Give Students Autonomy in the Use of Break Time in Conformity with the Principles of Humanistic Education

Humanistic education (also known as person-centered education) is a learning theory based on humanistic psychology, aiming to promote the development of the learner as a “whole person.” Various aspects such as the intellect, social and emotional skills, and artistic and practical capabilities of the student are all important considerations in the humanistic approach to education (Zhang, 2010). It places a great deal of emphasis on students’ choice and control over the course of their education. Students are encouraged to make choices that range from day-to-day activities to goal settings. According to Rogers, one of the founders of humanistic psychology as well as the humanistic learning theory, the primary purpose of education is to train the student to want and know how to learn, and the ability to learn should relate to the fulfillment of other needs (as cited in Xie, 2016)

Evidenced-based Educational Reform Supported by Education Quality Monitoring: China’s Exploration and Experience

In China’s educational community, there is a consensus that any decision-making or advance in reform must be based on scientific evidence. It has been realized that the traditional instruction modalities that draw on educators’ personal experience have become ineffective in accomplishing better education in the new era. In this context, China’s educational administrators have been committed to constructing an evidence-based system to enable reform in education

Seeking Understanding and Cooperation in a World of Disputes: New Year Greetings from BECE

For most of us, the year of 2022 was not a desirable year. The COVID-19 epidemic was still affecting the lives of billions of people. The high transmissibility of the new strains and the concern over long COVID-19 made them less confident in their expectation of completely getting rid of the adverse impact of the epidemic. In the meantime, war, famine, natural disasters, and economic downturn were also challenging the coping capacities of human society. All evidence indicates that there remains a multitude of issues for mankind to address

Life Education: Reshaping Education for the Sake of Life

Life is the starting point as well as the primary aim of all educative activities. The essence of education is to create conditions to support the development of individual life, as Montessori (2004) famously said that the purpose of education is to foster the healthy development of force of life in children, and that education is everything that has the potential to boost their vitality. Successful education allows students to grow in an autonomy-supportive environment and learn to appreciate, respect, and treasure life while acquiring academic knowledge. This is the fundamental responsibility of education (Lansdown, 2005). Pointless are the seemingly great accomplishments of the individual who has no idea of meaning in life; likewise, any education that fails to assure the healthy development of individual life is ineffective, no matter how advanced it appears

Editor’s Remark

IN 2016, the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University, led by Professor Robert Slavin, kicked off an e-newsletter called Best Evidence in Brief (BEiB) which presents the latest empirical studies in education from the world’s top academic journals. Today this effort expands to the UK, Hong Kong, and Spain, including the Institute for Effective in Education of the University of York and the Centre for University and School Partnership Faculty of Education of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the La Caixa Foundation. Currently the majority of the selected studies in BEiB are from English-speaking countries. In 2018, the International Research Center for Educational Development and Evaluation at Nan- jing Normal University joined the BEiB family to further promote evidence- based reform in education in the Chinese speaking region. One of the main focuses of the BEiB in China is evidence-based research studies published in Chinese educational academic journals since its launched, the Chinese BEiB has been well-received by the Chinese educational communities.          During the past 40 years, reform and development in China have under- gone earth-shaking changes, including the extensive use of rigorous research methods in research. An increasing number of researchers have applied sophisticated research methods to explore the link between theories and educational reform, and dialectical thinking and scientific thinking. With the exchanges in educational circles from home and abroad, more and more researchers have learned the latest educational methods from Europe and North America. Many young researchers, who have the overseas training, are familiar to those concepts, including research samples, research hypotheses, re- search variables, effect sizes, causal relationships, and related relationships. These are the days that Chinese educational academic journals should pay at-tention to both evidence-based reforms and experimental research results in education. Happily, the proportion of empirical research studies published in Chinese education-related journals is growing

Modifying design of four-port couplers for enhanced six-port reflectometer performance

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Does Housework Help Improve Academic Performance? An Empirical Analysis on the Influence of Participation in Housework on Academic Performance of Primary and Middle School Students

At present, even if the education on hard-working spirit has been emphasized increasingly as an important part of practical education in China’s education policy, the reality is still far from satisfactory, because many parents do not provide their children with sufficient opportunities to do housework. Previous studies have indicated that the empirical analysis remains to be improved in terms of the relationship between housework and the development of primary and junior high school students. Based on data from the 2020 Monitoring of Students' Academic Quality in Basic Education in Jiangsu Province Study, this study investigates the influence of primary and secondary school students’ participation in housework on academic performance by using OLS regression and Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM). The results show that the current proportion of primary and junior high school students involved in housework is not high; however, participating in housework frequently will positively affect the academic performance of primary and junior high school students. Participation in housework in primary school has a greater positive impact on academic performance than that in junior high school. In addition, since excessive academic burden is the main factor hindering primary and junior high school students from being involved in housework, it is necessary to strengthen the publicity of education on hard-working spirit to help people know its importance. Also, we suggest the burden on schoolwork should be reduced to in order to promote more diversified housework related educational opportunities for students

Effects of After-School Programs on Student Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities: A Meta-Analysis Based on 37 Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Studies

The after-school program is a crucial initiative for implementing the Double Reduction policy; however, prior research has not provided conclusive evidence on whether extended school hours contribute to students’ cognitive and non-cognitive development or on which types of after-school services are more beneficial for student development. This study analyzed 37 after-school programs from 18 publications using meta-analytic techniques, and the results indicated that participation in after-school programs had positive effects on student cognitive and non-cognitive development despite the small effect size (d = 0.327, p = 0.000). The decomposition of the effects of after-school programs revealed that they had modestly positive effects on academic achievement (d = 0.369) and social-emotional competence (d = 0.220). In addition, the analysis of moderating variables revealed that socioeconomic status, educational phase, number of after-school service days per week, sample size, and testing instrument all influenced the after-school program effects. This study concludes, based on the results of the meta-analysis, that there should be a balanced consideration of the development of student cognitive and non-cognitive abilities in planning after-school service, a substantial variety of activities in after-school programs, a flexible adoption of diverse after-school programs, and a reasonable participation frequency in after-school service

Impact of Pet Companionship on Student Development: A Meta-Analysis

Animal companionship has been found to have a positive influence on human well-being, and the presence of pets can have a subtle yet significant impact on the healthy development of students. Pet companionship takes various forms across different fields in China and other regions worldwide, and the impact of such companionship remains uncertain. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the impact of diverse forms of companionship and animals on multiple facets of student growth and development. This study employed meta-analysis methodologies to examine 47 effect sizes derived from 12 domestic and international studies on pet companionship. The aim was to investigate the overall trends of the influence of pet companionship on student development as well as the effects of diverse types of companionship and pets on different aspects of student development, including physical and mental health, social-emotional abilities, and academic performance. The objective was to enhance the exploration of approaches for maximizing the utilization of various forms of pet companionship. Furthermore, this research suggests a systematic and incremental approach to enhancing the function of pets within households, educational institutions, and medical facilities. Adequate content and organization are essential for scientific advancement and the development of students. In this particular context, it is possible to optimize the impact of pet companionship on the development of students

The impact of cognitive training on cerebral white matter in community-dwelling elderly : one-year prospective longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging study

It has been shown that cognitive training (CogTr) is effective and recuperative for older adults, and can be used to fight against cognitive decline. In this study, we investigated whether behavioural gains from CogTr would extend to white matter (WM) microstructure, and whether training-induced changes in WM integrity would be associated with improvements in cognitive function, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). 48 healthy community elderly were either assigned to multi-domain or single-domain CogTr groups to receive 24 sessions over 12 weeks, or to a control group. DTI was performed at both baseline and 12-month follow-up. Positive effects of multi-domain CogTr on long-term changes in DTI indices were found in posterior parietal WM. Participants in the multi-domain group showed a trend of long-term decrease in axial diffusivity (AD) without significant change in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) or radial diffusivity (RD), while those in the control group displayed a significant FA decrease, and an increase in MD and RD. In addition, significant relationships between an improvement in processing speed and changes in RD, MD and AD were found in the multi-domain group. These findings support the hypothesis that plasticity of WM can be modified by CogTr, even in late adulthood