Preservation of confucian values in early childhood education : a study of experts’ and educators’ views

Confucian values form the core of the Chinese culture, penetrating all levels of social life, and also set the standards for family, community and political behavior. The teaching of values is deemed to be an important aspect of young children’s education and usually the responsibility for this is seen to rest with the family. Much interest has been generated recently on the teaching of core values in early childhood curriculum in order to encourage tolerance, acceptance, trust, openness, and honesty in children. Research on Confucianism is popularly conducted in different cultural contexts all over the world. Furthermore research has shown that Confucianism continues to exert a major influence on the everyday lives of Asian communities. Given the interest in Confucian values, this research study was designed to examine the expressed views of three cohorts of professionals in Hong Kong about the preservation of such values and their application to early childhood teaching. This study confirmed the view that there is a need to preserve cultural values to enable the child to be accepted in the society, especially with the value of ‘Ren’ helping one to learn how to interact with others and with the value of ‘Li’ further defining the appropriate behaviour in this interaction.

Whole school values and the socially transformative potential of philosophy education

The socially transformative potential of philosophy education (PhE) to support a broadening of students' horizons and a fostering of their ability to deal with difference and diversity is the focus of this article. This article explores this potential through its examination of whole school values and PhE at one primary school in Queensland, Australia. The central argument is that the school's prioritizing of social outcomes within its values framework can be supported by PhE at the classroom level. In making this case, this article draws on interview data from the school principal (“Ms A”), the school's Philosophy Mentor and Grade Four teacher (“Ms B”) and a Year 4 PhE student (“Jacob”). Given the transformative role schools are expected to play in the teaching of values, the centrality of school and teacher values in shaping student learning and the potential of PhE to enhance the social outcomes of schooling, this article provides a warrant for further interrogation of the agenda and values transmitted through this curriculum area.

News values and country non-daily reporting

Australia's country, non-daily newspapers present journalism graduates with excellent opportunities to get a foot in the door, experience a wide range of journalistic responsibilities and compile an impressive portfolio. However, tertiary journalism courses largely ignore the unique news values, issues and challenges involved with country non-daily reporting. Considering a large percentage of future journalists are likely to enter the industry on a country non-daily, journalism education's current attitude has serious implications for the profession. However, this situation cannot be rectified until these specific news values, issues and challenges have been documented in order for them to be integrated into pedagogical models. This article documents the country non-daily's news values, issues and challenges, and indicates their importance to journalism training and education.

Public and stakeholder values of wildlife in Victoria, Australia

This paper explores the management implications of a recent study that was designed to explore public and stakeholder values of wildlife in Victoria, Australia. Questionnaires (n = 1431) were used to examine values and knowledge of wildlife held by residents from seven Victorian municipalities and members of six wildlife management stakeholder groups. The results suggest that most Victorians have a relatively strong emotional attachment to individual animals (the humanistic value) and are interested in learning about wildlife and the natural environment (the curiosity/learning/interacting value). In comparison, the negativistic, aesthetic, utilitarian-habitat and dominionistic/wildlife-consumption values were not expressed as strongly. These findings suggest that wildlife managers should expect support for wildlife management objectives that reflect the relatively strong humanistic orientation of Victorians and tailor management and education programs to appeal to this value and Victorians' interest in learning about wildlife.

Australians' organic food beliefs, demographics and values

Purpose – To examine consumers' beliefs about organic foods and their relationship with socio-demographics and self-transcendence (universal, benevolence) personal values.

Design/methodology/approach – A random questionnaire-based mail survey of 500 Australian (Victorian) adults (58 per cent response) was used. The questionnaire included items on organic food beliefs, the importance of self-transcendence values as guiding principles in life, and socio-demographics. Statistical analyses included cross-tabulations of organic food beliefs by socio-demographics and multiple regression analyses of positive organic food beliefs with personal value and socio-demographic items as the independent variables.

Findings – The majority of participants believed organic food to be healthier, tastier and better for the environment than conventional food. However, expense and lack of availability were strong barriers to the purchasing of organic foods. Generally, women were more positive about organic food than men (e.g. women were more likely to agree that organic food has more vitamins/minerals than conventional food). The personal value factor related to nature, environment and equality was the dominant predictor of positive organic food beliefs, followed by sex. These predictors accounted for 11 per cent of the variance.

Research limitations/implications – A survey response bias needs to be taken into account. However, the response rate was adequate for reporting and differences in age and education between participants and the Victorian population were taken into account in data presentation. Future understanding of consumers' use of organic foods will require the inclusion of a fairly extensive set of potential influences.

Practical implications – Communication appeals based on psychographics may be a more effective way to alter consumers' beliefs about organic foods than those based on demographic segmentation.

Originality/value – To the best of one's knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between personal values, socio-demographics and organic food beliefs in a random population sample. This study is relevant to producers, processors and retailers of organic food and those involved with food and agricultural policy.

Bringing shared values out of the shadows

As part of its wider promotion of a world that is peaceful and tolerant, the United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education. At the fore of the UN's proclamation was recognition of the important role sport and PE play in nurturing the health and harmony of society. Sport and PE, the UN declared, provide important nodes for social connection around which shared values and understandings can be formed. In the wake of the UN's endorsement of the role that sport and PE can play in fostering social and emotional development, it is more important that ever that we reflect on and refine our practices towards this end. This paper draws on two research narratives to illustrate how easily this potential can be undermined. Indeed, behind some of the wonderful opportunities for connection that exist through a participation in PE and sport exists a dark shadow of alienation and oppression. The challenge raised through this paper centres on the need for PE teachers and coaches to work deliberately and strategically towards the cultivation of inclusive, tolerant and responsible forms of participation, and not leave their development to chance.

Lay people's views of school food policy options: associations with confidence, personal values and demographics

A random population survey administered by mail to examine lay people's views of children's food policies and their associations with demographics, personal values and confidence in authorities was conducted among adults in Victoria, Australia. Three hundred and seventy-seven people responded (response rate 57.6%). The questionnaire contained 35 items about children's healthy eating policy options plus details like personal values, confidence and demographic items. There was widespread support for healthy school food policies. The strongest support was for life skills education and school-based nutrition and physical education programmes. Many age-related associations indicated that people >48 years were more in favour of healthy eating policies than younger people. There were fewer statistically significant associations with parent status and sex. In contrast, many associations showed that respondents with strong equity–harmony values and those with least confidence in the authorities were most in favour of healthy eating policies for schoolchildren. It is concluded that there is widespread support for school-based health and nutrition education and for active school food policies. However, differences between demographic and values groups suggest the need for caution in the promotion of public health nutrition initiatives among schoolchildren.

Use of spreadsheet simulations in university chemistry education

Students who are strong in logical-mathematical intelligence have a natural advantage in learning and understanding chemistry, which is full of abstractions that are remote from the material world. Simulations provide more-inclusive learning activities for students who are weak in logical-mathematical intelligence.

A second advantage of using simulations is that they are not limited by (for example) the quantised energies, integral masses and discrete expectation values of real atoms and molecules. Numerical experiments can be used to investigate the effect of continuously varying atomic mass, bond distance or any other property, from one value to another.

Finally, students are more familiar with spreadsheets than more advanced mathematical packages such as MathCAD, MAPLE, Mathematica and other symbolic algebra software. Use of these advanced packages presents additional learning hurdles for students and should be used only for advanced classes. Furthermore, spreadsheets are capable of a level of sophistication that is greater than commonly expected. This can be achieved without the use of MACROs.

Examples from the author's teaching are used to discuss the advantages of spreadsheet simulations for learning chemistry.

Globalisation and reflexivity: some challenges for research into quality education mediated by ICTs

Globalisation can be characterised, Giddens (1994) suggests, as a process of 'intensified reflexivity' that creates the conditions for 'a world of clever people'. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are fundamental to globalisation and they have also been incorporated into the new educational technologies deployed by educators to (re)create 'a world of clever people'. Together, education and the ICTs are strong forces for globalisation where both curriculum and pedagogy shape the knowledge and values of the rising generation of 'clever people'. This chapter posits some research issues and questions that might be usefully pursued in transnational collaborative research or are germane to its conduct and contexts. These matters include: the place of ICTs in research work; the challenge of globally inclusive curricula and the impact of English as the global language; and ICTs decentring the research centre.

From product centricism to systems-wide education design: making corporate technology systems work for the learning organisation

Deakin University has established a major integrated corporate technology infrastructure in the last two years to enhance and bring together its distance education and on-campus education. This environment has been called Deakin Online. With Deakin Online rapidly developing, efforts are beginning to focus more fundamentally on how the potentials of the environment can be realised to create enduring teaching and learning value. This search must be understood in the context of the University’s commitment to the values of relevance, responsiveness and innovation. The question is: how can these values be realised in the digitally-based evolving educational enterprise using the new corporate technologies and new concepts of organisational structure and function? We argue for the transforming role of the academic teacher and new forms of open academic collegiality as being critical to realise strategic and enduring educational value. Moreover, change in role and process needs to be grounded in more systemic organisation and program-wide approaches to designing and working within the new contemporary learning environments. We believe the shift from the dangers of product centricism to system-wide education design modelling situating e-learning within broader curricular and pedagogical concerns represents the best strategy to create enduring educational benefits for all stakeholder groups (notably academic teachers and their learners) while preserving teachers’ sense of agency in the changing learning environments of higher education.

Redefining teacher education through a `multiple space` model: examining the forgotten spaces that teachers work in

This paper maps the current debates surrounding school-based and university-based teacher education models, and presents a ‘multiple-space’ model of teacher education that both explores and values the many ‘forgotten’ spaces that teachers work in. It draws from a variety of research studies, including my own doctoral work, to argue for a new approach to teacher education programs. I suggest that in order for teacher education to move beyond separatist, binary models, we need to adopt a ‘multiple-space’ view of learning to be a teacher that embraces the notion that teachers do not learn about theory in a university space, nor do they simply work in a classroom space.

Personal values of international postgraduate students from Asia : a cross cultural study

Australian universities face a challenging task to service an increasingly diverse international student community in the globally competitive education market. The pressure on universities to successfully negotiate cultural diversity arising from nationality differences and to improve service quality will continue to increase with further expansions in the international student market. Such a scenario requires insights into the individual backgrounds of students. Personal values are one way in which insights can be gained of students, particularly with regard to their needs and preferences. Using Factor Analysis, ANOVA and MANOVA, this study analyses the national differences on the basis of underlying value domains of Selfefficacy, Power, Inner harmony, Aspiration and Hedonism. The results indicate significant differences in personal values amongst the student cohorts, which suggest that universities may need to adopt different approaches in servicing international students.

IES 4 - ethics education revisited

In 2003, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) issued a set of International Education Standards (IES). IES 4 Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes aims to equip candidates for membership of an IFAC member body with the appropriate professional values, ethics and attitudes to function as professional accountants. This paper explores the implications of IES 4 and analyses some of the challenges arising from an international professional accounting body prescribing ethics education. It concludes with an overview of considerations to be addressed to ensure that the implementation of IES 4 is successful.

Mediators of the relationship between maternal education and children's TV viewing

Background: Maternal education is consistently found to be inversely related to children’s television viewing and is associated with aspects of the family television environment. This study investigates whether family television environment mediates the relationship between maternal education and children’s television viewing.

Methods: Parents of 1484 children reported maternal education, time their child spends watching television, and 21 aspects of the family television environment (potential mediators) during 2002 and 2003. Separate regression analyses were conducted in 2006 for each potential mediator that met two initial conditions for mediation (associated with both maternal education and children’s television viewing (p<0.10)), to assess whether inclusion reduced the association between maternal education and children’s television viewing. Multivariable regression assessed the combined impact of all mediators.

Results: Twelve of 21 potential mediators met the initial conditions for mediation. Inclusion of each resulted in decreased β values (3.2% to 15.2%) for the association between maternal education and television viewing. Number and placement of televisions in the home appeared to have the greatest mediating effect, followed by frequency of eating dinner in front of the television with the child and rules about television viewing during mealtimes. Together, the 12 mediators accounted for more than one-third of the association between maternal education and children’s television viewing time.

Conclusions: This study suggests the strong inverse relationship between maternal education and children’s television viewing is partly mediated by aspects of the family television environment.

Personal-organizational values fit and organizational commitment in Australian domestic and international students

This study examines the relationship between affective organizational commitment and the personal and perceived organizational values of international and domestic students in an Australian university. Results provide support for the values factors found by Abbott, White & Charles, 2005), and consistency with Schwartz's (1992) pan-cultural values hierarchy. Both groups of students rated their personal values as consistent with the rankings of the major pan-cultural values and perceived organizational values were drivers of affective commitment. This study highlights the need for higher education institutions as well as global organizations to address profit for values such as benevolence, self-direction, and universalism to encourage higher levels of student and employee commitment to their organizations and increase effectiveness.