In China, the eighth round of national curriculum reform (NCR) is the most serious, systematic, and ambitious attempt to transform the basic education curriculum system since 1949. Through a review of the contexts, processes and outcomes of the implementation of the NCR from 2001-2011, this paper provides a further discussion on three pairs of…

This study examines the trends in the Mincerian rates of return (MRRs) to education in urban China between 1989 and 2009 using two sources of data: the China Urban Household Survey and the China Health and Nutrition Survey, and attempts to explain the underlying causes of the trends. The authors find that while the rates of return to education had…

This article identifies the problem that an instrumentalist mode of thinking dominates China's contemporary education practice and suggests that the dichotomy between the "small self and big self," a notion that has been present throughout modern Chinese history, exacerbates this instrumentalism. It parallels the loss of…

Outcome-oriented evaluation of school effectiveness is often based on student test scores in certain critical examinations. This study provides another method of evaluation--value-added--which is based on student achievement progress. This paper introduces the method of estimating the value-added score of schools in multi-level models. Based on…

The cognitive interview method was applied to evaluate survey questions translated and adapted from a US-based college student survey instrument. This paper draws data from cognitive interviews with 45 undergraduate students in China and explores the different meanings they attribute to the term "college teacher." Students understood…

Over the last century, the development of didactics (???) in China has been profoundly influenced by Kairov's theory of pedagogics. The German Didaktik tradition, which can date back to Comenius and Herbart, remains largely unknown to educational scholars in China while they possess basic knowledge of Comenius and Herbart. This article…

Since the early 20th century, numerous scholars have proposed theories and models describing, interpreting, and suggesting the development paths countries have taken or should take. None of these, however, can fully explain China's efforts, mainly through education and citizenship education, to modernize itself and foster a modern citizenry…

This paper tackles the issue of education as the process of person-making and attempts to redefine the ideal and unique Chinese person--the Chinese soul--based on a civilizational dialogue and synthesis that would transform modern education and enable education to play a central role in "redeeming modernity" and revitalizing Chinese…

This paper examines how the definition and interpretation of the concept gewu zhizhi ???? (investigating things and extending knowledge), evolved along with Chinese intellectual efforts to construct the framework for Chinese learning which, in turn, had a profound impact on the development of educational curricula in different historical periods.…

Since the 1980s, China has entered an era of transformation which has extended its reach to education and school reforms. The "New Basic Education" (NBE) was born in this era and implemented by the East China Normal University together with schools around the country. NBE aims at nurturing the active, healthy development of a new…

Guided by cultural border crossing and teacher identity development theories, this case study explores the bumpy process of a junior Chinese faculty member's border crossing into the U.S. teaching culture and analyzes the challenges, coping strategies, and consequences of his border crossing on teaching and teacher identity development. The…

The moral and ethical charge of teaching and teacher education includes sustaining equanimity and paradox, and maintaining poise amongst contradicting policies and interests. This paper draws upon the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching to address some paradoxes in education and teacher preparation. Specifically, the article looks at four chapters of the…

This paper is a cross-cultural comparative study in education philosophy. A comparative and philosophical approach is used to interpret texts from the Analects of Confucius and to find connections with ideas of critical educators. In comparing Confucius' educational thought with that of Paulo Freire, John Dewey and other theorists in critical…

The global flow of citizenship education in China has spurred much discussion in Chinese academic circles. This study explores the interaction between citizenship education and China's the existing political-ideological education and moral education as a space is negotiated a space in the current "ideoscape." A qualitative approach…

The goal of the present study is to investigate the relationship between pupils' problem posing and problem solving abilities, their beliefs about problem posing and problem solving, and their general mathematics abilities, in a Chinese context. Five instruments, i.e., a problem posing test, a problem solving test, a problem posing…