The Institutional Pillars of China\u27s National College Entrance Exam: A Case Study of Gaozhong High School and NCEE Reforms

This dissertation is based on a case study of a Beijing high school (referred to as “Gaozhong”) during the initial wave of reforms to the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE). Using the conceptual framework of Richard Scott’s “three pillars” of institutions (2008) to analyze stake holder perception toward the NCEE (administrators, teachers, parents, and students), this study identifies and examines the regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements that comprise the NCEE. Congruent with Scott’s theory that these the combined strength and interdependency between institutional elements prevent institutional change, this study also analyzes the three pillars as barriers to the implementation of NCEE reform at Gao Zhong high school. An institutional analysis of the NCEE argues for a perspective of the NCEE as the task of education rather than, as is often argued, the purpose of education in China. At Gao Zhong, an “authority of scores” underlies the regulatory pillar; participants stress the many procedures and outputs of the NCEE that enable both knowledge and student effort to be codified, assessed, and translated into access to higher education opportunity, all through the singular score of the NCEE. Nonetheless, what is valued and gained in education derives more from the process of the Exam, rather than the test itself, harking back to a long tradition in Chinese education on the importance of “character.” Meanwhile, the legitimacy of a “single score” on the NCEE is viewed as fair and objective despite participant awareness of inequality in educational resources and urban bias in quotas. Participants cognitively maintain the NCEE as an antidote to corruption and connections associated with wealth; their perspectives bring greater nuance to the meaning of “fairness” and “equality” in studies in Chinese education. Regarding NCEE reforms, findings suggest superficial rather than substantive change at Gao Zhong, and reveal deeper issues of NCEE reform as a whole. Of particular importance are non-test forms of assessment that lack the legitimacy of score-based assessment, and the issue of student choice across subjects within a system heavily weighted in favor of science rather than fine arts

Literacy Coaching In The United States: Implications For Taiwan

Literacy coaching has become a popular professional development approach in the United States over the last decade. To date, there has been little research on the different lived experiences and challenges of literacy coaches working in different contexts. Furthermore, research findings regarding the effectiveness of literacy coaching are inconclusive. To fill the gaps in the literature, this study was designed to explore the nature of literacy coaching in the United States and examine the relationship between literacy coaching and student literacy achievement, both from the perspective of literacy coaches and that of classroom teachers. An embedded mixed methods research design, comprising a main strand and a supplemental strand, was adopted to explore the research questions. In the main strand, 3 literacy coaches were interviewed and observed; in the supplemental strand, 108 classroom teachers completed an online survey featuring both closed-ended and open-ended questions. The findings of this study show that both literacy coaches and classroom teachers perceive that literacy coaching is an effective type of professional development in improving teaching and learning. It is perceived as better than most of the previously used professional development methods (e.g., one-shot workshops, conferences, face-to-face college coursework, online college coursework, and reading professional literature) because literacy coaches can provide timely, on-site, continuous, and personalized assistance to support teacher learning in a self-directed, reflective and collaborative way. The effectiveness of literacy coaching, however, depends in part on the skills and qualifications of literacy coaches, as well as the receptiveness of classroom teachers and the support of administrators. The findings also reveal that literacy coaching is a stressful and demanding job because in order to be effective, literacy coaches have to assume multiple, yet at times, undefined roles. The findings reveal the need for support of literacy coaches in order to help them survive and thrive. The implications of this study include providing a clear job description for coaches, maintaining appropriate coach-teacher ratio, educating administrators about literacy coaching, providing coaches with ongoing professional development opportunities, providing coaches with release time for networking, and providing teachers with the necessary support and release time for working with literacy coaches

The concept of healthy ageing in Hong Kong

The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of ‘Healthy Ageing’ in Hong Kong. The research attempts to explore the historical base from which ‘Healthy Ageing’ has been conceptualized in both Western and Chinese societies. This study also tries to provide an overview of literature that relevant to the ‘Healthy Ageing’ concept, and to provide an initial theoretical framework of ‘Healthy Ageing’ in a Hong Kong Chinese context. This study mainly adopts a qualitative approach in exploring the meaning of the concept. Since that ‘Healthy Ageing’ is likely to be conceptualized from the concept of health and ageing, which have been here since the early days, a method of documentary analysis on the origin of the concept and the paths leading to what it is at present has been employed. To re-construct the concept in Hong Kong, this thesis works towards an explanation of the historical base of the concept of ‘Healthy Ageing’ in both Chinese and Western societies since Hong Kong has evolved from a mixture of both cultures. Comparative cultural analysis and research’s own interpretation act as important roles in the present study to consolidate those raw documents in particular of the Chinese literature and construct a new model for the concept. Having constructed a model of ‘Healthy Ageing’, an expert in cultural studies was then interviewed at the end of May 2002 for verifying the model. Adopting a comparative cultural analysis, this study found that the fundamental elements, say physical and psychosocial well-being, in conceptualization of health in both East and West are almost the same, but manifestations and interpretations show some variations. Chinese people are apt to manifest and interpret their concept of health by an holistic approach, while the concept of health in Western societies is more likely to be manifested in a “compartmental” approach. These variations are basically derived from the differences of geo-cultural adaptations and the differences in individual lifestyles. As to the concept of ageing, this study revealed that ageing subject as a process instead of an end-stage of life-span. According to one view of human beings, life-spans can be divided into eight periods: Prenatal (pregnancy), Infancy (0-3), Early Childhood (3-6), Middle Childhood (6-12), Adolescence (12-20), Young Adulthood (20-40), Midlife (40-65) and Old Age (65+). It is a natural and integral process of growing old starting from birth and ending at death, in which a continuous process of biological, psychological and social changes will be experienced in a person’s life-course. After reconstructing health and ageing concepts, a tentative model of healthy ageing was developed in this study. In this study, healthy ageing is an holistic and dynamic concept. It is a state of interactions and adaptations between people and the environment in attaining optimal health in one’s life-span. It is a three-dimensional concept that encompasses health, health-ageing and health-ageing-environment dimensions. For the health dimension, there are six interrelated cross-life domains in achieving healthy ageing, which involve physical, psychological, social, economic, spiritual and environmental well-being. For the health-ageing dimension, people can achieve healthy ageing by attaining health in each stage of life. In this process, the health at younger stage influences the health at older stage. Thus, keeping healthy in early stage benefits the health conditions in later stages, although it cannot be said that what happens in early stage might not be unchangeable for later stages. Adopting health-promoting strategies in later stage can also provide opportunities for individuals to achieve healthy ageing. The health-ageing-environment dimension refers to the people-environment adaptation for attaining optimal health in their life-spans. Basically, people can ideally achieve healthy ageing by adopting health-promoting strategy at every stage of life. However, those favourable and unfavourable external environments will limit and change the opportunities for a person to achieve healthy ageing. To achieve optimal health in their life-spans, people are required to adjust themselves, adapting to their environment and also helping to shape the environment. Therefore, an individual-community approach is crucial for attaining healthy ageing

A study of strategic enrolment management (SEM) in a continuing education institution in Hong Kong : senior and programme management perspectives

The objective of this study is to investigate the dimensions of strategic enrolment management (SEM) in the area of enrolment, retention and graduation from senior and programme management perspectives of a continuing education institution in Hong Kong. How SEM attributes differ at programme level and at institutional level as well as in different programmes of a continuing education institution in Hong Kong are examined. In addition, perceived barriers to implementing SEM and SEM success metrics of a continuing education institution are identified so as to provide a suitable SEM model in a continuing education institution in Hong Kong. The literature on SEM demonstrated that managing enrolment is a global concern and requires institution-wide effort. The key attributes of SEM from the existing literature are marketing, admission, financial aid, academic advising, orientation, retention, career services, learning assistance and institutional research. This study employs a qualitative method, including the use of Atlas.ti, a formal content analysis methodology, with the main source of research data from a series of in-depth individual face-to-face interviews with the twenty participants of a continuing education institution in Hong Kong. The research concludes there are similarities and differences between senior and programme management in the SEM perceptions. The similarities are that both senior and programme management found the attributes of SEM are significant not only to optimize student enrolment, retention and graduation, but also to provide high quality learning experiences for the students. Senior management leads the development of SEM attributes for the institution; programme management designs and oversees the way SEM attributes are carried out and implemented, ensuring all set objectives are achieved as planned to reach institutional aims and mission. In order to achieve enrolment goals and the institutional mission, a continuing education institution in Hong Kong should plan, and implement SEM with the leadership and management of senior and programme levels