Asia Pacific Education Review最新文献

In this study, we examined the longitudinal reciprocal relationships among mastery goals, autonomous motivation, and motivation instability. In the hierarchical model of motivation, mastery goal for overall course subject learning has been positioned at the contextual level, while autonomous motivation and motivation instability during a specific class session were positioned at the situational level. A longitudinal online survey of university students in five asynchronous online classes at a Japanese university was conducted at three time points in one semester. A total of 218 university students participated in the study. A cross-lagged panel model was constructed and analyzed by structural equation modeling. The results showed that the mastery goal at Time 1 was positively associated with autonomous motivation at Time 2. In addition, the mastery goal at Time 2 was positively associated with autonomous motivation at Time 3 and negatively associated with motivation instability at Time 3. These results indicate a top-down effect of mastery goal at the contextual level on situational motivation, which is located lower in the hierarchical model. Furthermore, autonomous motivation at Time 2 was positively associated with the mastery goal at Time 3. This indicates a bottom-up effect, in which contextual motivation, which is located higher in the hierarchical model, can be altered by situational motivation in the classroom. The results of the study clearly show a longitudinal reciprocal relationship between contextual level motivation and situational level motivation.

Japan has a longstanding history of shadow education, which has evolved, transformed, and extended beyond its borders. Japanese shadow education institutions, known as juku, have expanded worldwide, including in Asia, the US, and Europe, offering offline and online tutoring services mainly for Japanese expatriates. This study examines the role and features of juku, specifically in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. It identifies 20 different juku, analyzes their types, and explains a different type of juku, the “Japanese cultural supplementary school,” that caters to expatriate parents aiming to nurture Japanese culture and traditions in their children. Although the Japanese juku phenomenon has previously attracted the attention of scholars, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to transnational juku and its operation outside Japan. This paper contributes to informing scholars, policymakers, and the public on the transnational movement of shadow education as a global phenomenon.

In the study, problem-solving educational software (ProSES) was developed to reduce the challenges and mistakes experienced by primary school third-grade students in mathematical problem solving and to provide scaffolding and hint support for teacher help for the students using mobile technologies. The study aimed to determine the impact of the employment of this educational software on academic achievements and cognitive load of the students. The study was conducted with the experimental design, a quantitative research method, with 130 third grade students during the 2019–2020 academic year fall semester. Based on the study aim, ProSES was employed in two experimental and one control groups. All group members were assigned with simple random sampling method. Mental effort scale, task completion speed and academic achievement test were used to collect the study data. The findings showed that scaffolding was effective in academic achievement. Thus, this study adds to the current literature by showing that mobile scaffolding effective to improve students’ problem solving in mathematical problems of teacher support in primary education.

The expansion of student international mobility has been discussed increasingly with respect to concerns about social inequality. The outbreak of the COVID pandemic has exacerbated the risks of studying abroad. Due to the differences in the ability of students from different social backgrounds to cope with risks, the inequality of opportunities for studying abroad may further expand. Based on the survey of 1256 college graduates between January and March 2021, this study analyses the impact of family background on the choice of studying abroad under the background of the epidemic. The research shows that the inequality in transnational education participation has been intensified by the pandemic. Findings of mediation analysis suggested that family background has powerful influences on students’ willingness to continue with their overseas study plan after the pandemic. It shapes students’ decision on whether go abroad or not directly, via their mentality of the pandemic, and through their past educational choices (field of study) and attainment (university type). Our study provides a more nuanced understanding of the way how COVID pandemic affects students from different backgrounds.

This study utilizes the 2015 data from the Hong Kong sample of the Program for International Student Assessment to examine the relative importance of various factors on the science learning performance of Hong Kong students. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we examined the effect of students’ affective characteristics, involvement, and perceptions of science by parents and school environment on science achievement in Hong Kong. The results of HLM demonstrated that school characteristics explain 33% variance in science achievement, which indicates that school is a critical predicting factor in identifying science achievement. The findings highlighted that identifying as male, having high socioeconomic status (at the student and school levels), high self-efficacy, low test anxiety, less parental support, positive view of science by parents, more school resources, and less teacher autonomy positively influence the science achievement of students. In the final model, school-level predictors, such as disciplinary climate in science classes and teacher-directed science instruction, explained 58% of variance at the school level in positive directions. Lastly, the study discussed the implications of achievement gaps between gender and socioeconomic status and between parents and school influence.

This paper examines the long-term benefits of early childhood education (ECE) on off-farm employment of rural labors in China. Using panel data from the China Rural Development Survey, a nationally representative survey of 2000 rural households at 100 villages in 5 provinces, we employed two identification strategies (i.e., the FFE model and IV model) to overcome the endogeneity of ECE experience. Results show that individuals with any ECE (preschool) experience is 6–7 (7–8) percentage points more likely to engage in off-farm work at the first job than those without, while the impacts of kindergarten are insignificant. Conditional on being employed off-farm at the first jobs, ECE (including any ECE and preschool) has positive impacts on the probabilities of both being full-time off-farm employed and being employed outside of their home cities, but not on the probability of being self-employed. One possible mechanism underlying these research findings is that ECE significantly improves one’s educational attainment. We also find that most of these effects are more prominent for disadvantaged groups (females or individuals with less-educated parents).

Many studies have examined the effect of argumentation-based instruction methods on student achievement in the literature. However, there was no mixed-research synthesis study providing a holistic overview of quantitative and qualitative research findings of primary studies. To fill this gap in the literature, the study investigated the effects of argumentation-based instructional practices on student achievement. It also aimed to reveal the factors affecting these practices by combining the quantitative and qualitative research findings. Therefore, a mixed-research synthesis was employed to achieve this purpose. The study included 72 quantitative and 22 qualitative studies. The data obtained from the quantitative studies were combined using a meta-analysis method, and the qualitative data were combined using a thematic synthesis method. Several analytical themes were created regarding the factors affecting argumentation-based instruction, and various analytic themes (recommendations/hypotheses) were developed accordingly. According to the data from the thematic synthesis, 13 analytical themes emerged. The meta-analytic results indicated that the argumentation method had a large positive effect on student achievement (g = 0.927, 95% CI [0.789, 1.064]). Also, the moderator analysis revealed that argumentation-based instruction highly affected student achievement in Chemistry and Mathematics than others. Also, the time allocated to courses was influential in increasing student achievement. Lastly, attempts were made to explain the variance between studies included in the meta-analysis using the analytical themes developed in the thematic synthesis. The thematic synthesis results indicated that the learning outcomes and the environment should be taken into consideration in argumentation-based instruction and that some deficiencies should be resolved.

Research in the social and behavioral sciences relies on a wide range of experimental and quasi-experimental designs to estimate the causal effects of specific programs, policies, and events. In this paper we highlight measurement issues relevant to evaluating the validity of causal estimation and generalization. These issues impact all four categories of threats to validity previously delineated by Shadish et al. (Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2002): internal, external, statistical conclusion, and construct validity. We use the context of estimating the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning in the U.S. to illustrate the important role of measurement in causal inference. We provide background related to the meaning of measurement, and focus attention on the evidence and argumentation necessary to evaluate the validity and reliability of the different types of measures used in statistical models for causal inference. We conclude with recommendations for researchers estimating and generalizing causal effects: provide clear statements for construct interpretations, seek to rule out potential sources of construct-irrelevant variance, quantify and adjust for measurement error, and consider the extent to which interpretations of practical significance are consistent with scale properties of outcome measures.

With internationalization of higher education (HE) a worldwide trend in the past decades, a bulk of research has investigated various related issues, yet students’ voices have been largely absent from the current discussion of university internationalization. This study explored Chinese students’ constructive understandings of internationalization based on their actual experiences in one university of Greater China. Applying Habermas’s framework of knowledge-constitutive human interests to the focus-group interview data, the study uncovered students’ diversified voices, expressing views of internationalization as their “future business card(s)” and as cross-cultural learning experiences. Other views were represented by the metaphor of “neritic fish,” used to describe a university who lost its identity in pursuing internationalization, and by criticism of their own institution on “being internationalized” in the current wave of global HE internationalization, rather than, “internationalizing”, with suggestions of building a university’s internal strengths as the pre-condition for genuine internationalization. While some of these views showed congruence with the dominant discourse of internationalization in East Asia, the dissenting voices expressed a mismatch between students’ understanding of internationalization and that embraced by the policy direction of the focal university. Students’ views expressed new insights into some long-standing issues of internationalization in non-Western societies, which are crucial for HE researchers and policy-makers in re-thinking the fundamental purposes and ultimate goals of contemporary higher education harnessed by the leading force of internationalization.

The study investigated Chinese secondary school teachers’ views on ethicality of teachers’ practices in classroom assessment. Participants included 1,871 teachers from 205 secondary schools in 23 provinces, 4 municipalities, and 4 autonomous regions in China. A survey study with 14 authentic assessment scenarios revealed that there is no evident consensus on ethicality of teachers’ practices in classroom assessment among the participant teachers, and discrepancies exist between teachers’ views and the views of assessment professionals in the literature. Chinese secondary school teachers reported low agreement with the literature in assessment confidentiality, communication about grading, grading practice, and test administration. Gender and subject taught are significantly associated with teachers’ ethical perceptions. The findings suggest that ethical issues in classroom assessment are complicated, and they are often interwoven with other factors including cultural background, educational policy, and institutional guidelines in assessments. The study findings are informative for the development of secondary school teacher education program, teachers’ professional learning, and educational policy making.