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In China, preschool curriculum has undergone reform and profound changes. Much remains unknown, however, regarding preschool teachers’ teaching beliefs after 30 years of curriculum reform and adaptation. This study aimed to address the issue and investigate teachers’ beliefs concerning teaching mathematics. Twelve preschool teachers in China participated in the study: they watched videos of mathematics lessons conducted in the US and were interviewed with questions regarding the lessons. Qualitative analysis was then applied; themes were searched from the participants’ responses. The study revealed that Chinese preschool teachers acknowledged the features of (a) active learning, (b) involving every child, and (c) connecting lessons with everyday activities. However, they believed that their own teaching would be more purposeful: they would choose a specific content focus, use a series of steps, and make explicit summary at the end. The study also revealed Chinese preschool teachers’ solid speciali...

The present study examined the interactive effects of organizational resources on classroom quality of 90 Chinese kindergartens using principal and teacher questionnaires and observational ratings of classroom practices. The results revealed that the average monthly teacher salary, child-teacher ratio and instructional management had significant direct associations with classroom quality, and the three-year average fiscal funding had a significantly positive association with instructional management and significant indirect association with classroom quality via the mediation of instructional management. The findings suggested that the allocation and organization of resources for teachers and instructional management in support of teachers and teaching are important for improving classroom quality, and that kindergarten leaders play a critical role in effectively transforming available resources into quality classroom practices.

The objective of this research is to understand the preconditions and difficulties for implementing free early childhood education in rural China. A case study of City D was conducted in Shandong province. City D announced the 3-year free kindergarten education policy in 2009, but only District H had successfully launched it in public kindergartens in the rural areas by 2012. Although the policy was welcomed by families in rural area, the implementation was difficult to both the district governments and the local kindergartens. The major difficulties encountered in the process of implementing this policy included the lack of funding support, the absence of supporting policy and assurance measures, and the discrimination against migrant children from rural areas. To solve the problems, this study suggests a multiple-stage method for developing a practical and continuous model and the funding responsibility moving from district and county government to those of the upper levels.

Baby raising is not only related to psychology or pedagogy seeking for the “best” and “evidence-based” practices but it is embedded in particular cultural practices. Family interaction in baby raising is a process of cultural transmission influenced by family members’ position in the social structure. The present study focused on how two generations resolve the intergenerational conflicts and transmit their value orientations when grandparents are involved in baby raising. Ten typical families are sampled according to family background and conflict coping style. It was found that in Chinese families, the intergenerational conflict about baby raising is essentially a struggle for family authority to define the boundaries of different role identity, where the generation having a higher position in the social structure has more possibilities to gain authority and therefore the chance to transmit their value orientations in raising young babies.

Compared with the former policies on early childhood education, the policies recently issued in mainland China clearly defined early childhood education as an integral part of education and social public welfare and stipulated the responsibilities of the government in its development, shifting the developmental orientation to promoting social equity. In implementing the new policies, the developmental goals that the local governments set appear divorced from reality, and the developmental paths collide with the current macro social and economic system. This means that the development mode that many local governments exploited is not sustainable. It is suggested that the government should design developmental goals according to actual conditions, reform the public revenue and tax system, and the ECE funding system and introduce a new way to provide public ECE service.

This study developed a standardised mediated assessment to measure young children's mathematical ability in reasoning, abstraction and representation in number, computation, quantity, shape and relationship through six tasks with four levels. The percentage distribution of children at four levels on the tasks showed that the tiered mediations through varying the structural complexity, the form of presentation, the use of manipulatives and the explicitness of instructions were effective in reducing the difficulties of assessment tasks in differentiating and providing more information about young children's learning potential for learning mathematics. Furthermore, the results of the t‐tests of independent samples indicated that mediated assessment could also provide this study with valid information on learning outcomes as static assessment. The implications and limitations of this study have been discussed.

Research Findings: An effective quality rating system will lead to quality assurance and improvement of early childhood education programs. Many studies have been conducted to examine the validity of quality rating instruments in Western countries, but few have been done in China. The present study investigated the effectiveness of the Beijing Kindergarten Quality Rating System (BKQRS) by conducting onsite observations in 5 Demonstration, 5 R1C1, and 4 R2C2 kindergartens using the Chinese Kindergarten Environment Rating Scale (CKERS) as the criterion. Results indicated that none of the 3 types of kindergartens performed well on the CKERS. Although Demonstration and R1C1 kindergartens performed better than R2C2 kindergartens, there was no significant difference between Demonstration and R1C1 kindergartens. Results indicated that the BKQRS failed to gauge the quality levels of various kindergartens as accurately as was expected. Practice or Policy: Suggestions for improvement are discussed, and implications...

The kindergarten curriculum in mainland China has evolved through four periods and the current reform began in the end of 1980s. The reform aimed to transform kindergarten practice by shaping ideologies including respect for individual child, active learning, and play-based integrated curriculum. This review of research literatures shows that compared with the practice before the reform, many kindergarten teachers organize classrooms in learning centers, provide more play materials, pay time, and freedom for free play, and pay more attention to individuals. But indoor space organized in rice-seedling-bed model, teacher-led group instruction and teacher-controlled interactions are still often observed after three decades of reform efforts; there still exist great variations among kindergartens of different sponsoring bodies and in different regions. The problems resulted from the innate deficiencies of the top-down and value-priority reform, the conflicts between the advocated value and the traditional Chinese culture with emphasis on Ming-Fen, testing, and the value of children for the whole family and nation, and the unequal distribution of public resources decided by the educational institutions. Therefore, the curriculum reform is not a separate endeavor from other social changes, but a comprehensive and systematic change. To guarantee the success of the curriculum reform, the Chinese society needs cultural transformation and institutional reconstruction.

To investigate renal expression of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) in 2-kidney-1-clip rats and explore the role of sEH in renal arterial stenosis hypertensive development.Hypertensive models were established in Sprague-Dawly rats by chronic partial occlusion of left renal artery. In the study,16 male Sprague-Dawly rats were randomized into sham operation group and 2-kidney-1-lip (2K1C) group (n=8, each group), and were observed for 40 days. Before operation and every ten days after operation, systolic blood pressure (SBP) was measured and twenty-four-hour urine was collected. At the end of the observation, the blood and kidneys were harvested. The serum Na,24-hour urine protein excretion were measured. Renin activity and angiotensin II concentrition in plasm and renal tissue were evaluated by radioimmunoassay (RIA).The expression of sEH, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) in kidneys were assessed by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Histology was analysed after kidney sections were stained by Grocott-Gomori methenamine-silver nitrate.After surgery, the systolic blood pressure in 2K1C group gradually became higher than that in sham group. Urine protein excretion was statistically increased in 2K1C group on the 30 th and 40 th days, while serum sodium was of no significant difference from those of the two groups. Renin-angiotensin system in both clipped and nonclipped kidneys were also invoked by the 2K1C surgery. Both sEH and PPARγ were upregulated in renocortex and renomedulla in 2K1C group. The two groups were compared: in SBP,on the 10 th day, (106.70±7.71) vs.(124.04±6.79) mmHg, P0.001,and on the 40 th day,(107.80±10.01) vs. (150.40±11.76) mmHg, P0.001; Urine protein excretion,on the 30 th day,(206.81±37.61)vs.(292.33±20.53)mg/d, P=0.005; Serum sodium, (179.76±29.20) vs. (157.72±51.00)mmol/L, P=0.44; Renin activity[plasm(50.00±13.66) vs.(132.90± 31.22)ng/(L×h),P=0.03; clipped kidney(128.40±36.88)vs.(324.90±56.66)ng/(g×h), P=0.01; nonclipped kidney(103.00±19.87)vs.(345.10±42.68)ng/(g×h), P0.001]; Ang II [plasm(4 810.00±1 164.00)vs. (10 470.00±1 760.00) ng/L,P=0.02, clipped kidney(735.90±154.40)vs.(2 094.00±372.20)ng/g, P=0.005, nonclipped kidney(648.10±217.90)vs.(1 774.00±206.60)ng/g, P=0.002]; the expression of sEH (sEH/β-actin) in renocortex [clipped kidney (0.33±0.08) vs. (1.73±0.12), P0.001, nonclipped kidney (0.43±0.09)vs. (0.70± 0.05), P=0.04]; the expression of PPARγ (PPARγ/β-actin) in renocortex [clipped kidney(0.17±0.05) vs. (0.89±0.11), P=0.002, and nonclipped kidney(0.27±0.07) vs. (0.56±0.07), P=0.04]. Clipped kidney showed more severe glomerulosclerosis and tubular atrophy in 2K1C group than in sham group.sEH probably plays an important role in the development of hypertension in the rat models of renovascular hypertension. The activation of PPAR-γ and RAAS by renal arterial stenosis are associated with sEH upregulation, suggesting that they might regulate sEH expression and take part in hypertensive development.

This research investigated the similarities and differences between countries in young children’s early numeracy skills related to age, culture and gender. The participants were five-year-old children from Beijing (People’s Republic of China), England and Finland. The rationale for the cross-cultural comparison originates from the research results with older children showing that Asian children outperform children from America or Europe, and from the lack of such information concerning younger children. The results showed that in all locations the older children performed better than the younger children. Cultural differences were found: young children from Beijing outperformed those from England and Finland in overall early numeracy performance, as well as in sub-tests for understanding of quantities and relations (i.e. relational skills) and counting skills. Finnish children had better scores than English children in the whole early numeracy scale and in the relational scale. The results are discussed in relation to culture, instruction in preschools and learning support at home, as well as the effects of language characteristics. The culture’s appreciation of and approach to mathematics learning in early childhood is a plausible explanation for the cross-cultural differences found in this study.