Asia Pacific Education Review

This study investigated the differences in knowledge sharing (KS) behavior among academicians from research universities (RUs) and non-research universities (Non-RUs) and the impact of their differences on research engagement in Malaysia. From the lens of the theory of planned behavior, research engagement is integrated into the original theory as the consequence of KS behavior. Applying a multi-group analysis through partial least square structural equation modeling, 458 academic staff from twenty public universities in Malaysia participated in the study. The study findings revealed that in the RU sample, commitment and subjective norm have no significant impact on attitude and intention, respectively. However, a significant impact of commitment and subjective norm on attitude and intention, respectively, was found in the non-RU sample. This study contributes to the knowledge management perspective among academicians and compares RU and non-RU academicians in Malaysia. A relevant mitigation plan must be taken to ensure that academicians in both RUs and non-RUs share their knowledge willingly and sincerely to elevate the status of higher education in the country to a greater height as a top world-class university. Moreover, an analysis of the implication of higher education in the country as well as institutionalization of education excellence could be achieved through better KS behavior in the South East Asian region.

Bài báo báo cáo về một dự án học tập hợp tác có tên gọi cộng đồng điều tra giáo viên đã được thực hiện trong suốt một năm tại một cơ sở giáo dục đại học tư thục nhằm cải thiện năng lực chuyên môn của các giáo viên dạy các môn học dựa trên ngôn ngữ. Chín giáo viên tham gia hoàn thành dự án, tất cả đều là nữ và có kinh nghiệm làm việc từ 2 đến 29 năm. Sáu trong số họ có một số hình thức văn bằng về giáo dục, và tất cả trừ một người đều có ít nhất một bằng cấp cơ bản trong một lĩnh vực nào đó. Nghiên cứu tập trung vào ba câu hỏi, bao gồm lợi ích của giáo viên, tác động của thực hành và ứng dụng các giải pháp. Các phát hiện chỉ ra rằng hai câu hỏi đầu tiên đều có căn cứ vững chắc cho hầu hết giáo viên, nhưng điều tương tự không thể nói về câu hỏi thứ ba. Trong khi một số giáo viên cao cấp đã hưởng lợi ở mức độ thực hiện trong lớp học, những người khác đã giải thích việc họ không thể áp dụng những ý tưởng mới vào việc giảng dạy của họ. Những đặc điểm cá nhân và tính cách, cùng với văn hóa dường như đã tạo ra sự khác biệt. Tuy nhiên, nghiên cứu đã kết luận rằng mô hình học tập hợp tác có thể phục vụ như một cơ chế khả thi cho phát triển nghề nghiệp của giáo viên.

Continuous teacher professional development (TPD) ensures that teachers have the capacity to continually plan and implement quality teaching and learning that supports students in achieving their expected program/course learning outcomes. However, teachers’ access to quality TPD is a challenge due to geographical limitations, gender, special needs, marginalized communities, and the government’s policies, or lack of policies, regarding teachers. There are tensions between quality and equity, and cost implications that may hinder the scaling up of quality TPD programs. This paper adopts an activity theory approach to examine how a teacher learning center (TLC) in a regency of Indonesia enhances teachers’ access to quality TPD. The findings reveal that teachers learn in the TLC through different TPD activities. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are found to mediate the professional learning activities, learning resources, learning support, and assessments in the TLC. Furthermore, three key stakeholders—the local government, teacher working groups, and school principals—play significant roles in supporting teachers’ professional learning in the TLC.

This paper examines Korean mothers’ roles in the socialization of their adolescent children. First, the issue is analyzed through a historical approach that takes into account the Confucian background of Korean family life. Secondly, we consider concepts and results from recent studies on mothers’ attitudes, parenting styles, and adolescent socialization. Some of the arguments and data are particularly relevant to middle class mothers. We point out that the Confucian influence remains strong in modern South Korea while at the same time mothers responsibilities in parenting and socialization have increased. As a consequence, the relationship between mothers and their adolescent children has become more complex, intense, and unstable. We conclude that the balancing of autonomy and relatedness is the most important developmental task facing mothers and their children.

Policymakers around the world search for an optimal school schedule to enhance student’s academic achievement. In this paper, I examine the effect of the 9 o’clock attendance policy on student’s academic performance in South Korea. I find little evidence that delaying the school schedule positively affects pupil’s performance when I control for an extensive list of characteristics or an individual fixed effect. My result implies that individual’s omitted heterogeneities might confound results of previous literature which supports positive effects. I show that the effect of delaying the school starting time is likely to come from a good bird (self-selection effect) rather than a late bird (policy treatment effect). Therefore, we need to be cautious when interpreting the effect of postponing the school starting time, and more analysis and discussion are necessary on the education front.

This study aims to examine the impact of reduced in-person learning during COVID-19 on students’ academic achievement gaps focusing on rural–urban and in-school disparities. To this end, first, we investigated the regional disparity of student performance between Seoul and Gangwon, representative areas of urban and rural regions in South Korea, using t test analysis. Second, we conducted a regression analysis to analyze how the number of in-school days is associated with the student performance gap by controlling the regions. Our findings from the two analyses can be summarized as follows: First, we observed a difference in patterns between the two regions. In Seoul, student performance was polarized at the two ends of the grade spectrum, whereas in Gangwon Province, achievement declined overall between pre- and post-COVID-19. Second, in the case of Seoul, the proportion of mid-range achievement students decreased after COVID-19, whereas in Gangwon Province, COVID-19 did not have a significant effect on students’ B, C, and D grades. Third, regardless of region, more in-person learning was associated with a higher portion of mid-range grades. Based on the findings, we suggested several policy implementations to cope with student performance gaps, which can facilitate the governmental response to nationwide crises that may emerge in the future.

To academic visionaries the new century appears to have an emerging environment characterized by increased complexity, uncertainty, unpredictability which, some have argued, render traditional notions of planning and management irrelevant. The expectations of management and planning scholars carry the implicit assumption that somehow individual capability and organizational capacities will rise to meet the enormous challenges of this new environment. In the light of this situation the purposes of this paper are: (1) to briefly examine the limitations and criticisms of traditional educational planning; (2) to outline the emerging concepts and processes which collectively form a new paradigm for strategic planning; (3) to discuss the new model within the context of changing national policy and planning environments and increased localization; (4) to review the limited results of empirical research related to more participatory planning models; and (5) to offer a critique of the assumptions and practicality of the new model in the process of planning and sustaining educational change in developing countries

This study aims to analyze and validate the dimensions and specific features of a school culture in a Chinese context. A sample of 181 teachers from a Chinese primary and secondary school in Beijing participated in a survey that measures school organizational cultural characteristics and teacher organizational commitment and well-being as outcomes of school culture. Specific cultural characteristics of this school and their impact on teacher organizational commitment and well-being were identified. The findings provide important information for understanding a school culture in the Chinese context. It enriches the theory related to school culture and the research findings that have been identified in the Western settings.

The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to identify variations in the ways in which individual teachers in different educational contexts interpret their curriculum and plan their lessons and in particular to explore the possibility that cultural differences as identified by Hofstede (1991) may be a contributing factor to understanding how teachers understand their work. “Educational reform” has become a catchphrase in the Anglo-American world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales, as well as in the Confucian Heritage Areas such as Mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Across the world, the educational reform measures being implemented are surprisingly similar. This paper describes a study of how geography teachers in Queensland, Australia, Hong Kong, and Changchun, China, plan their lessons and curriculum. From classroom observations and interviews with the teachers involved, we confirmed marked differences in each location regarding their cultural traits of power distance, individualist and collectivist preference and uncertainty tolerance, and that these traits appear to be highly influential in their curriculum planning. Despite the small scale of this study, we contend that there are good reasons for caution before national education systems import policies and curriculum reform initiatives from other countries for unthinking adoption.