This talk aims to go beyond the usual technocratic solutions to improve postgraduate education (e.g., program structures, mentoring programs, writing retreats, etc.). While these are important, they don’t go far enough in addressing the problems facing university education and research (e.g., managerialism, obsession with metrics and rankings, etc.). Instead, we will explore possibilities to re-envision the purposes and practices of teaching, learning, and research in postgraduate education to build more inclusive institutional cultures, support different forms of scholarly work, and be more responsive to our communities and the grand challenges of our times. We will examine the question of how we might collectively imagine, create, and enact new academic cultures among faculty and students that engender more generative and satisfying knowledge work.  

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Dr. Mark Baildon is Associate Dean (Partnerships and Analytics) in the Office of Education Research and Associate Professor in Humanities and Social Studies Education at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Mark has taught social studies in several countries and his research has focused on global citizenship education, inquiry-based pedagogies, and new literacies. He has a new book in press (with Theresa Alviar-Martin), Research on Global Citizenship in Education in Asia: Conceptions, Perceptions, and Practice. (Information Age Publishing). 

Peer Commentaries: 

Dr. Hassan Tairab serves as the PhD Coordinator of the College of Education, United Arab Emirates University. 

Dr. Ali Shehadeh serves as the MEd Coordinator of the College of Education, United Arab Emirates University.  

Dr. Hassan Tairab’s Bio

Prof Hassan Tairab has been in education field since 1985 as a school teacher, an educator, a curriculum and a program developer and an administrator in various academic settings. He is currently a Professor of science education with a responsibility of teaching science education related courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels in addition to his supervisory role of MEd theses. Prof Tairab has published and presented science education research on issues of teaching and learning in various international journals and meetings. Prof Tairab’s research interest focuses on issues related to teaching and learning of science at all grade levels in addition to science teachers’ professional development and learning. He has successfully obtained and executed research grants on various science teaching and learning issues.

Prof Tairab is currently a chair/member of a number of national committees and works as a consultant and as a reviewer for a number of research foundations and national and regional educational awards.

Dr. Ali Shehadeh’s Bio

Ali Shehadeh is Professor of Applied Linguistics and TESOL in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, UAE University. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Applied Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition and TESOL. He supervised or sat on the panels of over 45 Master’s and Doctoral dissertations in the UK, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He published in top-tier research journals in the field including Language Learning, TESOL Quarterly, System, Journal of Applied Linguistics, and Journal of Second language Writing.

In this session, four EdUHK-based Associate Editors will discuss factors to consider in preparing manuscripts for publication in academic journals. Dr Derwin CHAN will give an overview of the peer review process and delineate key steps and tips for you to increase your chances of success. He will also elaborate on how to handle the reviewers’ criticisms professionally and how to increase the satisfaction of both reviewers and editors. Dr SUN Jin will offer advice on how to choose the most suitable journal for our work and how to avoid some common pitfalls in manuscript preparation. Dr Alfredo BAUTISTA will focus on the need to tailor our writing to the specific characteristics of each journal and will elaborate on the importance of being strategic, realistic, persistent, and resilient. He will also argue that gaining extensive experience as peer-reviewers allows us to improve our own skills as authors. Dr Zhenlin WANG will introduce new trends in academic journal publications including open access journals, pre-registered reports, and data depository. She will also review the standard for statistics reporting in social science and education. 

Bios

Dr. Alfredo Bautista is Associate Professor and Associate Head in the Department of Early Childhood Education at EdUHK. His research focuses on teaching practices and teacher professional development. Before joining EdUHK, he worked in Spain, Canada, United States, and Singapore. Alfredo currently serves as Associate Editor for ‘Journal for the Study of Education and Development’, ‘Psychology, Society, and Education’, and ‘Publicaciones’. He collaborates as Editorial Board Member with other three journals and has acted as external Reviewer for 22 journals.

Dr. Jin Sun is Assistant Professor, Department of Early Childhood Education. Her research focuses on early child development and education particularly on how family and school contexts influence children’s developmental outcomes in early years. She has also been investigating factors that contribute to social-economic gradients in early development.

Dr Derwin Chan is an applied social psychologist with diverse research interests in the areas of health education, sport and exercise, and behavioural medicine. He is an Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is appointed as the Editor-in-Chief in Stress and Health, Executive Editor in Health Psychology Bulletin, Consulting Editor in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, and editorial board member in eight scholarly journals.

Zhenlin Wang is an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong. Trained as an early childhood teacher, she went on to pursue her postgraduate studies in developmental psychology. Her extensive research interests are reflected in her diverse publications covering the areas of children’s theory of mind development, play, parenting, and early childhood pedagogy. Currently she serves as an associate editor for British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Abstract

Both domain general (e.g., working memory, executive functions) and domain specific (e.g., number processing) cognitive factors have been found to predict math performance across different age groups. Likewise, research have shown that various affective factors such as math self-concept, math interest and math anxiety need to be considered when investigating individual differences in math performance. The focus of this presentation is to highlight some of the research gaps concerning these relations and in particular look at the interplay between cognitive and affective factors and math performance in students across different age groups. To do this Johan Korhonen will present recent and ongoing research from the research groups he is currently participating in.

Bio

Johan Korhonen works as an associate professor (Educational Psychology) at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His research interests include mathematical learning difficulties, cognitive and affective factors in relation to mathematics, and academic well-being. He teaches courses in mathematical learning difficulties and quantitative research methods. Johan Korhonen is a regular reviewer for international scientific journals. He is currently leading the research project “Functional Numeracy Assessment” with funding from the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland. Korhonen is also Co-PI in the project “Choking under pressure: Linking math anxiety and performance” funded by the Swedish Research Council.