This article presents 15 autoethnographical texts detailing student experiences at Beijing Normal University in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Contributions have been collected over 6 weeks between 15 February and 1 April 2020, edited by Hejia Wang (assisted by Moses Oladele Ogunniran and Yingying Huang), and supervised by Michael Peters. Through shared in-depth empirical feelings and representations from a wide variety of cultural, historical, and social contexts, the article outlines an answer to the question: How do students, connected virtually but separated physically in an internationalized university, deal with disruption brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic? Student testimonies offer reflections on Covid-19 and Chinese international education, experiences of online teaching and learning, reflections on university coping mechanisms, an account of realities and feelings related to changes in academic life, and discussions on coping strategies in Chinese international higher education. Contributors expose their individual feelings, effects, benefits, challenges, and risk management strategies. Collected at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, these testimonies are unable to offer systemic answers to challenges facing the whole world. However, these experiences and feelings will provide important inputs to global discussions about the future of the world, after Covid-19.

Microteaching practice is an important part of Pre-Service Physics Teacher (PsPT) Training Program adopting different approaches to inspire the acquisition of teaching skills by prospective teachers. Using psychomotor domain aspect of revised Bloom’s taxonomy to explore microteaching practice as it relates to physics teaching, this research examined the significant influences of the two approaches (Nigeria and China) identified on the teaching skill of PsPT and suggests the best ways of improving the teaching skill of PsPT through micro-teaching practices. Data were collected using the mixed-method research design of administering descriptive survey questionnaire on final year PsPT while a structured interview question was used to interview the teachers. It was found that the two approaches had significant influences on the teaching skill acquisition of PsPT through microteaching practices with respect to physics as a subject that requires motor skill, and that this can be improved through micro-teaching by a combination of theory with practice. Also, physics teacher educators need to focus on developing PsPTs’ psychomotor domain in line with time reform in microteaching practices to accommodate more time for PsPTs’ to master the subject concept of physics as a psycho motive subject. Keywords: micro-teaching practices, pre-service physics teacher, teaching skill acquisition, training program.

In Book 2 of The Peloponnesian War, the ancient Greek historian Thucydides describes the Plague of Athens which killed an estimated 75,000 people in 430 BC, the second year of the war. Thucydides is highly regarded as the first 'scientific' historian and it is easy to appreciate why given the extensive detail he provides of the plague's deadly symptoms: there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later. Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers. But internally it burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description; or indeed to be otherwise than stark naked. (p. 49, Bk 2, without notes) http://www.perseus. tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0200%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D49Reading Thucydides' account of the Plague of Athens, even though he was not present, one can understand the label of 'scientific history' and why Thucydides is regarded by some as one the greatest historians of all time, alongside Herodotus. Thucydides' work and a particular historical interpretation of the Peloponnesian War has become the basis for a framework assessing whether the US and China are destined for war at exactly the time of another great plague, COVID-19 a major global pandemic in 2019-2020. The stakes are very high as President Trump, deflecting responsibility for the ineptitude of his administration in managing the crisis, blames China and talks of cutting all ties with China, while China retaliates by indicating if that happened they would take Taiwan by force. 1 This latest escalation of tensions represents a new low-point in US-China relations and seems to verify the notion of 'Thucydides Trap' as a probably outcome for an escalating crisis that in its current form first emerged with Trump's anti-China election rhetoric.Graham Allison, a political scientist at John F. Kennedy School of Government coined the term 'Thucydides Trap' in his book Destined for War (2017). Writing for The Atlantic Allison (2015), taking his cue from The Peloponnesian War, asks the question 'The Thucydides Trap: Are the US and China Headed for War?' suggesting 'In 12 of 16 past cases in which a rising power has confronted a ruling power, the result has been bloodshed.' 2 For Allison 'The defining question about global order for this generation is whether Ch...

No abstract

This study compared students and lecturers perspective of university entrance examination using the Chinese Gaokao and Nigeria WAEC/UTME education system as a case study. Five objectives with five research questions were generated for this study and a descriptive survey research design of the ex-post facto type were used to answer the research questions. Both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used during the course of this study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select University of Ibadan in Nigeria and Beijing Normal University in China. A sample of 122 students and 27 lecturers in China and 100 students and 20 lecturers in Nigeria were used for the study. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts and simple percentage were used for the analysis of data. The findings from the study show that students' perspective of Gaokao in China is extremely tense and nervous which is the major cause of failing the examination. The findings also revealed that lecturers' perspective of Gaokao in China is that there should be another screening exercise for students after passing Gaokao. The findings equally indicated that students' perspective of WAEC/UTME is that score obtained from UTME examination should be used for admission for more than one year. Nigeria lecturers' perspective on WAEC/UTME is that the presence of Post-UTME screening exercise for students after passing UTME still remains the best. Similarly, the findings indicated that students and lecturers perspective of Gaokao and WAEC/UTME as university entrance examination in China and Nigeria respectively is that both examinations were tough and not easy to pass. While UTME requires PUTME before admission into Nigerian universities, Gaokao does not require additional exam before admission into Chinese universities. The study ended with recommending that Chinese government should embark on programmes that will reorient Chinese students on all examinations especially Gaokao. Students should see examinations as a test of knowledge and not a do or die affair to make them less nervous and reduce high rate of psychological disorder/disease. Nigerian government should allow scores obtained in the UTME to be used for admission for more than one year. This will reduce the high rate of students enrolling for the examination every year. Students and lecturers will also believe that UTME examination is not a mere extortion from the populace.