Possible factors influencing Asian students' degree of participation in peer-facilitated online discussion forums: a case study     

Khe Foon Hew  Wing Sum Cheung 《Asia Pacific Journal of Education》2010,30(1):85-104

This study investigated possible factors that might influence the degree of student participation in asynchronous online discussion forums. Degree of participation refers to the number of messages posted by the students. Data were collected from 41 forums, students' reflection logs, and students' interviews. Of these 41 forums, the top third forums (n = 14) in terms of the highest frequency of participant postings were identified. Fourteen less frequent forums were randomly chosen from the remaining forums. We also assessed the quality of the discussions found in both the more frequent and less frequent groups by examining the levels of knowledge construction exhibited in the online postings. We found that that the quality of contributions in the more frequent group was greater than those found in the less frequent group in terms of higher knowledge construction levels. Quantitative analyses showed that the duration of the discussion could not account for the difference between the two groups. Instead, the more and less frequent forums differed in terms of group size, as well as the frequency of two habits of mind displayed by the student facilitators: (a) is aware of own thinking, and (b) is accurate and seeks accuracy. Qualitative analyses of the reflection logs and interviews suggested several other important factors that could also influence students' decision to participate: (a) familiarity with the facilitator, (b) mutual obligation to help each other, (c) knowledge about the topic, and (d) availability of time. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are provided.  相似文献   

Education and competitive economy: how do cultural dimensions fit in?     

Cheung  Hoi Yan  Chan  Alex Wing Ho 《Higher Education》2010,59(5):525-541

Globalization has changed the way people behave in different aspects of life. One of the significant differences is that people are now competing with everyone around the world, not just people within or near their own regions. A good way of remaining competitive is to provide quality education that can help students meet the needs of the competitive economy. However, not all nations are responding in the same way. Using a quantitative approach, this explorative study seeks to discover if, and how, cultural dimensions fit into the process of meeting the demands of the competitive economy by means of education across regions. Forty-three regions with different ratings on the Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), and the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) are included in this study. The results show that UAI, PDI and IDV are significant factors relating to this issue.  相似文献   

The timing and critical incident of epistemic beliefs change in Hong Kong college students: an exploratory study     

Wincy Wing Sze Lee 《Asia Pacific Journal of Education》2018,38(2):164-174

Research on epistemic beliefs (beliefs about what knowledge is and what knowing is) has advanced and there is now a burgeoning interest in examining this construct in the Chinese cultural context. However, issues related to understanding epistemic beliefs change remain under-explored. The present study used a qualitative approach to explore Chinese college students’ timing and critical incidents of epistemic beliefs change. Eight college students from Hong Kong participated in interviews and three key themes emerged from their responses. First, students identified college transition as a major source of epistemic perturbation. Second, they attributed epistemic beliefs change mostly to educational encounters. These encounters were characterized by a curriculum with multiple perspectives, being taught by teachers who could provide cognitive scaffolding for epistemic belief resolution, and assessment processes that allowed the latitude to demonstrate multiple perspectives. Furthermore, these characteristics of assessment (mainly regarding examinations) also emerged as a strand of culturally nuanced findings. Students explicitly regarded assessment influencing their epistemic beliefs and described how they differentiated their incongruent “professed” and “practised” epistemic beliefs so as to fit the rules of the public examination. The findings have yielded cultural implications and suggest the need to understand epistemic beliefs transcending the naive-sophisticated dichotomy.  相似文献   

Inducing self-rotation of cells with natural and artificial melanin in a linearly polarized alternating current electric field     

Mengxing Ouyang  Wing Ki Cheung  Wenfeng Liang  John D. Mai  Wing Keung Liu  Wen Jung Li 《Biomicrofluidics》2013,7(5)

The phenomenon of self-rotation observed in naturally and artificially pigmented cells under an applied linearly polarized alternating current (non-rotating) electrical field has been investigated. The repeatable and controllable rotation speeds of the cells were quantified and their dependence on dielectrophoretic parameters such as frequency, voltage, and waveform was studied. Moreover, the rotation behavior of the pigmented cells with different melanin content was compared to quantify the correlation between self-rotation and the presence of melanin. Most importantly, macrophages, which did not originally rotate in the applied non-rotating electric field, began to exhibit self-rotation that was very similar to that of the pigmented cells, after ingesting foreign particles (e.g., synthetic melanin or latex beads). We envision the discovery presented in this paper will enable the development of a rapid, non-intrusive, and automated process to obtain the electrical conductivities and permittivities of cellular membrane and cytoplasm in the near future.  相似文献   

A model of the relationship among sport consumer motives,spectator commitment,and behavioral intentions     

Jun Woo Kim  Jeffrey D. James  Yu Kyoum Kim 《Sport Management Review》2013,16(2):173-185

The concept of commitment in sport marketing has largely been regarded as unidimensional. In the broader study of organizational behavior, commitment has been studied as a multidimensional construct. The multiple dimensions of commitment construe that one's behavior can be conveyed by different psychological states, comparable to those found to characterize different forms of commitment. The multidimensional perspective appears to yield more detailed and relevant information regarding a consumer's commitment in predicting specific behaviors. In past decades, a variety of researchers in organizational psychology and organizational behavior have investigated the relationship between motivation and commitment in order to better understand the two processes and their impact on behavior. However, there have been few attempts to integrate the two domains in order to demonstrate how motives and commitment combine to influence sport consumer behavior. Accordingly, a model of commitment and its relationship to sport consumer motives (i.e., antecedent) and behavioral intentions (i.e., consequence) is proposed.  相似文献   

Analysis of STEM Activities in Primary Students’ Science Projects in an Informal Learning Environment     

Winnie Wing Mui So  Ying Zhan  Stephen Cheuk Fai Chow  Chi Fai Leung 《International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education》2018,16(6):1003-1023

This study adopted a researcher-generated framework to analyze STEM activities demonstrated in primary students’ science projects in an annual extracurricular event held in Hong Kong. Ten students’ project reports were randomly selected from each of the three groups of 24 outstanding, 45 merit, and 68 consolation awarded projects. Content analysis was conducted to code the activities in each project. The coded information was then changed into numerical data for quantitative analysis. The results showed that, in general, more engineering and science activities than technology and mathematics activities were adopted by the primary students in their projects. More projects with the Outstanding Award conducted STEM activities than those projects with Merit and Consolation Awards, and significant group differences existed in the science and mathematics activities. Besides, science activities significantly positively related to engineering and mathematics activities. Furthermore, STEM-related content knowledge of discipline core ideas and crosscutting concepts were reported. This study sheds light on the pattern of STEM activities in students’ science projects, and has implications for promoting STEM integration in primary education.  相似文献   

Creative literacy activities promote positive reading attitude in children learning English as a foreign language          下载免费PDF全文

Bonnie Wing‐Yin Chow  Anna Na Na Hui  Barbie Hiu‐Tung Chui 《Journal of Research in Reading》2018,41(2):278-289

This study investigated the effects of creative literacy classroom activities on the acquisition of English as a foreign language. Ninety Chinese second graders were tested on reading attitude and English receptive vocabulary knowledge. They were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group, which engaged in English creative classroom activities for 10 weeks. Repeated measures analyses showed a significant interaction effect for reading attitude, providing empirical evidence that English creative classroom activities can enhance reading attitude. This study extends past research by demonstrating the links between creative activities and reading attitude, as well as highlights the feasibility of incorporating creative literacy activities within foreign language education. This provides a new direction for researchers and educators to develop instructional practices that incorporate a stimulating environment for English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language students. Future longitudinal research could examine whether these benefits can be maintained over a longer period.  相似文献   

Violence against pregnant women can increase the risk of child abuse: a longitudinal study     

Chan KL  Brownridge DA  Fong DY  Tiwari A  Leung WC  Ho PC 《Child abuse & neglect》2012,36(4):275-284

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Learning for the future: the emergence of lifelong learning and the internationalisation of education as the fourth way?     

Wing On Lee 《Educational Research for Policy and Practice》2012,11(1):53-64

This article explores the discourse of international educational reform that aims at meeting the various challenges of globalisation and a knowledge-based economy and preparing students for a better future in the twenty-first century. Specifically, it reviews the dominant themes, trends and goals of modern education. It does so by exploring the shared themes of curriculum adaptation, the emerging models of learning and innovation, the trend towards lifelong learning for all and the growing need for the internationalisation of education. It concludes by suggesting an overall trend of the sectorisation and de-sectorisation of education emerging under new social and economic circumstances in the twenty-first century.  相似文献   

The e-government research domain: A triple helix network analysis of collaboration at the regional,country, and institutional levels     

Gohar Feroz Khan  Han Woo Park 《Government Information Quarterly》2013

This study introduces a hybrid approach (i.e., a social network analysis technique and triple helix indicators) to study certain aspects of the e-government (EG) domain that would otherwise remain hidden when using conventional analytic tools. Particularly, we provide network analysis of the EG research domain by focusing on the network collaboration between regions, nations and institutions. We collected and analyzed 1091 scholarly papers which were classified as being about “e-government” by the Web of Science database. The results indicate that hybrid method can be used to understand certain network-level structures and patterns in the EG domain which are beyond the scope of the predominantly-used systematic literature review (SLR) method. Particularly, the hybrid method is useful in understanding collaboration patterns between countries, institutions and regions in the EG domain, identifying key players by studying their network properties (i.e., degree centralities); and in understanding the pattern of relations among universities, industries, and government. The implications of these results in terms of research and practice, and study limitations are discussed.  相似文献