canada. This paper delves into the economic, cultural and social rationalities behind eleven Chinese international secondary school students' distinct ways of learning in transnational contexts. My study was guided by Ong's [1999. "Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality." Durham: Duke University Press; 2006. "Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty." Durham, NC: Duke University Press] notion of cultural logics and critique of neoliberal discourses by examining how sociocultural forces/rationalities in transnational contexts governed eleven Chinese international students' learning goals, characteristics, needs, and preferences, as well as how global-scale neoliberal cultural logics played a dominant role. This ethnographic study not only problematises the dominance of neoliberal discourses and Western cultures in daily teaching and learning, but also gives educators and policymakers insights into how to support academic studies and language learning of Chinese international secondary school students by considering the aggregated effect of multiple transnational forces.

Although well-documented in assorted research areas, early-years stereotyping has not garnered comparable attention. Under the assumption that stereotyping can be prejudicial to the development of children's critical thinking abilities, this paper reports on a study that examined how the pedagogical intervention of awakening to languages may develop children's critical thinking and instill a sense of cultural relativism that encourages them to challenge stereotypes from an early age. Based on a mixed-methods research design, a psychometric test was specifically developed to tap changes in participants' stereotyping behavior added to a follow-up interview to formulate a detailed picture of their questionnaire responses. Both the quantitative and qualitative results confirmed the hypothesized attitudinal change in the participants, turning cultural absolutes within their and across other cultures into cultural variations. In view of these findings, it follows that awakening children to languages have a transformative value of enhancing their cognitive capacity towards viewing the world critically.

China's 2017 'classroom revolution' call intends to "transform" current teacher-centered pedagogies with brand-new philosophies and technologies. As a new entry point for classroom research, I problematize a naturalized (mis)belief--" teacher-centered (Confucian) didactic pedagogies are not conducive to critical thinking cultivation"--that has enthralled Chinese teachers in an epistemological-moral-pedagogical dilemma. My problematization, philosophically informed and practice-research grounded, unfolds in four steps. First, I explicate the presumed clash between the claimed Confucian pedagogies and critical thinking. Second, I historicize the Confucian pedagogical philosophy to implode the naturalized (mis)belief and some stereotypical (mis)understandings of Confucian teaching and learning, demonstrating instead an epistemological compatibility therebetween. Third, I unpack how my phenomenological case study discerns an unrecognized yet educative 'repair moment' in a Chinese math classroom, generating a possible re-conjoining between teachers' self-despised yet habitually implemented 'Confucian do-after-me pedagogy' and critical mathematical reasoning. Through observations and interviews, I illustrate how this 'repair moment' can become pedagogically significant, overturning teachers' naturalized (mis)belief, redeeming them from the moral-practical dilemma, and cultivating their critical pedagogical consciousness. Finally, I argue that this paper not only provides a philosophical-plus-empirical paradigm for teaching invention in China and beyond but also sheds new light on cross-cultural learning in transnational curriculum studies.

This paper discusses the promotion of critical thinking through an interdisciplinary curriculum design using multidisciplinary faculty as well as details the implementation of an experiential short-term study abroad program in China. To achieve this educational goal of critical thinking, along with meeting the requirements specific to each course, the program was built on a framework using two interrelated approaches--theme-based interdisciplinary curriculum and cultural immersion. The theme-based interdisciplinary curriculum was constructed on three principles (the ability to pose great questions that encompassed drawing knowledge and skills from each discipline, acquiring global awareness, and developing glocal awareness). Cultural immersion was accomplished through carefully selected site visits, activities, and assignments. Students' experiences, reflections, and applications were assessed through formative and summative evaluation.

This research attempts to discuss the validity of introducing the evaluation of students' critical thinking skills (CTS) into the assessment system of college English writing through an empirical study. In this paper, 30 College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) writing samples were collected and analyzed. Students' CTS and the final scores of collected writing samples were respectively regarded as two independent variables to make a correlation analysis through Pearson Correlation of SPSS17.0 software. In addition, Excel was also used as an instrument to analyze the research results. The findings suggest that the two variables are significantly and positively correlated with each other, that is, students' CTS greatly influence their English writing proficiency. Thus, it is quite necessary to cultivate students' CTS to improve their English writing competence.

In the Western developed world, the language of 21st century competencies, also referred to as 21st century skills or competences, is a powerful means of drawing attention to links between the secondary school curriculum, post-secondary education, and the social and economic imperatives of the developed economies. This paper will analyze different levels and breadth of meaning which serve to define 21st century competencies and skills. In particular, the paper looks at how these transformative expressions have characterized the most recent revision of China's curriculum standards for mathematics in the years of basic education.