Background: Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore are the top five cities/countries with the cheapest fixed line broadband as proportion of monthly income. It is interesting to know that several decades ago, they were still among the list of developing nations, struggling for survival and relief. However, they are climbing to the top in ICT development…

Background: Given the technological revolution and the social, political and economic changes, the Chinese educational system, an important factor to ensure that Chinese youth are prepared for the changing world, has undoubtedly become the focus of many conversations. It is especially beneficial to listen to various perspectives, including those…

Background: In Singapore, one in four in the teaching profession is a second career teacher. Unlike the past, individuals considering teaching today have more career options. On average, since 2008, 35% of the newly recruited teachers have at least one year of working experience. The Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) is looking to attract more…

Background: In his discussion of higher education, Fred Newman (1985) explained that university graduates should "have a profound understanding of what it means to be a citizen", and be "capable of an interest larger than self-interest" (p. xiv). "Art and Well Being", an elective course offered by the Department of Visual Studies at Lingnan,…

Background: This paper re-conceptualizes issues related to teacher authority by integrating the constructivist (including social constructivist) and critical perspectives. The traditional perspectives perceive that teacher authority inhibits children's autonomy of learning. This perspective has been largely challenged by two groups of studies--the…

Background: Action research (AR) for school-based curriculum innovations (SCI) has been ardently pursued in Singapore schools for the past few years, leading to a plethora of project reports published as monographs and in a new journal, the "North Star". Training workshops were conducted at the national, zonal, and school levels to equip teachers…

Background: Integration of students with special education needs (SEN) into regular classrooms has been implemented for over three decades in the western world. Asian regions, particularly Hong Kong, follow the proclamation of the Salamanca Statement. In 1996, the Disability Discrimination Ordinance was enacted in Hong Kong. In 2004, the Hong Kong…

Background: The implementation and integration of computer technologies in K-12 education has seen nearly constant growth since the early 1980s (Culp, Honey, Mandinach & Bailey, 2003), in part because this trend has become synonymous with skills that students will need as participants in a competitive global economy (Culp et al., 2003). It has…

Background: The literature suggests two main types of orientations influencing teachers' choice of assessment strategies--"Knowledge acquisition and retention (K orientation)" and "Understanding and Conceptual change (U orientation)" with the former more directly related to surface learning types of assessment strategies and the latter more to do…

Background: Efficient and effective performance on any job depend largely on good psychological well being of the workers as well as other factors such as conducive environment, good interpersonal relationship, adequate communication among staff and between staff and management, work load, remuneration and other physical and psychological boosting…

Background: Under the challenge of many post-modern theories and critics on art and art history, the boundaries and definition of art has becoming more diverse. Conventional art appreciation no longer covers all the debates and issues arising from the complex meaning of art in the modern world. Art education today must widen students' vision of…

Background: Media education is the study of the media with the aim of cultivating people's media literacy. In the past four decades, media education has rapidly developed in school systems and communities all over the world. Each country has its own developmental trajectory. With the rise of the interactive new media, media education is going to…

Background: The Asian region accounts for the highest number of internet and mobile cell phones consumers among the regions of the world. As the use of information and communications technology becomes more and more widespread, the misuse of such technology becomes a concern. Cyberbullying, or bullying using information and communications…

Background: A current problem in media literacy studies is whether or not to categorize graphic novels as media literacy texts. Thus, this article begins with a review of current media literacy research and its emphasis on defining media literacy texts as texts that rely on both print literacies and image literacies. Because graphic novels rely on…

Background: The call for a scientifically literate citizenry necessitates individuals who are able to understand and make decisions regarding socioscientific issues. Socioscientific issues are social dilemmas with no definite solutions that have captured the attention of media sources nationally and internationally. This implies that…