While the Chinese government is in full force to narrow the gap between its rural and urban areas in all facets of development, it has been suggested that there are disparities in teacher quality in the two dichotomous territories, especially in terms of promoting children's cognitive trajectory. To unpack specifically the differences of the two…

This study utilizes semi-structured interviews to explore the status quo of teacher training of rural and urban public primary school teachers in Henan Province China. Our findings showed that both rural and urban teachers had very limited training opportunities available to them. Most of the participants did not find the current training…

Under current test-driven educational accountability policies, there has been a debate about school effectiveness. As conventionally measured by test scores in academic subjects, school effectiveness is often limited and potentially biased. With increasing emphasis on preparing students with both cognitive and noncognitive competencies,…

This study employed a quantitative research design to investigate Chinese teachers' conceptions of classroom assessment and perceived skills. A total of 746 teachers were recruited through professional teaching groups. Results showed that a higher percentage of Chinese teachers selected contemporary assessment approaches to classroom assessment…

Since the first curriculum reform in the 1990s, education reforms in China have aimed at creating a student-centred education model based on creativity. The effectiveness of such strategies is, however, questionable. This paper explores the current level of supportive learning environment at elementary schools. Through empirical research conducted…

This study examines international brain race for world-class universities as measured by the QS World University Rankings (QS) and the Academic Ranking of World Universities, particularly in the context of Asian nations' institutional competition and benchmarking against American counterparts. Applying mixed methods with statistical analysis of…

This paper outlines the findings of a mixed-method study of private supplementary tutoring received by students at international schools offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in China. Phase One was an online survey of 151 IBDP graduates across 14 schools, while Phase Two included semi-structured interviews with school…

Demand has risen for the introduction of career education in senior secondary schooling to enhance students' transition from study to work. Against such a background, this paper aims to discuss the curriculum reforms and supporting structures in schools and to explore the challenges of life skills planning for secondary school students in China…

Many scholarly works have examined school leadership, and many others have studied models for teaching citizenship education. Research combining both school leadership and citizenship education, however, is rare. The leadership of China's school party secretaries (SPSs), who are the equivalent of school principals in the Chinese school system and…

An increasing number of migrant children are involved in public education due largely to the policy for migrant children education outlined by the Government of China from the late 1990s. In this article, we describe the unique and often difficult situation rural migrant children face after they enter urban public schools. Drawing from the Theory…

Circumscribed by the culture of collectivist and Confucian traditions, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education in China has defaulted to an impersonalized provision and delivery. Much of teaching and learning is to assimilate individuals into a group identity. This epistemological model can be detected in learning outcomes, e.g.,…

This study is to investigate the reflective learning in a group of secondary school students who participated in an educational tour to Liannan, which is located in a rural area in Guangdong Province, Mainland China. The specific aim is to develop a framework to describe the learning in an educational tour. For this purpose, data were collected…

This study focuses on the policy issues generated by the reintroduction of Liberal Studies and evaluates the predicted effectiveness of the proposed curriculum in Hong Kong (HK) secondary schools. Theorised by Ball (1992) "policy cycle", approximately 200 newspaper articles and 30 government documents were collected to identify the…

Teachers are normally trained to work effectively with one dominant culture. As such, they are poorly prepared to handle cultural differences; sometimes they simply define students from diverse culture and with learning difficulties as students at risk. This study reports a group of 100 Chinese in-service teachers' attitudes of cultural difference…