The Fading away of“Asymmetry”:Electronic Media and the School’s Legitimacy Crisis

The“maturity gap”between generations is an objective fact that can only be narrowed through education.The asymmetry between generations is the anthropological base for education,and thus school education originated when this asymmetry enlarged.The print media protects this asymmetry,whereas the electronic media decrease the asymmetry,causing it to quickly fade away.However,when the asymmetry between generations fades away,the legitimacy and attraction of school education will be reduced,which is the primary reason that modern schools encounter so many crises.In the age of electronic media,schools must search for a new legitimate basis and transform into a“learning community.”

China's National Survey on Teaching-Research Officers and Institutions

Highlights A national survey of basic education teaching-research institutions was conducted as the first nationwide comprehensive survey that involved teaching-research officers and institutions in China.The structures and functions of the provincial,prefectural,and county teaching-research institutions,as well as their role differentiation,were analyzed.

Modes and Trajectories of Shadow Education in Denmark and China:Fieldwork Reflections by a Comparativist

Purpose In the domain of shadow education(private supplementary tutoring),Denmark and China may be placed at opposite ends of a spectrum.Denmark has a recently emerged,small,and high-cost sector that mostly serves low achievers,while China has a more industrialized sector with a long history and economies of scale.The paper juxtaposes the two to shed light on each.Design/Approach/Methods The article is a personal narrative of the author's research experiences.She grew up and had initial education in China before moving to the Nordic realm for 2 years.This provided a set of initial lenses,which were subsequently deployed in research partnership from her current base in China with colleagues in Denmark.Findings The juxtaposition raises questions that might otherwise not have been asked and provides insights that might otherwise not have been gained.Danish families hesitate to use shadow education for advantages in the egalitarian society,in contrast to Chinese patterns that stress competition and achievement.These facets have implications for the modes of shadow education and even the names of tutorial companies.Originality/Value The paper has a methodological value in addition to its substantive insights on the trajectories of shadow education in the two countries.

Reflections on Modern China and the Progressive Power of Educational Studies

The turn towards using domestic experience in contemporary Chinese educational studies has led to the development of theoretical frames rooted in the reality of Chinese society.This article identifies four ways of understanding and reforming Chinese society that have been developed by 20th century Chinese educators.By reflecting on these four approaches,and on the modern value oriented reactions to social transformation expressed by contemporary Western educational scholars,this article argues that Chinese educational scholars face two essential tasks when developing theories based on domestic experience so as to make positive contributions to China's unfinished project of modernity.The first is to study the phenomena of imbalance,alienation,and backwardness caused by all kinds of economic and cultural movements and forces in the huge space of Chinese society,and the second is to develop progressive educational ideas that are robust enough to counter these phenomena.

Teachers’Perceptions of Large-Scale Online Teaching as an Epidemic Prevention and Control Strategy in China

The sudden outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19)in China resulted in the sudden closure of schools,interrupting teaching plans.To prevent the virus from spreading across campuses and ensure the safety of teachers and students,China’s Ministry of Education(MOE)closed all educational facilities.However,the MOE mandated that schools of all types and at all levels“retain the education program despite the suspension of classes”by adapting solutions to local conditions.

On the essence of knowing in teaching/learning

To probe into the knowing of teaching/learning,we have to surmount the subject/object dualism based on the level of enlightenment rationality and trend towards epistemology of the relationship,which means that knowing of teaching/learning should be combined with its value and be wholly considered.The unique value of students and teachers is made up of their unique knowing.In knowing of teaching/learning,students and teachers are intersubjective.The so called“epistemology of teaching/learning”in China is an odd combination of enlightenment rationality and centralized system,which might be good for the mastery and training of knowledge and skills,but has nothing to do with the formation and development of creative personality.

Organizing and Reconstructing Children's Experiences:Compiling National Civic Textbooks in China

Purpose:The key to successful textbook compilation lies in incorporating children's experiences and facilitating their growth.This study examines the process of textbook compilation.Design/Approach/Methods:This study criticizes the traditional compiling approach of excessive lecturing and reasoning.It further elaborates the theoretical and institutional background for the traditional approach.Involving retrospective narratives,researchers reflect on how new textbook compilation tends to connect with children's experience.Findings:Researchers have explored several approaches to organizing and reconstructing children's experiences in preparing textbooks,including using"an experience"to awaken children's experiences,using the expression of experience to reconstruct children's experience,and transforming children's"experience"(jing yan,经验)into lived experiences(ti yan,体验).Another approach involves facilitating the connection and interaction between children's experiences and those of others in order to bridge personal experience and sociocultural values.However,this can only be achieved by ensuring that textbooks reflect and are part of children's lives.The successful incorporation of children's experiences into textbook compilation lays the foundation for children to identify with textbooks and internalize textbook values.

More Than Data:A Multivocal Inquiry into Video-Based Research on Learning and Teaching

Purpose-This commentary aims to echo Wilkinson,Bailey,and Maher’s(this volume)arguments about the affordances of videos and video databases in studying learning and teaching.Design/Approach/Methods-This article illustrates a multivocal approach to the videos from the Video Mosaic Collaborative(VMC).In particular,three mathematics teachers in Shanghai were invited to watch and discuss a set of VMC videos.Two recurring themes concerning mathematics learning and teaching were identified in this video-cued interview and discussed in relation to the VMC Analytics.Findings-The VMC videos played a mediating and facilitating role in the interview,helping the teachers notice and reflect on the mundane,implicit culture practices.Based upon this analysis,I argue that to tap into the potential of video in educational research,we need to see videos as more than data and look for more possibilities of using them.Originality/Value-To open and further research dialogues,this article discusses future directions of using videos in educational research and serves as an invitation to creative explorations,in-depth conversations,ethical reflections,and cross-cultural collaborations on the use of videos in education.

Accelerated Move for AI Education in China

Purpose:This article summarizes recent developments in the use of artificial intelligence(AI)in Chinese education,paying particular attention to the different applications of AI at a number of different levels.The article reviews key government policies and guidelines and suggests a course for future development.Design/Approach/Methods:The article analyzes key government policies relevant to the implementation of AI in Chinese education.Additionally,the article leverages the author’s experience as a key member of national information technology curriculum development,which involved participation in the drafting of various curriculum standards and policy documents and discussions with numerous administrative officials,teachers,and researchers.Findings:This article argues that the use of AI in Chinese education varies at different levels.AI implementation is at its early stage in elementary education;more prevalent in higher education,and even more common in the field of civic education.As a result,in multiple dimensions,Chinese students are becoming better trained to face an age of AI and working together to create an informatized education environment.Originality/Value:This article describes how China is searching for the point where top-down system design meets bottom-up applications to chart its own course for the use of AI in education.

Shadow Education in the Nordic Countries:An Emerging Phenomenon in Comparative Perspective

Since the turn of the century,expanding attention around the world has focused on the so-called shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring.The first global comparative study was authored by Bray(1999)and was titled The Shadow Education System:Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Implications for Planners.Bray employed the shadow metaphor for four reasons(p.17).