Since the late 1990s the Chinese government has implemented two key policies for the development of higher education. The first was launching Project 985, with the purpose of seeking excellence through creating internationally competitive universities. The second was a radical move to a mass system of higher education. In this context, China's top…

China's key science and technology universities are modelled on the French "Ecole Polytechnique". As such, they are utilitarian institutions, rooted in the concept of cultivating manpower for society's economic progress, and tending to ignore the development of the individual. As China's elite higher education system took in a rapidly increasing…

This qualitative research aims to investigate the process of how Chinese American women develop their identities while growing up in the United States as daughters of Chinese immigrants. Specifically, the author explores the following questions: How do Chinese American women come to identify themselves as Chinese American, and act this identity in…

This study intends to gain an understanding of the sources of stress among women academics in research universities of China. Studies have shown that, compared with their male counterparts, women report higher level of stress in work/family conflicts, gender barriers and career development. Based on the results of this study, the following…

The level of development of higher education (HE) is an important indicator to measure the development of the social economy and the civilization of a region or country. In this article, we compare the distribution of the freshmen of ethnic minorities (EMs) with the distribution of EMs over the population, based on a sample of 1 464 freshmen from…

This paper seeks to examine the quality and equality of basic education of Hong Kong based on the first three cycles of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results from these three assessments suggested that the Hong Kong students have an outstanding performance in mathematics, science and reading. In particular, the…

Quality education reform in China gives high importance to developing the individual's full potential. However, the education system is dominated by a kind of exclusive competitiveness in which high stakes examinations shape the learning process. This paper seeks to bring a philosophical perspective regarding the disjunction between the intent of…

The results of a questionnaire-based investigation carried out across China regarding teachers' professional development were used to create an extensive database. Chinese teachers' subjective evaluation of a number of professional development policies was statistically analyzed. From their ratings, it is shown that in schools across China,…

Many societies view the world as composed of two distinct and complementary spheres: the female (domestic) sphere and the male (public) sphere. Because science was part of the male sphere, women were inhibited from pursuing a career in scientific research. However, the more limited female sphere often found within university departments of home…

Both China and England require state-funded schools to teach a national curriculum. While policy congruence in terms of overall intention is apparent, there are major differences between each country's approach to systemic curriculum reform which highlight contrasting attitudes to how best to effect change in schools and widely differing views on…

In the field of Chinese higher education, gender is still a significant issue, as is a general ignorance of gender discrimination against women. Issues related to gender can be observed throughout the process of education: at the time of entering an institution, during the educational process and as an outcome of education. The following seven…

Initiated in September 1994, "New Basic Education" first underwent a five-year Exploratory Research phase from September 1994 to May 1999, which was followed by a second five-year Developmental Research phase from September 1999 to May 2004. Thus during the past ten years, "New Basic Education" has undergone a complete research process, including…

Through the qualitative interviews of five implementers of primary school mathematics curriculum, this study addresses the ways in which mathematics lessons are evaluated. Results show that each evaluator recognizes different aspects of a "good lesson," however, among all criteria, the design of the lesson plan, realization of the lesson goals,…

Mathematical proofs are not only the focus of every country's mathematics curriculum reforms, but also the subject of research on mathematics education. This paper is based on a survey of mathematics teachers, the goal of which was to investigate the understanding of mathematical proofs of secondary school math teachers, their levels of…

Using classroom observation and video recording methods, we performed a comparative study on the forms and content of dialogues in the classrooms between expert and novice teachers. Of the 55 lessons surveyed, it was found that expert teachers tend to use analytical and comparative questions more frequently to detect students' mathematical…