Frontiers of Education in China

ISSN 1673-341X

ISSN 1673-3533(Online)

CN 11-5741/G4

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, Volume 3 Issue 4

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The attitudes of primary school teachers toward inclusive education in rural and urban China
DENG Meng
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 473-492.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0031-5

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This study investigated the attitudes of primary school teachers from the selected rural and urban areas in China toward inclusive education. The results indicated that, (1) teachers’ attitudes are composed of three dimensions: positive and negative effects of inclusion, and benefits of segregated special education; (2) most surveyed teachers demonstrated positive attitudes toward segregated special school education while supporting inclusion; (3) rural and urban teachers held significantly different attitudes toward inclusion, and urban teachers were more negative toward inclusion than rural ones; and (4) teachers’ attitudes were not essentially influenced by resources, teaching years or relevant special education training.

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A comparative study of effect of new and old science curriculum on Chinese junior high school students’ abstract thinking
HU Weiping , CHEN Ming
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 493-503.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0032-4

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“Teenagers’ abstract thinking ability test” was designed in accordance with the structure and performance of teenagers’ ability to think abstractly. 138 Chinese junior high school students who learned New curriculum and old curriculum separately were measured. A comparison between the two kinds of students shows that abstract thinking ability of the former is notably higher than that of the latter. However, the performance of differences varies by school and gender.

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An empirical study of relationship between schoolwork burden and academic achievements
TANG Linchun , FU Lujian
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 504-515.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0033-3

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According to the sample survey on 6 050 students in Shanghai, there is a low correlation between schoolwork burden and academic achievements. Moreover, schoolwork burden seems to even have some negative effects on test performances. Therefore, it is suggested further studies be conducted regarding ways for students to make the best use of their study time in the hope that examination-oriented teaching could be changed toward the educational system with multi-standards and multi-developments so that heavy burden of schoolwork could thus be alleviated.

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Experiment on Chinese postgraduates’ recognizing 100 Everyday English adopting “MMOASAPMI”
WANG Hongli , LI Jinghua , LUO Jing , LIU Hong
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 516-534.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0034-2

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the memory effects of the postgraduates’ memorizing Everyday English from 30 to 100 using the Natural Numeral Imagery Memory (Method by memorizing the concrete objects associated with the shapes of Arabic numeral to produce marvelous imagination, MMOASAPMI). The results indicated as follows: Firstly, the postgraduates, who applied the MMOASAPMI to memorize and recall the Everyday English from 30 to 100, could recite them well in sequence backward, forward, and randomly. The reaction time of reciting any sentence randomly is no more than 2 seconds. Secondly, it can transform the materials of the short-term memory into long-term memory quickly, and effectively prevent them from the interference of proactive and retroactive inhibition, so it is useful for keeping memorized information with less loss and remaining for a long period. Thirdly, with the materials in strong sequence, large quantities and the difficulty to memorize, it is an extremely effective method for memorizing them. Fourthly, the keys to improving the memory efficiency are the well-storing skills of memory, storing methods, and memory clues.

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Rural left-behind children’s academic psychology in Western China and the school management countermeasures
YAO Jihai , MAO Yaqing
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 535-546.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0035-1

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Left-behind children refer to those left behind by parents working away from home and taken care of by only one of the parents or relatives because one or both of the parents go out to work in the city. By using questionnaires, this study involves 8 627 rural pupils chosen from 10 provinces to examine academic psychological characteristics, containing academic self-concept, teacher-student relationship and the student attitudes towards school; and then it discusses the school management countermeasures. The results show: (1) children living with parents have the best academic performances; (2) children left behind with both parents working out show better than those living with one of the parents on academic psychological performance; and (3) children left behind with only one of the parents working out performs the worst, especially when only living with the father. Therefore, much more attention should be paid to those children.

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Shanghai’s administrative model for private schools during the Republican period
SHI Kouzhu
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 547-568.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0036-0

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Private schools were very prosperous in Shanghai during the Republican period. Shanghai Municipal Educational Bureau adopted a pattern of indirect management, especially attaching importance to normalizing and guiding the mechanism for operating a school by taking the basic measures for the registration administration. Meanwhile, appropriate funding was given to private school so that they could enjoy fair treatment and full confidence. What was more, necessary interventions were made on finances and running a school. Indirect model of managing many private schools dramatically reduced the financial burden on Shanghai municipal public education. It also provided an important prerequisite for urban educational administration to concentrate on macro management system.

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An empirical study of the influence of the concept of “job-hunting” on graduates’ employment
CHEN Chengwen , HU Guiying
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 569-584.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0037-z

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The concept of job-hunting is an important factor affecting university students’ employment. This empirical study shows that while hunting for a job, graduates witness negative correlation between their expectation of the nature of work and the demand for occupational types and the accessibility to a post and monthly income; positive correlation between students’ initiative and employment opportunities; positive correlation between salary expectation and real income; negative correlation between mental preparation for hardship and job satisfaction. Therefore, institutions of higher learning must strengthen their employment education, guiding students to foster a sound sense of competition, the concept of occupational position, mental preparation for vocational hardship so that students can rectify their attitude towards employment and adjust their employment concept, thus benefiting them in gaining a position.

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Chinese college student aid policy: A case study of H University
XU Guoxing
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 585-593.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0038-y

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The research findings have made it clear that Chinese college student aid policy has several characteristics. Generally speaking, student financial aid is increasing up to some extent. The government financial aids focus mostly on improving equality of educational opportunity in higher education. However, aids from the government are inadequate, especially national student loans. Besides, all kinds of aids were decreasing from 2004 to 2006 and the aid programs were short of stability between various years. In order to improve equal access to higher education through student aid policy, it is necessary to enlarge the government aids and reform the aid system.

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Interpreting and considering the development of the goal orientation in the transformation of Chinese normal universities
ZHONG Chenyin
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 594-606.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0039-x

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As the teacher education in China gradually evolves from the closed one into an open one, and with the greater pressure from the competition among universities, the transformation of normal universities is an inevitable choice. The problems that normal universities need to face up to are the proper goal orientation and the setting of appropriate development goals. Through the comparison and interpretation of the development goals of current normal universities in China, this paper finds similar tendency in the development types and the choices of features. Goal orientation is vital to the development of normal universities. Therefore, when setting and implementing development goals, a sound understanding about expressions like “the features of operating schools” and “comprehensive universities” should be improved, and a rational thinking about the fundamental questions should be engaged in as well.

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A critical analysis of the barriers to achieving the Bologna Process
XU Jing
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 607-622.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0040-4

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Over the past decade higher education reforms in most European countries have been oriented towards creating a European Higher Education Area which is envisaged in the Bologna Declaration. Based on an illustration of a variety of difficulties encountered higher education institutions in a wide range of participating countries, this article indicates a less optimistic view on the achievements to date in the Bologna Process. It argues that the tension of interests between the designers of the Process and its national and institutional practitioners undermines the actual progress towards the supranational objectives. It is suggested that most difficulties in relation to harmonizing national structures of higher education lie in the varying degrees of cultural dependency on traditions and academic autonomy across the engaged European countries.

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Review of teachers’ mental health research in China since 1994
ZHANG Jijia , LU Aitao
Front Educ Chin. 2008, 3 (4): 623-638.  
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-008-0041-3

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To summarize the widely dispersed literature concerning Chinese teachers’ mental status, the present paper conducted a quantitative research synthesis with a focus on the current situation and development in teachers’ mental disorders. On one hand, the results demonstrated that many critical problems existed in the exploration of this issue, such as the primary application of one uniform research type (i.e., theoretical discussion) and single-scale method (i.e., SCL-90); on the other, the comparison analysis showed that college teachers obtained significantly higher pathological prevalence than the other two (i.e., kindergarteners and teachers of middle or primary schools). And such negative prevalence has increased over the years and became sharper after 2000. Additionally, mental disorders seem more severe in country teachers (relative to those working in town), teachers aged above 40 (relative to those younger), and female teachers (relative to males). It is suggested that urgent attention should be paid to further improve the research level by highlighting the methodological consideration, especially focusing on the in-depth survey investigation, refined experimental study, as well as high-caliber qualitative research, and thus clarify the mechanism of teachers’ psychological disorders.

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11 articles