A Study on the Cross-Cultural Adaptation of International Chinese Teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea

International Chinese teachers are one of the determinants of the quality development of Confucius Institutes,and their cross-cultural sociocultural adaption,psychological adaption,and job adaption are in need of in-depth investigation and research.Based on previous research,this paper analyzed the cross-cultural adaptation of international Chinese teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea during 2022-2023 through surveys and personal interviews.The study found that the teachers’adaptation was best in terms of work,followed by sociocultural adaptation,and weakest in terms of psychological adaptation.In terms of work adaptation,attention should be focused on adapting to teaching language and teaching methods.In terms of sociocultural adaptation,the focus should be on adapting to personal communication.In terms of psychological adaptation,attention should be paid to feelings of loneliness and anxiety.The study also focused on the internal and external factors influencing their cross-cultural adaptation,as well as the true inner feelings of international Chinese teachers.The study found that factors such as English proficiency,gender,education,professional background,and overseas experience had little impact on teachers’cross-cultural adaptation,while factors such as Korean proficiency,participation in cross-cultural training before going to South Korea,understanding of Korean culture before going to South Korea,and length of time spent in working in South Korea had a greater impact on the cross-cultural adaptation of the research subjects.This study provides reliable reference materials for international Chinese teachers going to South Korea to improve their cross-cultural adaptation abilities and promote the reform and innovation of international Chinese education.

A Study on the Management of Career Development of Young Teachers in Higher Education Institutions from the Perspective of Career Anchors

In January 2021,six departments in China,including the Ministry of Education jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Reform in HEI Teacher Capacity Building for the New Era which emphasizes support for career development of young teachers.From the perspective of the career anchor theory,this paper takes human resource management as a tool to analyze organizational environment at the macro and micro levels to find out how to facilitate career development of young teachers in higher education institutions.

Empirical Research on the Status Quo of Teachers of Common Required Courses in Vocational Higher Education Institutions

In order to build a high-quality team of teachers in vocational higher education institutions, and investigate the current situation of teachers of common required courses in vocational higher education institutions of Hainan Province, an empirical research is conducted. A questionnaire survey was carried out in aspects of satisfaction of teaching and scientific research, professional quality, work saturation and teacher’s job satisfaction. The research results shows that the professional quality of teachers of common required courses cannot significantly influence the satisfaction of teaching and scientific research;Job saturation can positively influence teaching and research satisfaction;teaching and research satisfaction can positively influence teachers’ job satisfaction.

Community perspectives on the effectiveness of watershed management institutions in the Himalayas

The sustainability of environmental management initiatives,such as watershed management programs,relies on the presence of effective institutions at the watershed level.However,there needs to be more empirical evidence from evaluating the effectiveness of watershed-level institutions.Therefore,this study presents a pioneering effort to evaluate the effectiveness of Nepal’s first watershed conservation committee at the watershed scale,focusing on the case of the Khageri Khola watershed in Central Nepal.The study involved conducting a household survey,key informant interviews,focus group discussions,and field observations to collect and analyze the data.Descriptive analysis,index value calculation,and chi-square statistics were then employed to summarize the results regarding local respondents’perceptions of twelve institutional characteristics,their rationalities,and their association with socio-demographic variables.The results reveal that the watershed conservation committee was perceived as performing well in managing the watershed.Specifically,good interaction,appropriate scale,technical,environmental,social,organizational,and government rationality were perceived as highly effective,with an average index value of less than 0.36.In contrast,clarity of objectives and economic rationality showed moderate effectiveness,with an average index value ranging from 0.36 to 0.65.However,the results suggested that adaptiveness,compliance capacity,and financial rationality merit increased attention,intending to improve their performance.Further,the results showed the association of socio-demographics with respondents’perceptions of various indicators of institutional characteristics and their rationalities.Therefore,the study provides valuable insights for policymakers,researchers,and development practitioners charged with designing sustainable and effective programs and institutions.To enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of watershed management programs,we recommend establishing a policy-guided institutional mechanism at the watershed scale.This mechanism should be based on various institutional characteristics and rationalities and should consider the extant variability in the socio-demographic and topographic characteristics of the watershed.

Ranking academic institutions based on the productivity,impact,and quality of institutional scholars

Purpose:The quantitative rankings of over 55,000 institutions and their institutional programs are based on the individual rankings of approximately 30 million scholars determined by their productivity,impact,and quality.Design/methodology/approach:The institutional ranking process developed here considers all institutions in all countries and regions,thereby including those that are established,as well as those that are emerging in scholarly prowess.Rankings of individual scholars worldwide are first generated using the recently introduced,fully indexed ScholarGPS database.The rankings of individual scholars are extended here to determine the lifetime and last-five-year Top 20 rankings of academic institutions over all Fields of scholarly endeavor,in 14 individual Fields,in 177 Disciplines,and in approximately 350,000 unique Specialties.Rankings associated with five specific Fields(Medicine,Engineering&Computer Science,Life Sciences,Physical Sciences&Mathematics,and Social Sciences),and in two Disciplines(Chemistry,and Electrical&Computer Engineering)are presented as examples,and changes in the rankings over time are discussed.Findings:For the Fields considered here,the Top 20 institutional rankings in Medicine have undergone the least change(lifetime versus last five years),while the rankings in Engineering&Computer Science have exhibited significant change.The evolution of institutional rankings over time is largely attributed to the recent emergence of Chinese academic institutions,although this emergence is shown to be highly Field-and Discipline-dependent.Practical implementations:Existing rankings of academic institutions have:(i)often been restricted to pre-selected institutions,clouding the potential discovery of scholarly activity in emerging institutions and countries;(ii)considered only broad areas of research,limiting the ability of university leadership to act on the assessments in a concrete manner,or in contrast;(iii)have considered only a narrow area of research for comparison,diminishing the broader applicability and impact of the assessment.In general,existing institutional rankings depend on which institutions are included in the ranking process,which areas of research are considered,the breadth(or granularity)of the research areas of interest,and the methodologies used to define and quantify research performance.In contrast,the methods presented here can provide important data over a broad range of granularity to allow responsible individuals to gauge the performance of any institution from the Overall(all Fields)level,to the level of the Specialty.The methods may also assist identification of the root causes of shifts in institution rankings,and how these shifts vary across hundreds of thousands of Fields,Disciplines,and Specialties of scholarly endeavor.Originality/value:This study provides the first ranking of all academic institutions worldwide over Fields,Disciplines,and Specialties based on a unique methodology that quantifies the productivity,impact,and quality of individual scholars.

Development and validation of a novel questionnaire regarding vision screening among preschool teachers in Malaysia

AIM:To develop and evaluate the validity and reliability of a knowledge,attitude,and practice questionnaire related to vision screening(KAP-VST)among preschool teachers in Malaysia.METHODS:The questionnaire was developed through a literature review and discussions with experts.Content and face validation were conducted by a panel of experts(n=10)and preschool teachers(n=10),respectively.A pilot study was conducted for construct validation(n=161)and test-retest reliability(n=60)of the newly developed questionnaire.RESULTS:Based on the content and face validation,71 items were generated,and 68 items were selected after exploratory factor analysis.The content validity index for items(I-CVI)score ranged from 0.8-1.0,and the content validity index for scale(S-CVI)/Ave was 0.99.Internal consistency was KR^(2)0=0.93 for knowledge,Cronbach’s alpha=0.758 for attitude,and Cronbach’s alpha=0.856 for practice.CONCLUSION:The KAP-VST is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing knowledge,attitude,and practice in relation to vision screening among preschool teachers in Malaysia.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Overweight and Obesity among Public Secondary School Teachers in Parakou, Benin, in 2021

Introduction: Overweight and obesity represent a public health problem in Africa due to the epidemiological transition. The objectives of this work were to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to identify associated factors among public secondary school teachers in Parakou, Benin in 2021. Methods: We conducted a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study. Teachers working in public secondary schools in Parakou during the 2020-2021 academic year, present at work and who gave their written informed consent, were included. A two-stage random sampling was carried out. Data were collected during an individual interview using a questionnaire followed by the measurement of anthropometric parameters and blood pressure. Overweight and obesity were defined by a body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify associated factors. Results: A sample of 325 teachers, including 88.6% of men, was recruited with an average age of 36.2 ± 6.8 years. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 43.7% (95% CI [38.1%-44.8%]). It increased significantly with income (p Conclusion: The results show a high prevalence of overweight and obesity. Actions are necessary to prevent overweight and obesity among secondary school teachers in Parakou, in Benin.

The Influence of Preschool Teachers’Social Skills on Job Burnout:A Moderated Mediation Model

Background:Teacher burnout is a serious issue in the field of education,particularly in early childhood education,where teachers face high levels of work stress and emotional labor,leading to emotional exhaustion and job burnout.However,past research has not sufficiently explored the mechanisms of social skills,empathy,and mindfulness in mitigating teacher burnout.Therefore,this study aims to investigate the relationship between preschool teachers’social skills,empathy,and mindfulness with job burnout,in order to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for reducing teacher burnout.Methods:This research utilized a convenience sampling approach to target preschool teachers for a questionnaire survey.A total of 1109 questionnaires were collected.To ensure the quality of the data,we excluded questionnaires that were not carefully filled out in terms of lie scale questions,those with abnormal demographic variables,and outliers identified based on response time.Ultimately,901 valid questionnaires were obtained,achieving a valid response rate of 81.2%.Participants’levels of social skills,empathy,mindfulness,and job burnout were assessed using the Social Skills Scale(SKS),Empathy Scale(Measure of Empathy,ME),Mindful Attention Awareness Scale(MAAS),and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey(MBI-ES),respectively.Data analysis was conducted using SPSS.Results:After controlling for gender,age,teaching experience,educational level,grade taught,and location of the kindergarten,the study found:(1)There is a negative correlation between preschool teachers’social skills and the level of job burnout(r=−0.238);(2)Empathy has a dual-track effect on job burnout,where cognitive empathy negatively affects job burnout(r=−0.245),while emotional empathy has a positive effect(r=0.045);(3)Cognitive empathy partially mediates the relationship between social skills and job burnout(β=−0.124);(4)Mindfulness significantly impacts social skills,cognitive empathy,and job burnout(r=0.278;r=0.286;r=−0.539),and plays a moderating role in the mediation model(β=0.003;β=−0.023).Conclusion:These findings provide theoretical support for the development of burnout prevention and intervention strategies targeted at preschool teachers.They also point out new directions for future research and potential intervention targets,suggesting that enhancing preschool teachers’social skills and cognitive empathy,as well as increasing their mindfulness level,can help them cope with work-related stress and emotional labor,thereby alleviating job burnout.

LDAS&ET-AD:Learnable Distillation Attack Strategies and Evolvable Teachers Adversarial Distillation

Adversarial distillation(AD)has emerged as a potential solution to tackle the challenging optimization problem of loss with hard labels in adversarial training.However,fixed sample-agnostic and student-egocentric attack strategies are unsuitable for distillation.Additionally,the reliability of guidance from static teachers diminishes as target models become more robust.This paper proposes an AD method called Learnable Distillation Attack Strategies and Evolvable Teachers Adversarial Distillation(LDAS&ET-AD).Firstly,a learnable distillation attack strategies generating mechanism is developed to automatically generate sample-dependent attack strategies tailored for distillation.A strategy model is introduced to produce attack strategies that enable adversarial examples(AEs)to be created in areas where the target model significantly diverges from the teachers by competing with the target model in minimizing or maximizing the AD loss.Secondly,a teacher evolution strategy is introduced to enhance the reliability and effectiveness of knowledge in improving the generalization performance of the target model.By calculating the experimentally updated target model’s validation performance on both clean samples and AEs,the impact of distillation from each training sample and AE on the target model’s generalization and robustness abilities is assessed to serve as feedback to fine-tune standard and robust teachers accordingly.Experiments evaluate the performance of LDAS&ET-AD against different adversarial attacks on the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a robust precision of 45.39%and 42.63%against AutoAttack(AA)on the CIFAR-10 dataset for ResNet-18 and MobileNet-V2,respectively,marking an improvement of 2.31%and 3.49%over the baseline method.In comparison to state-of-the-art adversarial defense techniques,our method surpasses Introspective Adversarial Distillation,the top-performing method in terms of robustness under AA attack for the CIFAR-10 dataset,with enhancements of 1.40%and 1.43%for ResNet-18 and MobileNet-V2,respectively.These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in enhancing the robustness of deep learning networks(DNNs)against prevalent adversarial attacks when compared to other competing methods.In conclusion,LDAS&ET-AD provides reliable and informative soft labels to one of the most promising defense methods,AT,alleviating the limitations of untrusted teachers and unsuitable AEs in existing AD techniques.We hope this paper promotes the development of DNNs in real-world trust-sensitive fields and helps ensure a more secure and dependable future for artificial intelligence systems.

The Emergence of Loving Pedagogy in the L2 Affective Domain:How Affective Pedagogy Accounts for Chinese EFL Teachers’Professional Success and Job Satisfaction?

The success of teachers in professional environments has a desirable influence on their mental condition.Simply said,teachers’professional success plays a crucial role in improving their mental health.Due to the invaluable role of professional success in teachers’mental health,personal and professional variables helping teachers succeed in their profession need to be uncovered.While the role of teachers’personal qualities has been well researched,the function of professional variables has remained unknown.To address the existing gap,the current investigation measured the role of two professional variables,namely job satisfaction and loving pedagogy,in Chinese EFL teachers’professional success.To do this,three validated scales were provided to 1591 Chinese EFL teachers.Participants’answers to the questionnaires were analyzed using the Spearman correlation test and structural equation modeling.The data analysis demonstrated a strong,positive link between the variables.Moreover,loving pedagogy was found to be the positive,strong predictor of Chinese EFL teachers’job satisfaction and professional success.The findings of the current inquiry may help educational administrators enhance their instructors’professional success,which in turn promotes their mental and psychological conditions at work.

System Assimilation of E-Skills in Tertiary Institutions to Empower Graduates in South Africa

The value of system assimilation is to improve working relationships between tutors and learners while increasing workflow efficiency among tertiary institutions with low operational costs. E-skills could be described as electronic education development, to assist ICT professionals to reach their future career goals and aim to help users boost their ICT skills. In a society that is expanding, it is also a crucial issue to take into account. Researchers have turned their attention to this topic because of its significance and contribution to the empowerment of graduates in digital education. Many scholars have proposed many methods for integrating e-skills into society with impressive results, but the rising rate of graduate unemployment in South Africa is gradually becoming a big worry in our society. A model based on Activity Theory (AT) and e-skills will be developed in our tertiary institution to equip graduates with skills that will increase their employability and provide more individualized work opportunities as part of this study’s effort to solve this issue. With the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Cronbach’s Alpha for validity and reliability testing, the study will create an experimental performance to assess the approach taken to measure e-skills in tertiary institutions to empower graduates in South Africa. The study established that system development and e-skilled models for tertiary institutions are growing gradually, especially in South African institutions, that empower graduates with profitable employability with experiences to improve work operation in the industries. In conclusion, system development and e-skills are very demanding but important to empower graduate employability to determine competency in the professional workforce.

Teachers’Perception for Evaluation of the Primary School Students With Final Grade

The most difficult and delicate part of the learning process is assessment.Assessment is difficult because during his/her accomplishment the teacher has to consider not only the acquisition of knowledge from students,but also the overall degree of development of their competencies.It is delicate,because through assessment we can influence the emotional side of students and their“willingness”to learn.Despite these facts,teachers need to evaluate students during the learning process.The purpose of the research is to find out what is the perception of teachers about the level of evaluation of students with final grade.The overall results showed that 89%of teachers agree,9%of them have a neutral attitude,and 2%do not agree that the evaluation of students with a final grade is done taking into account many aspects and using many methods,the overall average of the results,M=4.36.Based on the empirical results,it was found that teachers who have completed assessment training have a more positive approach to student assessment,as the average score is higher than teachers who have not completed assessment training.From the qualitative results it was understood that the Teachers did not encounter any difficulties during the assessment of the students.

Curriculum Development and Teachers for Cultivating OECD Student Agency in Japan:From an Examination of Educational Thought,Educational System,History,and Contemporary Science and Mathematics Education Practices

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of a curriculum in Japan to foster the agency(OECD Student Agency)necessary for children living in the future,as outlined in the OECD Education2030 Project,and the role of teachers who implement this curriculum.Therefore,I aim to achieve this goal by taking an overview of educational thought,educational systems and history,and examining several initiatives in the OECD Project and the situation of a Japanese high school that practices science and mathematics education.As a result of analyzing previous research and the narratives obtained from interviews with Teacher A(pseudonym)of a certain F High School(pseudonym),it was found that school education should not simply teach subjects,but should aim to enable student to help student exercise agency in the future.It was suggested that it is not necessary to add content to the curriculum,but rather to prepare to provide students with competencies that will enable them to use the content in various contexts,situations,and circumstances,suggesting that in order to discover such important competencies,teachers and other related parties are required to implement curricula that allow students to slowly and carefully explore the competencies surrounding the content,and to conceive and build curricula that include both hidden and intended curriculum that allows student to reflect on the curriculum they have achieved.

Professional Development of Rural PE Teachers from the Perspective of PCK:A Case Study of Huaiji County

Based on the four dimensions of PCK,this paper investigates the professional development of rural PE teachers in Huaiji County by using the research methods of literature,questionnaire,interview and mathematical statistics.Based on PCK related theories,this paper analyzes the current situation of professional development of rural PE teachers in Huaiji County,explores the problems existing in the process of professional development,and provides an optimal path for the professional development of rural PE teachers,so as to improve the teaching ability and classroom quality of rural PE teachers,and promote the further development of rural PE education under the background of new curriculum reform.Through the research,it is found that the shortcomings of rural PE teachers are:lack of situational knowledge;lack of understanding of the course content;not flexible use of teaching representation;low ability to identify the differences of students learning styles;lack of understanding of social environment,etc.

On Evaluating University Teachers’ Morality and Ethics in the New Era

University teachers play an important role in promoting moral and political education among university students.Regular and long-term construction of teachers’morality and ethics will contribute to the success of the fundamental task of cultivating talents.The present study proposes that due to the multiple identities of university teachers,it is necessary to evaluate the construction of teachers’morality and ethics in terms of what to evaluate and how to evaluate?It is expected that the attempt will provide useful guidance for the construction of university teachers’morality and ethics.

Professional Development of County-level Physical Education Teachers from the Perspective of the New Curriculum Standards:A Case Study of Huaiji County

Using methods such as questionnaire survey and literature review,a survey was conducted on the professional development of physical education teachers in Huaiji County under the background of the new curriculum standards.The research results found that physical education teachers in Huaiji County have a relatively good distribution structure in terms of teaching experience,age,and education level,but the gender ratio and professional title ratio need to be improved.In terms of professional competence,teachers have shown good performance in teaching implementation ability,but there is still room for improvement in teaching design ability.A certain proportion of teachers still express dissatisfaction with professional title promotion,hardware configuration satisfaction,salary and benefits,and school reward mechanisms.Based on this,this study proposes some measures to improve the professional development level of county-level physical education teachers,such as enhancing teachers teaching design and implementation abilities,strengthening the cultivation of technical action demonstration abilities,improving hardware configuration satisfaction and teaching effectiveness reflection level,strengthening guidance and support for teachers professional development,and enhancing the promotion and implementation of post employment training.

Research on the Lifting Path of Data Literacy Ability of Applied University Teachers under the Perspective of Organizational Learning

With the arrival of the big data era, the modern higher education model has undergone radical changes, and higher requirements have been put forward for the data literacy of college teachers. The paper first analyzes the connotation of teacher data literacy, and then combs through the status quo and dilemmas of teachers’ data literacy ability in applied universities. The paper proposes to enhance the data literacy ability of teachers from the perspective of organizational learning. Through building a digital culture, building a data-driven teaching environment, and constructing an interdisciplinary learning community to further promote the application of the theory and practice of datafication inside and outside the organization, and ultimately improve the quality of teaching.

Hierarchical Restriction and Reduction of Overcriminalization of Teachers’Disciplinary Behaviors

The right to education is an important part of basic human rights. To transform from a designed vision to a reality in practice, teachers’ right to discipline, as a component of the right to education, needs tangible support from the criminal law. The criminal law cannot be absent from promoting the rule of law in education. However, in practice, teachers’ disciplinary behaviors are often ex-cessively criminalized, leading to problems such as over-expanding punishment and harming the innocent and even the malaise that en-danger substantive justice such as the tarnishing of teachers’ disci-plinary right and the imbalance of teachers’ disciplinary behaviors. Such overcriminalization has its social causes and normative crux, which is the ambiguity of regulations of teachers’ disciplinary right in terms of the pre-existing law and the unclear positioning of the jus-tification of teachers’ disciplinary behaviors in terms of the criminal law. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a dual clarification of the chaotic parts of the two laws and determine the corresponding guiding principles, and test them one by one through the hierarchical theory of crime to make the path of exculpation clear. At the level of constituent elements, the exculpation is achieved through the normative judgment of the constituent elements;At the level of illegality, the exculpation is achieved by virtue of substantive considerations of reasons such as le-gal acts, legitimate defense, and victims’ commitments;At the level of accountability, the exculpation is achieved through the value screening of the culpability paradigm. We should reverse the trend of overcrim-inalization of teachers’ disciplinary behaviors by clearing the way of exculpation.

Strategies for Enhancing the Affinity of College Ideological and Political Course Teachers

This article aims to explore effective ways to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers in universities.By analyzing the connotation of affinity,the factors that affect the affinity of ideological and political course teachers are analyzed,and corresponding improvement strategies are proposed.Research suggests that strengthening the construction of teacher ethics and conduct,improving teaching skills,enhancing emotional engagement,and enhancing practical training are key paths to enhance the affinity of ideological and political course teachers.The implementation of these paths will help improve the teaching quality and effectiveness of ideological and political courses,and promote the comprehensive development of students.

Training the Teachers

Equitable,inclusive and high-quality education is recognised as a vital factor for achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)set by the United Nations for 2030,and is central to global concerns.However,in a large number of countries,there is a significant gap between the current reality and the target for education set in SDG 4.