The Face of Secondary Education: Students’ Perceptions on the Functional Differences between Schools in Macau

Abstract

After the handover to China, the complexification of Macau educational circumstances, favored by the progressive expansion of free education coverage due to subsidy schemes introduced by the government and the exceptionally rapid economic growth due to the liberalization of the gambling market, significant pressure has been felt by local secondary schools in order to accommodate an increasing diversity of student and parental educational aspirations. Concerns are emerging whether the educational system, which is, in essence, a market regulated one, is responding to these new educational demands by providing students and parents with information and options or even by conceding them freedom of choice. Research was conducted in order to develop and validate a school perception survey that could be used to measure Macau secondary students' perceptions on the main characteristics of the educational offer of the respective schools. The instrument was developed based on an in-depth review of relevant literature. It uses 20 questions to capture students' perceptions on the characteristics of their school's curriculum organization and structure, teaching and learning, relationship students/teachers, school life and facilities and management/leadership. A factor and reliability analysis of preliminary results confirms the reliability and validity of the instrument as a measure of students' perceived quality of the educational offer of their respective school. Final results and the most noticeable findings of an in-depth analysis of the results will be presented.



Author Information
Carlos Vasconcelos-Lopes, University of Saint Joseph, Macao

Paper Information
Conference: ACEID2017
Stream: Education and post-colonialism

This paper is part of the ACEID2017 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon