The Handbook of Education in China provides both a comprehensive overview and an original interpretation of key aspects of education in the People's Republic of China. With a sharp focus on specific policy areas and using both original Chinese sources and other commentaries, it expertly places the topic within its historical and political context. The Handbook has four distinct and thematic parts: The Historical Background; The Contemporary Chinese System; Problems and Policies; The Special Administrative Regions: Macau and Hong Kong. The chapters address fundamental issues facing Chinese society, including the rapid educational expansion in support of economic development in the post-Mao period, the evolution of education as public policy, concern for access to education as social justice and the parallel educational systems of the Special Administrative Regions. The editors and contributors are Chinese and foreign academics expert in this important field. The Handbook of Education in China is an essential reference for those interested in Chinese education, as well as a comprehensive resource that provides valuable supplementary material for those studying Chinese politics, economy, culture and society more generally.

Education today has been influenced by several factors that are changing the purpose and goals of understanding and thinking and, consequently, how we assess students' understanding. One of these influences has been the rapid advancement and accessibility of digital technologies. While the use and impact of digital technologies as a valuable tool to improve teaching and learning is well documented, there is little discussion of innovative methods used to assess teaching and learning in digital environments. It is important educators view assessments considering the tools used for learning. Even when digital technologies are ubiquitous in education, assessment methods continue to use traditional assessments, typically multiple-choice or short answer. They are inadequate to provide information about a student's reasoning and conceptual understanding, thus they are limited in measuring the sophisticated knowledge and skills needed for 21-century careers. Digital technologies can support inquiry-based learning that is essential to developing a deep conceptual understanding of the content. Innovative practices that include digital-based assessment models allow students to demonstrate higher-order skills while integrating digital technologies as a powerful teaching tool. The book explores the use of digital-based assessments to measure knowledge, shares research and pedagogies related to digital-based assessments, identifies digital tools and applications for the effective assessment of learning, shares models of digital-based assessment in digital learning environments, and identifies best practices and innovation in digital-based assessment. It is ideal for higher education faculty, classroom teachers, administrators, policymakers, educational technologists, and graduate students.

Student voices in transition reports the experiences of 70 students who entered university through two national award-winning pathways at Monash University in Australia and South Africa. It provides insight into why these students sought university qualifications, how they adjusted to university study, the challenges they faced and the rewards they experienced. Their voices confirm that effectively adapting to university entails more than the acquisition of new study skills. The challenges faced by commencing university students, particularly those who have past experiences of modest academic achievement, extend beyond classrooms into their social life and sense of identity. The students confirm that it is in the first year at university that they learn the appropriate skills, behaviours, attitudes and values necessary to become successful students and graduates. Curriculum and teaching practices that cultivate student identities enable them to become future-focused and optimistic learners, equipped with adaptive learning strategies and able to build and sustain academic momentum. Student Voices in Transition contextualises the experiences of students studying in Australia and South Africa within recent international research and confirms that many of the challenges and rewards of adapting to university teaching and learning practices are generic and similarly experienced internationally. The student participants provide insights into what is entailed in coping with competing academic, social and workplace demands. Their observations and perceptions will be of interest to commencing students and their families, as well as university educators and administrators engaged in supporting new students. Producing graduates who are ethical and engaged citizens, critically enquiring and work-ready, requires universities to understand their commencing students and to explain the acquisition of these attributes. In Australia and South Africa, as in many other states, higher education policies seek to broaden participation among underrepresented student groups. Universities have responded with pathway programmes that attract, prepare and retain students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. To effectively equip these students for success in their studies, it is important to understand how they experience university. Student voices in transition explores how previously underrepresented students perceive, experience and learn to successfully adopt university learning practices.