With a focus on Asian contexts, this book brings together knowledge on how values and practices, embedded and practised in the classroom, school, family, and the society at large, can influence students’ motivation, engagement and psychological well-being. The book synthesizes research on students and systems from culturally diverse Asian countries and economies, including Cambodia, Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and beyond. The book takes special interest in applying the insights gained from understanding students’ motivation, engagement, and well-being within their sociocultural contexts. Importantly, chapters in the book are grounded on thorough theoretical reviews and sound empirical findings, which together inform practical applications to enhance the motivation, engagement, and well-being of students in the Asian region. Taken together, this book will serve as a comprehensive and authoritative source for scholars, researchers, and practitioners (teachers, school policy makers, and educators in general) who are interested in examining and enhancing student motivation, engagement, and well-being from Asian perspectives.

"Easily the most informed and comprehensive analysis to date on how and why East Asian countries have achieved sustained high economic growth rates, this book] substantially advances our understanding of the key interactions between the governors and governed in the development process. Students and practitioners alike will be referring to Campos and Root's series of excellent case studies for years to come." Richard L. Wilson, The Asia Foundation Eight countries in East Asia--Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia--have become known as the "East Asian miracle" because of their economies' dramatic growth. In these eight countries real per capita GDP rose twice as fast as in any other regional grouping between 1965 and 1990. Even more impressive is their simultaneous significant reduction in poverty and income inequality. Their success is frequently attributed to economic policies, but the authors of this book argue that those economic policies would not have worked unless the leaders of the countries made them credible to their business communities and citizens. Jose Edgardo Campos and Hilton Root challenge the popular belief that East Asia's high performers grew rapidly because they were ruled by authoritarian leaders. They show that these leaders had to collaborate with various sectors of their population to create an environment that was conducive to sustained growth. This required them to persuade the business community that their investments would not be expropriated and to convince the broader population that their short-term sacrifices would be rewarded in the future. Many of the countries achieved business cooperation by creating consultative groups, which the authors call deliberation councils, to enhance accountability and stability. They also obtained popular support through a variety of wealth-sharing measures such as land reform, worker cooperatives, and wider access to education. Finally, to inhibit favoritism and corruption that would benefit narrow interest groups at the expense of broad-based development, these countries' leaders constructed a competent bureaucracy that balanced autonomy with accountability to serve all interests, including the poor. This important book provides useful lessons about how developing and newly industrialized countries can build institutions to implement growth-promoting policies.

The book explores the state of social studies education within selected East Asian societies and provides some insights into distinctive classroom practices. In an increasingly volatile and unpredictable world, the education of young people who both understand the contexts in which they are growing up and see the need for engaging with them is a top priority. This task falls to social studies education which carries the responsibility for inducting young people into their social world and helping them to see the role they can play within it. This is particularly important in East Asia where strong economic growth, long held cultural values and diverse political systems create an environment that challenges young people on multiple fronts. This book, with its team of regional authors, shows how different societies in the region are dealing with these challenges and what can be expected from future citizens. The book will appeal to policy makers, researchers and teachers interested in the current state of social studies education in East Asian societies.

The Springer International Handbook of Educational Development in Asia Pacific breaks new ground with a comprehensive, fine-grained and diverse perspective on research and education development throughout the Asia Pacific region. In 13 sections and 127 chapters, the Handbook delves into a wide spectrum of contemporary topics including educational equity and quality, language education, learning and human development, workplace learning, teacher education and professionalization, higher education organisations, citizenship and moral education, and high performing education systems. The Handbook is grounded in specific Asia Pacific contexts and scholarly traditions, using unique country-specific narratives, for example, Vietnam and Melanesia, and socio-cultural investigations through lenses such as language identity or colonisation, while offering parallel academic discourse and analyses framed by broader policy commentary from around the world.

This book explores students’ and teachers’ well-being from positive psychology and education perspectives and showcases interventions that optimize well-being in the school context. The book also covers crucial positive psychology and education topics/themes including character strengths, gratitude, growth mindset, grit, resilience, positive emotions, and well-being among others. The chapters include reviews and empirical research based on diverse methodologies, such as correlational, experimental, quasi-experimental, intervention, longitudinal, and qualitative approaches from six different Asian sociocultural contexts—Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Israel, Macau, and Philippines. All the chapters, provide practical pointers for teachers and educators who aim to nurture well-being in schools.

This book discusses how East Asia has introduced school and curricular reform to reflect democratic citizenship and globalized skills, knowledge, dispositions, and competencies in the 21st century. It also focuses on the tendencies and reasons students from Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore receive the highest scores in international students’ assessment such as PISA and TIMSS; yet their curiosity and motivation for learning are the lowest internationally. Moreover, Indonesian and Vietnamese students are likely to receive the lowest testing scores, yet their motivation for learning is quite high. It is worth investigating high academic achievement in East Asia in light of the trend towards democratization. The authors consider controversial issues such as whether the goals of democratic education should be the attainment of high academic scores, consideration of whether to implement competency-based curriculums or meritocratic systems of academic competition, and the provision of equal opportunities in the community of learning. The book illuminates each country’s struggle to realise school reform on the basis of its social and cultural settings, and looks at what connects East Asia’s past, present, and future.

No Miracle examines the role of institutions in bridging the 'digital divide' between rich and poor nations and what that means for the country's integration into a global economy. Shifting the debate from whether institutions are important to economic development to which institutions are important and how to build them, Mitchell Wigdor expertly addresses fundamental shortcomings in the existing development literature by identifying specific institutions that mediate the relationship between Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and economic growth. In doing so he challenges those concerned with development to shift their gaze from whether institutions are important to economic development to which institutions might be the focus of government efforts and how to build them. Detailed case studies of the economic development strategies of Singapore and Malaysia from 1960 demonstrate that institution-building and economic development may be as much about process as the specific policies governments pursue. Written in accessible, non-technical, language this book should be read by everyone concerned with economic growth both in less economically developed countries and the more prosperous including those in government, international organizations, NGOs, universities, policy makers and the private sector.

“A good read for anyone who wants to understand what actually determines whether a developing economy will succeed.” —Bill Gates, “Top 5 Books of the Year” An Economist Best Book of the Year from a reporter who has spent two decades in the region, and who the Financial Times said “should be named chief myth-buster for Asian business.” In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell distills his extensive research into the economies of nine countries—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China—into an accessible, readable narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished. Studwell’s in-depth analysis focuses on three main areas: land policy, manufacturing, and finance. Land reform has been essential to the success of Asian economies, giving a kick-start to development by utilizing a large workforce and providing capital for growth. With manufacturing, industrial development alone is not sufficient, Studwell argues. Instead, countries need “export discipline,” a government that forces companies to compete on the global scale. And in finance, effective regulation is essential for fostering, and sustaining growth. To explore all of these subjects, Studwell journeys far and wide, drawing on fascinating examples from a Philippine sugar baron’s stifling of reform to the explosive growth at a Korean steel mill. “Provocative . . . How Asia Works is a striking and enlightening book . . . A lively mix of scholarship, reporting and polemic.” —The Economist

"Finnish pupils’ success in international student assessment tests and the characteristics of the Finnish educational system are the focus of interest all around in the world. The significance of Finnish educational policy and societal atmosphere are continuously discussed. This book provides explanations, answers and reflections to these questions. Over 30 expert authors have contributed to this book by bringing their own specific research-based points of view.The second edition of the book introduces the new national curriculum for basic education that now provides guidelines for school-based curricula. Students’ learning with engagement and schools as learning communities are core visions of the reform. The authors also reflect on the PISA 2012 results. The book gives an example on how to use PISA information for national improvements. In Finland, all evaluations are enhancement-led and this also includes PISA measurements.The book illustrates how teaching and learning of different subjects is realized in Finnish schools and describes the essential characteristics and methods of teaching, learning materials and research on these issues.The book provides important insight and reflections to international researchers, teachers, students, journalists and policy makers, who are interested in teaching and learning in Finnish schools. It shows the results of the systematic and persistent work that has been done on education and schooling in Finland.The main features of education in Finland are: Strong equity policy.Teachers as autonomous and reflective academic experts.Flexible educational structures and local responsibility for curriculum development.Evaluation for improvements, not for ranking.No national testing, no inspectorate.Research-based teacher education.Teachers’ high competence in content knowledge and pedagogy.Trust in education and teachers."

This book constitutes a sociological, anthropological, and curricular inquiry into the factors surrounding high academic achievement rates of students in South Korea. Taking root in similar studies conducted around the exemplary nature of the Finnish education model, it explores the phenomenon of success in South Korea, uniquely connecting it to the scholarship and models for examining the recent shift in attention and popularity of Korean culture. The authors argue that Korean education or "K-edu" can also be studied and understood as a Hallyu and an exemplary form of education. Drawing on longitudinal qualitative studies spanning over 15 years, the authors advance understandings of Korean academic success beyond more generalized understandings of how Asian students learn and towards a holistic explanation for the case of Korea. As such, the book challenges the perception of Korean students as passive learners with a controlled learning culture and instead advocates the ways in which Korean students are leading a changing culture by utilizing all available resources and opportunities in the space of South Korea’s evolving ecological system of education. In addition, this book provides one explanation as to how students from East Asian countries achieve such excellent academic performance. A crucial exploration of the culture and growth of education systems in Asian countries, this book will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in Korean education and Korean students’ academic achievement as an emerging inquiry for both Korean studies and East Asian Cultural Studies. In addition, this book will also be informative for scholars of comparative education, sociology of education, educational policy, and postcolonial educational research in the world.