Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of Chinese traditional exercise such as t'ai chi and qigong (TCQ) on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: All prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trials, published in English or Chinese and involving the use of TCQ by patients with COPD, were searched in 10 electronic databases from their respective inceptions to July 2012. The methodological quality of all studies was assessed using the Jadad score. The selection of studies, data extraction, and quality assessment were performed independently by two raters. Results: In the results, 10 trials met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The meta-analysis demonstrated that compared with no exercise, TCQ had significant effects on 6-minute walk distance, forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), predicted FEV1 percentage, and St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire score. There were no significant differences in all outcomes between TCQ and other exercise training except 6-minute walk distance. Conclusions: In conclusion, TCQ might be beneficial with respect to physical performance, lung function, remission of dyspnea, and quality of life in patients with COPD; however, caution is needed to draw a firm conclusion because of the low methodological quality of the included trials.

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THIS EMPIRICAL STUDY ON early childhood education (ECE) in China looks into a randomly selected sample of 91 kindergartens and 178 classrooms providing ECE for children aged three to six in Zhejiang Province. Drawing on internationally established theories on ECE and adopting the Chinese Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (CECERS), a measurement instrument specially designed for quality assessment of ECE programs for Chinese children, the researchers have sought to find out how important and effective whole-group teaching is as compared with individual, child-centred free play. Some of the findings may appear alarming to ECE scholars in the west, and this phenomenon, as well as the limitations of this study, indicates fruitful avenues for future research.

This study aims to examine the views of 176 expert practitioners on the relevance and feasibility of applying the Chinese Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (CECERS), which is developed based on the Chinese version of Harms, Clifford, and Cryer's (2005) world renowned Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-revised (ECERS-R). The CECERS measures the quality of Chinese kindergartens, in which teachers have traditionally utilised whole-group teaching as the main approach to curriculum planning and delivery as well as organisation of learning environment. What constitutes quality kindergarten practice in the Chinese contexts and tension between 'objective' quality and culturally-appropriate quality will be discussed. Using a five-point Likert Scale, reviewers rated and provided comments for: (1) the quality of the instrument overall; (2) the appropriateness of the major changes made in CECERS in comparison to the ECERS-R; and (3) feedback for each quality dimension. Results, organised by the predetermined survey questions, show that, overall, reviewers highly support CECERS as a much needed, valuable, quality measure. They also support all the suggested changes to make the instrument culturally relevant and contextually meaningful. Meanwhile, they offer helpful suggestions for future revisions and pose some issues and concerns about the applicability of the instrument to measure quality practice in rural areas of China which are worth debating.