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Confronting Cultural Challenges When Reconstructing the Teacher-Student Relationship in a Chinese Context
Abstract
Traditionally, the Chinese educational system is shaped by teacher-centeredness, meaning that the teacher directs and controls the design of the overall educational objective and the educational process. However, in the past three decades, Chinese educational institutions have gradually made initiatives to transform their teachercentered educational approach into student-centered learning in order to enhance student learning motivation and learning outcome.
... While acknowledging the ongoing efforts in Chinese universities to transform their classrooms into more student-centred learning environments (Li & Du, 2013), SVSJ implementation, as a student-led pedagogical method, seeks to diversify the knowledge being learned in classes through fostering student voice, in this case, in a context where student voice discourse is at an earlier, emerging stage than in previous SVSJ implementations. This is not to suggest that SVSJ is the only means to achieve learning goals effectively. ...
... Student-led pedagogy is not new to Chinese HE lecturers and students (Li & Du, 2013); however, stereotypically, Chinese classrooms are believed to be educator-centred, having a relatively high-power distance between lecturers and students, in which lecturers, viewed as knowledge authorities and experts, often direct and control the overall teaching and learning objectives and processes (Li & Du, 2013;Wang, 2023). In these environments, Chinese students are often viewed as quiet, passive recipients of knowledge with limited engagement and autonomy in their learning (Tam et al., 2009), and Chinese classrooms are seen to be lacking a strong tradition or history of student voice in pedagogical practices. ...
... Student-led pedagogy is not new to Chinese HE lecturers and students (Li & Du, 2013); however, stereotypically, Chinese classrooms are believed to be educator-centred, having a relatively high-power distance between lecturers and students, in which lecturers, viewed as knowledge authorities and experts, often direct and control the overall teaching and learning objectives and processes (Li & Du, 2013;Wang, 2023). In these environments, Chinese students are often viewed as quiet, passive recipients of knowledge with limited engagement and autonomy in their learning (Tam et al., 2009), and Chinese classrooms are seen to be lacking a strong tradition or history of student voice in pedagogical practices. ...
In China, traditional classrooms are believed to be teacher-centred, and lecturer-student relations are of a relatively high-power distance. Recent trends have witnessed initiatives by Chinese educators to make classrooms more student-centred and to make lecturer-student interactions more equal. However, this process has been slow and challenging as different, even opposing pedagogical values, epistemological traditions, and understandings of lecturer and student roles and relationships collide. This may be demonstrated more vividly when non-Chinese international students and faculty encounter local Chinese faculty and students in Chinese higher education (HE). Drawing on interviews with a non-Chinese international lecturer who initiated a student-led pedagogical method called the student voice for social justice (SVSJ) method in a mainland Chinese university and with her students, we explore how the lecturer and her students understand and experience this pedagogical method. Our findings show that despite some discrepancies in the lecturer’s and the students’ understandings of the theoretical or philosophical underpinnings of SVSJ, they all regard it as a pedagogical method which empowers students and diversifies the knowledge base in classrooms, achieving the philosophical aims of (re)distribution of knowledge, recognition of ‘the other’ as valuable members of the classroom, and representation of groups in educational processes. Despite these promising possibilities, the challenges observed still require careful reflection on participants’ social, cultural, and educational contexts when student-led pedagogies are implemented in Chinese classrooms or similar contexts.
... In contrast, Western society supports a democratic teacher-student relationship, in which teachers and students are seen as equal counterparts (Li & Du, 2013). Western teachers need to work hard to earn respect (Rushton, 2000) and respect is built in teacher-student interactions (Goodman, 2009). ...
... In China, teachers are viewed as masters and experts in class because they are the knowledge resource (Li & Du, 2013). Thus, in tradition, the Chinese educational system is teacher-centered, in which teachers guide the class and -focus on the maintenance of order‖ (Garrett, 2008, p. 35). ...
... Teachers as knowledge authority possess more power over students in the educational context in such culture. Thus, a type of hierarchical relationship is formed between teachers and students (Kirbebaek, Du & Jensen, 2013;Li & Du, 2013) and this hierarchy is accepted as a normal part of the society (Zhang, 2005). However, this hierarchy caused by large power distance results in less teacher-student interaction and students' inactive participation in class (Zhang, 2005). ...
This study explores the transformation of teacher–student relationship between expatriate Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) teachers and their students situating in the Australian educational context. The disparity of tradition between the two educational cultures influences substantially on communication between teachers and students within classroom. To better understand how CFL teachers’ background educational culture may impact their interaction with Australian students, focus group discussion data were applied as the data collection method. Findings reveal that at the beginning of their teaching practice CFL teachers’ understanding of teacher–student relationship influenced by their background educational culture had major impact on their strategies in teacher–student interaction in class. However, with the progress of teaching and meantime influenced by the Australian local educational culture, their behaviors for dealing with teacher–student relationship in class changed. Basically, their ways of handling teacher–student relationship transformed from a more Eastern guanxi tendency to a more Western rapport tendency. This transformation did not occur automatically and easily; it was achieved by the CFL teachers’ struggles and tribulations in the process of interacting with their Australian students. In an era of CFL teacher shortage, it is hoped that this study would shed some light on CFL teacher education.
... The teachers who are new to teaching are likely to experience difficulties in acting as PBL facilitators (Spronken-Smith & Harland, 2009), partly because they are not familiar with the principles and rules of PBL. The role change of teacher is highly dependent on teacher's willingness and ability to make such transformation, institutional support (Young & Papinczak, 2013), group size, facilitating skills, PBL preparedness (Morales-Mann, & Kaitell, 2001), social and cultural tradition (Li & Du, 2013), and so on. As for PBL teachers, they have to make best use of all resources and opportunities to foster their role change from traditional instructor to good facilitator (Ertmer & Simons, 2006). ...
... Chinese students are accustomed to passive learning and conforming to teachers' authority, which undermines PBL implementation to a large extent (Wang et al., 2008). Li and Du (2013) note that traditional teacher-student relationship makes it quite challenging for higher education institutes to develop a student-directed learning model in China. ...
... The Confucius educational tradition in China is manifested by teacher-centered education, teacher outlining path for students to follow, teacher not challenged or criticized, and so on (Hofstede, 1986). As Chinese teachers are expected to play several roles in terms of ethical model, learning model, and parental role (Li & Du, 2013), they are likely to formulate a conception of good teacher, who should take full responsibility for students, including their learning and personal development. Under this cultural tradition, the intention of dominating and directing student is not conventionally considered as a shortcoming of teacher; rather, it is something that a responsible teacher should do and it becomes virtue of good teachers. ...
Teachers' conceptions on their role produce significant influences upon their performance in the class and students' learning outcome. This study aims to investigate Chinese teachers' conceptions on their role as PBL (problem based learning) facilitators. A total of 32 semi-structured interviews are conducted, complementing by observations as cross-validating data source. Data analysis is carried out in a qualitative manner. The findings are: 1 The majority of the PBL teachers consider their role as either dominator or directors for students and tend to maintain strong dominance over students' learning process, 2 a few teachers take an "outsider" view by granting student high autonomy and keeping a minimum interference with student' learning process. The polarized conceptions on PBL teachers' role can be accounted partly by Chinese particular educational tradition and a lack in the knowledge regarding PBL. Therefore, to facilitate PBL implementation in China, a conceptual change to Chinese teachers regarding learning and good teacher, and more institutional support equipping teachers with PBL related knowledge and facilitating skills are needed.
... En cuanto a las creencias de los profesores chinos, por la influencia del contexto cultural y el confucianismo, en muchos trabajos se ha indicado que estas se encuentran centradas en el profesor mismo y se destaca el respeto a la educación y una armoniosa relación jerárquica entre profesor y estudiante (Hu, 2002;Huang et al., 2015;Li & Du, 2013;Zhang & Liu, 2014). Con el nuevo siglo, se ha implementado una reforma curricular en China con el fin de promover un cambio y pasar de un aprendizaje centrado en el profesor a uno enfocado al alumno (Wang & Clarke, 2014;Zhang & Liu, 2014). ...
... En esta, los profesores actúan como guías o comandantes en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes, dando instrucciones y gestionando todas las actividades mientras monitorean el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Los estudiantes simplemente obedecen las instrucciones y reciben el conocimiento de forma pasiva (Chen, 2015;Hu, 2002;Huang et al., 2015;Li, 2018;Li & Du, 2013;Zhang & Liu, 2014). Algunos estudios han sugerido que los valores confucianos tradicionales pueden haber impedido el cambio de los maestros chinos de un enfoque centrado en el maestro a uno centrado en el estudiante (Moloney & Xu, 2016;Wang & Clarke, 2014;Zhang & Liu, 2014), lo cual se presenta en muy pocos participantes del estudio. ...
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Las creencias pedagógicas de los profesores cumplen una función clave a la hora de marcar la práctica docente. Así, entender los factores contextuales que influyen en dichas creencias puede ayudar a mejorar y reformar la metodología educativa y elevar su eficacia. Basado en la teoría ecológica de Bronfenbrenner (1979) , este estudio expone en diferentes niveles los factores contextuales que influyen sobre las creencias de 20 profesores de español en ocho universidades chinas. Se revela, mediante los datos de entrevista, que dichos factores consisten en cuatro niveles: educación universitaria y experiencia intercultural (microsistema); política escolar, programa curricular y voluntad de los alumnos (mesosistema); entorno socioeconómico (exosistema), y cultura e ideología tradicional (macrosistema), los cuales también interactúan entre sí. El resultado ahonda en el entendimiento sobre la enseñanza del español en China, lo que genera conocimientos sobre la educación de otros idiomas distintos al inglés en el contexto asiático.
... In Chinese tradition, the education system is shaped by teacher-centeredness (Li & Du, 2013). From Xunzi "a person of noble character should respect his teachers" to "the teacher is lazy if the education is not rigorous", the teacher-student relationship was a non-equal relationship. ...
... From Xunzi "a person of noble character should respect his teachers" to "the teacher is lazy if the education is not rigorous", the teacher-student relationship was a non-equal relationship. The teacher is the representation of knowledge and wisdom (Li & Du, 2013), the status of the teacher is an unshakable authority for the students (叶子、庞丽娟，1999). Teachers and students are interpreted as educators and be-educated, controllers and obediencers (王俊菊、朱耀云，2010). ...
... In eastern countries, there has been a traditional teacherstudent relationship, in which teachers are viewed as persons of authority and power. Teachers might interpret humor as off-task behaviors, which they find disrespectful and challenging to their authority (Li & Du, 2013;Zhou & Li, 2015). Zhang (2005) claims that humor does not engage Chinese students and might even cause their anxiety, based on individualism and collectivism ideas. ...
... Tong and Tsung (2020) and Miller et al., (2017) proposed contrasting findings that support the effect of humor in many aspects of L2 classroom. In this study, participants come from Vietnam, in which the profound impact of Confucianism remains strong still; however, the findings in this study are also in contrast to suggestions of Li and Du (2013), Zhou and Li (2015) and Zhang (2005). This study strengthens the evidence that humor has a positive impact on L2 learning, no matter whether students from Confucius countries. ...
This study investigates the efficiency of humorous teaching videos integrated with the echo method in comparison with traditional teaching methods using humorous teaching handouts. There are 59 participants in this study divided into 2 groups of a quasi-experimental design. The findings indicate that the new teaching method design with humorous videos and echo method help learners gain higher learning outcomes, effectiveness of memorizing vocabulary and self-efficacy for learning & performance motivation. Educators are suggested to integrate humorous videos and the echo method in teaching Chinese. Future research should provide a selection standard of humorous videos in teaching Chinese. The impact of humorous videos on 6 dimensions of learning motivation in MSLQ should be further investigated.
... En cuanto a las creencias de los profesores chinos, por la influencia del contexto cultural y el confucianismo, en muchos trabajos se ha indicado que estas se encuentran centradas en el profesor mismo y se destaca el respeto a la educación y una armoniosa relación jerárquica entre profesor y estudiante (Hu, 2002;Huang et al., 2015;Li & Du, 2013;Zhang & Liu, 2014). Con el nuevo siglo, se ha implementado una reforma curricular en China con el fin de promover un cambio y pasar de un aprendizaje centrado en el profesor a uno enfocado al alumno (Wang & Clarke, 2014;Zhang & Liu, 2014). ...
... En esta, los profesores actúan como guías o comandantes en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes, dando instrucciones y gestionando todas las actividades mientras monitorean el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Los estudiantes simplemente obedecen las instrucciones y reciben el conocimiento de forma pasiva (Chen, 2015;Hu, 2002;Huang et al., 2015;Li, 2018;Li & Du, 2013;Zhang & Liu, 2014). Algunos estudios han sugerido que los valores confucianos tradicionales pueden haber impedido el cambio de los maestros chinos de un enfoque centrado en el maestro a uno centrado en el estudiante (Moloney & Xu, 2016;Wang & Clarke, 2014;Zhang & Liu, 2014), lo cual se presenta en muy pocos participantes del estudio. ...
Understanding teachers’ beliefs is critical to improving educational practice. There is a significant need for research on foreign language teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, as these can exert an influence on students’ learning outcomes. This study draws on Kember’s (1997) theorization of teaching beliefs to explore the beliefs of Spanish language teachers regarding their pedagogy in Chinese universities. Twenty teachers from the Spanish departments in eight Chinese universities were recruited as participants, and a Q-methodology analysis with supplementary interview data identified three types of pedagogical beliefs: “integrated capacity-building”, “ELE learning outcome-focused”, and “social interaction-focused”. The findings suggest that ELE teachers in China no longer subscribe to the traditional teaching methodology which places themselves at the class center, and have instead progressed along a continuum from teacher-centeredness to student-centeredness. With a novel focus on Spanish teachers’ beliefs in Chinese universities, this study provides insights into the teaching of languages other than English (LOTEs) in China, and helps to expand the methodological repertoire in the field of linguistic research.
... The findings of this study are in contrast to how the Chinese classroom discourse has generally been represented in the previous literature (Lantolf & Genung, 2002;Li & Du, 2013;Zhou & Li, 2015) which has claimed that spontaneous talk and humour might be seen as off-task behaviours challenging teachers' authority and thus disrespectful to teachers. These "typical" features of the Chinese classroom culture were not prominent in the classes and this largely changed students' presumptions through the ICS program in this study. ...
... That said, caution should also be used when advocating humour in the L2 classroom. On the one hand, maintaining an authoritarian profile of teachers has a practical value to secure the educational process and order (Li & Du, 2013). On the other hand, as humour has the power to offend as well as to amuse, teachers must handle it with much care (Forman, 2011). ...
... Therefore, it is important for both the trainee and the supervisor to be aware of power issues as well as their effects on the learning process and outcomes in each specific cultural context (Kirkebaek, Du, & Jensen, 2013). Traditionally, and especially so in Chinese culture under the Confucian philosophy of li (礼), the teacher/student (or senior/junior) relationship is expected to be highly hierarchical: The teacher regards herself as (and is also expected by students to be) a master dominating the teaching and learning process; students tend to conform to the master's direction and guidance (Li & Du, 2013). In this situation, students are in a humble and submissive position; behaviors challenging the teacher are more likely to be perceived as impolite and offensive. ...
... This is especially critical in a Chinese culture that upholds role hierarchy between the senior (the SFT) and the junior (the BFT) as a norm. Specifically, the supervisor's genuine disclosure of her struggles, detailed debriefing of in-session moves, invitation of BFTs' sharing of lived experiences, and addressing these with understanding, encouragement, affirmation, and interactive dialogue after each session assured the BFTs, a (Li & Du, 2013). All this facilitated the BFT's learning. ...
This article explores family therapy trainees' subjective experiences of working as cotherapists with a supervisory-level therapist in a Chinese context, regarding their perceptions of and positioning in it and also their opinions on the benefits and/or pitfalls of cotherapy. Individual interviews with a total of six cotherapists revealed three themes: (1) Cotherapy was perceived as an experiential learning journey that evolved from anxiety and excitement to empowerment and nurturing; (2) a collaborative master-apprentice relationship of openness, trust, and mutual respect was developed with both sides' interactive effort, which included common commitment and concern for the client, the supervisor's awareness and explicit address of the role hierarchy, principle setting prior to the cooperation, and honest pre- and-postsession sharing and discussion; (3) the dual-purpose supervisor-trainee cotherapy brought direct benefits for all involved parties and for others. The findings have useful implications for integrating treatment and training for optimal training/learning outcomes and for advancing knowledge transfer from senior to junior and from academia to the field, with reference to local cultural characteristics.
© 2020 Family Process Institute.
... At the same time, early career teachers' perceived ability to create and maintain a nice atmosphere and functional teacher-student relationship as well as to use pupils as a learning resource to plan their work cross-loaded on reflection in the classroom. A plausible reason might be that the teacher-student relationship tends to be hierarchical in China, which means teachers tend to dominate the process of education, and students are more likely to conform to the guidance provided by teachers (Li and Du, 2013). The results expand our understanding of the situational characteristics of teachers' professional agency in China. ...
The aim of the present study is to investigate early career teachers’ professional agency in the classroom. In addition, the association between early career teachers’ professional agency in the classroom and the burnout they experienced was examined. In this study, 779 early career teachers, teaching in primary and junior secondary schools in China, responded to the study survey in 2021. The Mplus statistical package (version 8.4) was used to conduct the analysis and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that early career teachers’ professional agency in the classroom consists of three elements: motivation, self-efficacy beliefs, and skills to manage new learning, which entails building a collaborative environment by transforming teaching practices and reflection in the classroom. The results also showed that early career teachers’ professional agency in the classroom was negatively related to their burnout.
... These challenges, such as large class sizes, hierarchical teacher-student relationships, and institutional constraints, often conflict with Western-developed DAP principles (Zhu and Zhang 2008;Li and Du 2013). These barriers suggest the need for tailored educational programmes and professional development initiatives that support teachers in bridging the gap between theory and practice. ...
... In recent years, PBL has been used in higher education teaching in China. Many teachers and curriculum designers are experimenting with PBL in the medical field, both at the curriculum level [25] and the institutional level [26]. There are several challenges in introducing PBL into Chinese education [27]. ...
... Western teacher-student or lecturer-students' emotional engagement is situated in a context of a more equitable relationship, whereas the Chinese EMI lecturer-students' emotional engagement, to some extent, had overtones of a relationship akin to that of a parent, role model and authority figure. There is literature reporting this phenomenon throughout the different sectors of Chinese education (Han, 2020;Li & Du, 2013). ...
... Western teacher-student or lecturer-students' emotional engagement is situated in a context of a more equitable relationship, whereas the Chinese EMI lecturer-students' emotional engagement, to some extent, had overtones of a relationship akin to that of a parent, role model and authority figure. There is literature reporting this phenomenon throughout the different sectors of Chinese education (Han, 2020;Li & Du, 2013). ...
This Chapter provides the background to the EMI research undertaken which has provided the evidence base for this book. It acknowledges internationalization of higher education within the current neoliberal global economy, and the swift move in the countries of the Expanding Circle towards EMI delivery as a strategy to expand academics’ and universities’ global agendas. This Chapter points to the theoretical and methodological limitations in current EMI research as convenient and unsystematic. Consequently, the knowledge generation to inform EMI teaching is limited. It concludes with an outline of the structure of the book highlighting the key foci for each Chapter.
... Western teacher-student or lecturer-students' emotional engagement is situated in a context of a more equitable relationship, whereas the Chinese EMI lecturer-students' emotional engagement, to some extent, had overtones of a relationship akin to that of a parent, role model and authority figure. There is literature reporting this phenomenon throughout the different sectors of Chinese education (Han, 2020;Li & Du, 2013). ...
In the previous two Chapters, the pedagogical ideology of the participating lecturers and the subsequent reality of their ‘instruction’ and ‘engagement’ was examined. From a psycholinguistic perception this Chapter focuses on the Chinese lecturers’ L1-influenced English in their teaching. The data indicates that cross-linguistic influence was the cognitive reality for the EMI lecturers and provided a scaffolding role in their teaching. This research suggests that although the EMI lecturers’ L1 and L2 are two genetically distant languages, they were interdependent and formed a stable construct that served as a powerful language resource in their teaching. Theoretically, this Chapter moves beyond a structuralist view of judging language transfer as right or wrong, correct or incorrect, perfect or deficit. It has implemented a post-structuralist interpretation of this phenomenon by proposing ‘explicit’ and ‘implicit’ transfer and acknowledging L1-influenced EMI lecturers’ English as a temporary form of languaging within the translaguaging process.
... Western teacher-student or lecturer-students' emotional engagement is situated in a context of a more equitable relationship, whereas the Chinese EMI lecturer-students' emotional engagement, to some extent, had overtones of a relationship akin to that of a parent, role model and authority figure. There is literature reporting this phenomenon throughout the different sectors of Chinese education (Han, 2020;Li & Du, 2013). ...
In Chap. 3 , the pedagogical positions and instructional practices of the EMI lecturers were analyzed. This Chapter continues the examination of actual teaching practice in EMI classes by focusing on the Chinese EMI lecturers’ specific engagement strategies. Examining engagement allows this research to respond to two concerns raised in current literature: (i) that expository pedagogy and its aligned instruction will generate less classroom engagement compared to constructivist teaching; and (ii) there is less engagement and interaction in a class when teaching is conducted in EMI. The aim of this Chapter is not to measure the effectiveness of learning in relation to engagement, but rather to capture the characteristics of the engagement strategies implemented by the participants. Data reveal a general pattern in the EMI lecturers’ implementation of engagement strategies: cognitive engagement was the dominant, most frequently used engagement strategy, and conversely, emotional, managerial and behavioral engagement was observed with very limited frequency. The arguments being proposed are that the characteristics of these Chinese EMI lecturers’ engagement strategies are shaped by their pedagogical, educational and cultural ideologies; and that English as the medium plays a secondary role in patterns of engagement observed in this research.
... Western teacher-student or lecturer-students' emotional engagement is situated in a context of a more equitable relationship, whereas the Chinese EMI lecturer-students' emotional engagement, to some extent, had overtones of a relationship akin to that of a parent, role model and authority figure. There is literature reporting this phenomenon throughout the different sectors of Chinese education (Han, 2020;Li & Du, 2013). ...
Acknowledging the critical nature of EMI lecturers as bi- or multilinguals, this Chapter continues the investigation into cross-linguistic influence now turning attention to its pragmatic features. It focuses on the Chinese lecturers’ metalinguistic skills, particularly the L1 (Chinese) to L2 (English) transfer in their use of pragmatic markers (PMs). The investigation is informed by current studies arguing that highly proficient L2 language users do not necessarily make the most effective teachers, and the capacity to employ pragmatic strategies is essential to engage students’ learning; and that from amongst all the competencies in which lecturers should be proficient, one of the most essential is pragmatic competence. This Chapter provides an analysis of the participating EMI lecturers’ verbal characteristics of the PMs they implemented in their teaching. Whilst acknowledging individual differences, the trend of PM use and the degree of pragmatic transfer revealed in this group’s EMI teaching can be explained in terms of their pedagogical ideologies and subsequent practice, culturally influenced teacher-student relationships, the EMI discipline and its relevant subject matter and the lecturers’ language cognition as L2 users.
... Inadequate management of the researcher's positionality, subjectivity, and power status can have far-reaching methodological consequences, resulting in, for instance, insufficient or biased data (Savvides et al. 2014). This is a particular imperative in Confucian-influenced settings such as the Chinese educational context (Li and Du 2013), as the traditional power imbalance between established and early-career academics (including students) is underpinned by strong cultural beliefs. ...
To date, research on elite interviews has primarily focused on political or business settings in European and Anglo-American contexts. In this study, we examine the procedures involved in conducting elite interviews in academic settings, drawing on fieldwork with 53 senior scholars at 10 universities across five regions of northern China. We provide a detailed, critically reflective account of strategies to gain access, develop trust, and manage the power imbalance. Our account reveals the importance of the researcher's professional identity in gaining participants' trust and determining adequate forms of reciprocity.
... One may expect that students would experience hierarchical and formal classroom discourse, featuring a high level of respectfulness to teachers and a formality of personal relationships-these features are indeed how the Chinese classroom with a Confucius heritage is represented in the literature (e.g. Jia, 2006;Li & Du, 2013;Tang, 2010). However, the findings of this study differ from the previous literature and speak to the "non-traditional" classroom discourse in the SA program, which potentially promoted the symbolic dimension of language and culture learning. ...
This chapter will recap the theoretical and methodological issues related to using an ecological approach to SA, and it will summarise and discuss the ecologically oriented views on each of the constructs covered in Chapters 2–5. It will first discuss an important ideology underpinning our adoption of the ecological perspective; that is, the assumption that studying in a foreign country, to a great extent, means learning in a multilingual space. This will be followed by discussion on the redefined goals and constructs of language education from the ecological perspective, elucidating how these align with the multilingual assumption of SA. We will systematically contrast how the ecological perspective differs from or adds to other theoretical perspectives on SLA. Finally, this chapter will discuss our ecologically oriented methodology, which will inform future research.
... Another issue is that in China, teachers are the controller of the whole class and students are only listening to their teachers for knowledge gaining. Therefore, teacher-student relationship in a Chinese context is worse, because it has curbed students' ability of creation and innovation [6]. Students are unable to learn more effectively, because they always believe that their teachers are totally right. ...
... gender, age, language, job rank) of the involved personnel and in the interpersonal, organisational or cultural rules between the sending and receiving end (Wang and Nicholas, 2005). Hong Kong, being a Chinese region preserving traditional 'Confucian heritage' on the one hand, teachers there are highly respected (Li and Du, 2013), and the importance of maintaining harmony in disagreement tend to characterise the KT process as being under the knowledge sender's dominance and/or the receiver's obedience and passivity in general (Leung, 2012;Wong, 2015). However, being a developed international metropolitan embracing cultural variety and westernised values on the other hand, the teacher-student hierarchy has been shrinking and Hong Kong adult learners are receptive to new learning models (Kennedy, 2002). ...
This article reports on the outcome of an exploratory study on a university–agency collaboration in a Chinese context for transferring social work knowledge from academia to the field and beyond. A six-stage process characterised by interactive contributions from the university and the agency in question was identified from the trainees’ narratives of the content, process and their subjective experiences with the three-year collaboration. The two parties co-constructed and adapted knowledge oriented for a specific clientele and agency context, and they implemented the intervention together with underlying theories and ways of thinking. Through interactive practising and coaching, knowledge was indigenised and disseminated into and beyond the agency. The study highlighted the trainees’ active participation, the deep collaboration between the two parties and the trusting relationship within the changing power dynamics, and the comprehensive planning at the organisational level for a fully sustainable transfer of social work knowledge with tacit characteristics. Multiple implications for continuing professional education in social work are drawn.
... This could be because that the collectivist cultures in Asia prioritise the group over the self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991), and value modesty as a virtue (Spencer-Oatey & Ng, 2001). Furthermore, in traditional Asian education culture, teachers and parents are always placed as authorities lecturing to students, denying challenges from students (Li & Du, 2013). The imbalanced power relationship and didactic curricular mode could also undermine students' self-confidence (Wubbels & Brekelmans, 2005). ...
Scholars are calling increasingly for educational reform to embed meaningful out-of-class events in the current curriculum, in order to enhance students’ generic competency development. Towards this goal, featuring self-confidence as an important generic competency, this mixed-method study explores key characteristics of extracurricular activities that lead to enhancement of students’ self-confidence. Based on an extracurricular program designed for developing students’ generic competencies, including self-confidence, questionnaire data was collected from 423 secondary school students in Hong Kong alongside 133 reflective journals. Four important activity characteristics—i.e. authenticity, being challenging, expressivity and reflectivity—have been identified to inform future activity and curricular design.
... Firstly, Western academics have long written about how the inherited Confucian cultural values and beliefs have shaped Chinese thinking and behaviour (Hofstede, 1986;Biggs, 1996;Marton, Dall'Alba, & Tse, 1996;Du & Hansen, 2005;Chan & Rao, 2010;Deng, 2011;Wu, 2011). These have helped explain why Chinese learners are generally concerned with reconciliation, harmony, balance, restrictions on behaviour caused by saving face (Bond, 1992), the need to compromise in group situations (Chan, 1999), and the student-teacher relationship, the latter of which places emphasis on students' respect for teachers and teachers' parental care for students (Li & Du, 2013;Wang & Du, 2014). However, Confucian ideals are less explicatorily powerful when analysing the behaviours of younger Chinese students, especially those who were born after the 1990s and grew up with McDonalds, Japanese cartoons, smartphones and music from the rest of the world. ...
... Sharpe & Gopinathan, 2002). Thus also the so-called Nordic model of Education and the experience with problem-based learning have been objects of interest in PRC for example (Du, Liu, Toft, & Sun, 2010;Du, Su, & Liu, 2013;Li & Du, 2013). ...
Lutheran Christianity and Confucian Philosophy share a premise: As schools of thoughts and systems of mentality, they seek to teach respect of governing authorities, while at the same time teaching personal moral and work ethics. In Nordic states such as Denmark, as well as in the People’s Republic of China, respectively Lutheran Christianity and Confucian Philosophy as systems of mentality have played a central role in the development of educational bodies and national education systems. The question is, however, which role and to which extent and not least: What are the preconditions for exploring this role? This chapter explores and discusses how such phenomena which are often characterized as religious can form part of comparative educational analysis. Examining the presence of Christian-Lutheran and Confucian heritages and pasts in recent educational politics, the chapter discusses the theoretical history of such ideas, more specifically how twentieth century sociology and organizational theory have dealt with the two phenomena in question, namely to understand them as part of economy and development rather than as religions. From that basis, the chapter provides examples of how Lutheranism and Confucianism were used in nation-state building in the two countries in the late nineteenth century. In light of this the chapter concludes that an exploration of the significance of the two systems in question should be aware of their role, not as religious systems, but as national answers to the challenges of economic and cultural globalization.
... Moreover, how people perceive teachers' role and their relationship with students in China also produces significant impact upon the implementation of PBL. Traditional teacher-student relationship highlighting teachers' dominance over teaching and learning process may undermine the implementation of PBL which requires the teachers to change their role from the instructor to the facilitator (Li & Du, 2013). Chinese teachers may recognize the value of granting autonomy to students, however, they are still likely to maintain high interference with student learning process (Li & Du, 2015), which is inherently contradictory to the spirit of PBL emphasizing student-directed learning (De Graaff & Kolmos, 2003). ...
Instituting PBL in different national and cultural contexts can be a challenging task. This study explores PBL (problem based learning) implementation in a single disciplinary course in the domain of humanities in China, with a particular focus on students' learning outcomes and their attitudes towards PBL. A qualitative research approach is adopted for data collection and analysis. We have conducted 14 interviews and collected all students' final project products as complementary data source. The main findings are: Firstly, PBL leads to better learning outcomes in terms of interdisciplinary learning, self-directed learning, problem solving, creative thinking, communication, as well as knowledge retention; secondly, students' attitudes towards PBL differ: Although some students favour PBL approach, other students tend to have mixed attitudes towards PBL and somehow stick to the value of conventional educational approach. To enhance students' recognition of PBL in China, one needs not only to show students the effectiveness of PBL, but also to transform the conception of learning in students' mind.
... Danish educational culture is characterized by a low power distance and higher level of equity in teacher-student relationships and by students' active role in choosing teaching and learning activities (Egekvist, 2012). Beliefs about characteristics of Danish education identify a great difference in the role of teachers and teacher-student relationships in relevant literature about China (Du & Hansen, 2005;Li & Du, 2013). ...
This paper presents a qualitative study of immigrant Chinese teachers’ professional identity and beliefs about the teacher-student relationship in an intercultural context. Theoretically, this study takes its departure from a sociocultural perspective on understanding professional identity. The empirical analysis in the study drew mainly upon ethnographic interviews with a group of Chinese language teachers in Denmark concerning their life experiences, perceptions, and beliefs. The results of this study suggest that teachers’ beliefs about their roles as teachers and about student-teacher relationships are shaped by both their prior experiences and backgrounds and the current social and cultural contexts in which they are situated. Changes of context (e.g., from China to Denmark) often lead to a transformation of their professional identity and beliefs. Being a teacher in an intercultural context often exposes them to the confrontation of diverse challenges and dilemmas. On one hand, teachers in this study generally experienced a transformation from being a moral role model, subject expert, authority and parental role to being a learning facilitator and culture worker. On the other hand, they developed diverse individualized coping strategies to handle student-teacher interactions and other aspects of teachers’ professional identity.
The book gives an overview national priorities and the need to prepare students for a globalized world, especially in fostering responsible citizenship for a diverse student body. It showcases innovative approaches, like advancements in STEM education spurred by the pandemic. Real-world examples from across the globe illuminate initiatives promoting inclusivity and empowering student voices. Furthermore, seasoned educators offer insightful reflections on mindfulness in the classroom and the enduring impact of online learning. Ultimately, the book challenges readers to ponder a critical question: Are schools driving societal progress, or merely reacting to external forces? It leaves us with a call to action, urging readers to consider the proposed solutions and become active participants in the ongoing quest to elevate educational quality worldwide.
Prof. Dr. Devin G. THORNBURG, Adelphi University, US
For effective communication, interlocutors must be cognizant of lingua-cultural aspects in context-dependent situations. Among others, they include culturally and linguistically diverse university settings where students are tempted to complain about grades to teachers and request grade changes. To reduce the negative impact of these speech acts, students may resort to compliments whose utilization varies from culture to culture. This study investigated the attitudes of 146 undergraduate Emirati students towards complimenting an instructor from a different lingua-cultural background before negotiating a grade at a university in the United Arab Emirates that uses English as the medium of instruction. Data were collected using a survey and a discourse completion task. Results show that 49% of the respondents thought that it would be appropriate to use a compliment prior to a complaint about a grade or a request for regrading. Students primarily complimented their teacher's teaching skills and effort in teaching. The syntactic structures of their compliments mainly included You+V+NP (You+Verb+Noun Phrase). Results highlight the significance of considering interlocutors' lingua-cultural backgrounds and the potential impacts of an ulterior motive behind a compliment in deciding whether or not to produce one. If it is used, topics (i.e., what is complimented upon) to include in the compliment must be chosen delicately, considering the cross-cultural nature of the context and social status of the interlocutors.
In addition to enabling students to gain knowledge, education aims to make them competent, confident, and enthusiastic learners. Using TIMSS 2019 data from eighth graders in mathematics classrooms in Hong Kong (N = 1146) and England (N = 1981), this study explored the relevance of classroom management and instructional clarity to students' mathematics self-concept and value, academic emotions (i.e., enjoyment and boredom) and mathematics achievement by using a latent multi-group SEM analysis. The findings corroborated the control-value theory and indicated that classroom management was not always beneficial to the increase of students' enjoyment and achievement in Hong Kong, but the favorable effects of classroom management on academic emotions and achievement were observed in England. Additionally, instructional clarity has been demonstrated to improve students' enjoyment and achievement in mathematics while reducing boredom in both groups, with the advantage being greater in Hong Kong classrooms. The limitations and implications are then discussed.
This study examined the knowledge development of teacher–student relationships (TSRs) for Chinese pre-service teachers in an outbound teacher education programme in Canada. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to assess the TSR development of 22 Chinese pre-service teachers who participated in the programme. The findings indicated that pre-service teachers’ TSR knowledge had developed across three dimensions of ‘nature’, ‘outcomes’ and ‘how-to’ owing to the design of the programme, supportive and professional network, transcultural reciprocal learning context and practical experiences participants had acquired from China and Canada. The pre-service teachers could thus develop their TSR knowledge in a co-constructed, reflective and practice-oriented manner.
While authentic language learning and use in the SA context are valuable, reception and transmission of authentic content are not sufficient to achieve the ultimate goal of language education, since on its own, this fails to bridge any cultural and/or historical gaps. Taking an ecological perspective, this chapter will argue that the integration of culture in language education should move beyond a cultural orientation towards an intercultural orientation. Based on this, the importance of adding a symbolic dimension to language learning will be highlighted. The chapter will answer three questions: (1) How did the students perceive their culturally and interculturally oriented learning in the SA program? (2) To what extent did the SA program facilitate the development of their symbolic competence? (3) How can we better integrate the symbolic dimension in the SA program? The findings will illustrate that experiencing and engaging with “diversity” was the essence of SA. Students’ culturally and interculturally oriented developments built up their fundamental cultural knowledge and the necessary intercultural mentality for exploring the symbolic dimension of language education. However, more explicit guidance is required to raise students’ awareness of the importance of symbolically oriented learning and symbolic competence.
Culture is an indispensable part of our lives. We live in a community
in which we share common attitudes, beliefs, norms and behaviors.
Culture is the glue that brings people together, guides and governs our
behavior in groups. The analogy states that an individual is not an island,
culture is our continent and everyone is a piece of this continent, a part
of a main (Brown, 2007). It helps us to understand our responsibilities
and expectations for the group that we are in. In the culture definition,
Matsumoto (2000) highlights some common characteristics of culture as
a system of rules, dynamics, groups and units, attitudes, values, beliefs,
norms, behaviors communicated across generations and have potential to
change across time. These keywords prove that culture and community are
tightly interrelated and these concepts form a template to live as a group.
Teachers' perception of the factors influential on teacher-student relationship: A phenomenological analysis Teacher-student relationship is not just a simple interaction between its two sides, but rather a complete transaction that is formed in a context of the effective factors. This study aimed to understand the factors influencing this relationship from the teachers' point of view. It was a qualitative research with phenomenological design, which tried to describe these factors, deeply. Participants included 19 primary school teachers (12 females, 7 males) selected from public primary schools in Shirāz city through purposive sampling method and they participated in the semi-structured interviews. The teachers' viewpoint about the students' classroom behaviors and specific characteristics that are important for their relationship, the classroom trajectories that can be used to communicate with the students, factors outside the teacher/student circle, which affect their relationship with each other, and the qualities of the teachers' mood, beliefs and motivation that augment their relationship with the students were extracted as findings of this study. These components made it possible to get comprehensive dimensions of the teachers' viewpoints on this research's concern. The results could explain the possible substrates for the positive intervention in a student-teacher relationship.
This qualitative study concerns foreign language teacher identity construction, where the focal participants are four non-native Chinese-speaking teachers (NNCSTs) working in a higher educational context in Denmark. The study aims to go beyond the current prevailing research on native speaking (NS) teachers by making NNCSTs’ challenges and contributions visible and meaningful. It attempts to raise awareness of NNCSTs’ voices and seek better understanding of their identities as foreign language teachers. Data are gathered from in-depth questionnaires, audio-recorded interviews, classroom observations and field notes over a period of four years. Participants’ perceptions of native Chinese-speaking teachers’ (NCSTs) pedagogical practices and their critical reflections on personal and professional traits as effective language teachers are examined. The roles of non-nativeness in a non-Chinese working environment are also explored. The study concludes that being a NNCST does not create barriers in a local Danish context. Rather, non-native speaker status has positive advantages over teacher-student relationships and interactions. NNSCTs’ beneficial personality traits, comparatively high sensitivity to linguistic and cultural differences, empathetic understanding of students’ learning trajectory, along with their constant and conscious development of locally appropriate practices, altogether enhance the process of professional identity construction.
The authors examined how three social-motivational factors?approachability of teacher, relationship goal of students, and perception of cheating norms?affect the cheating behavior of business students in China and Hong Kong. It was found that the relationship goal of students and perceived cheating norms were significant predictors of their cheating behavior. Location difference was a moderator that strengthened the effects of these two independent variables on cheating behavior differently in China and Hong Kong. However, there were no direct or interaction effects for teacher's approachability and cheating behavior. The results provided some practical implications for promoting academic integrity in business schools and universities in China and Hong Kong.
This paper presents a qualitative study of immigrant Chinese teachers' professional identity and beliefs about the teacher-student relationship in an intercultural context. Theoretically, this study takes its departure from a sociocultural perspective on understanding professional identity. The empirical analysis in the study drew mainly upon ethnographic interviews with a group of Chinese language teachers in Denmark concerning their life experiences, perceptions, and beliefs. The results of this study suggest that teachers' beliefs about their roles as teachers and about student-teacher relationships are shaped by both their prior experiences and backgrounds and the current social and cultural contexts in which they are situated. Changes of context (e.g., from China to Denmark) often lead to a transformation of their professional identity and beliefs. Being a teacher in an intercultural context often exposes them to the confrontation of diverse challenges and dilemmas. On one hand, teachers in this study generally experienced a transformation from being a moral role model, subject expert, authority and parental role to being a learning facilitator and culture worker. On the other hand, they developed diverse individualized coping strategies to handle student-teacher interactions and other aspects of teachers' professional identity.
This paper is a reconsideration of the nature of teaching and learning in the language teacher education course room. Drawing broadly on sociocultural perspectives of Lave and Wenger and Vygotskian models of cognitive apprenticeship, it considers how to design the course room as a learning environment. It begins with a critique of technical-rational discourses of teacher education, one of the implications of which has been to assert the primacy of the social construction of teacher identity. We present the case for the course room as a community of practice where teachers learn through engaging in activities and discourses, mediated through cultural artifacts. A community of practice is also shaped by larger systems of power, which are reproduced in the micro-context of the course room. Teacher learning is a site of struggle over activities, discourses, tools and identity because of its situated nature within institutional, historical and cultural contexts. A revised role for teacher educators in shaping an emerging course room culture is presented, acknowledging the realities of power and ideology that influence the daily practices in the course room.
Communication skills, as defined by Burleson and Samter (1990), were examined in the teacher‐student relationship. Three questions guided this investigation: (a) with regard to effective teaching, what are students’ perceptions of the importance of communication skills and immediacy behaviors? (b) what is the relationship between students’ perceptions of teachers’ use of communication skills, immediacy behaviors, motivation and learning? and (c) do male and female students differ in their perceptions of communication skill and immediacy behaviors in regard to importance, motivation, and learning? Two studies were conducted. Study one found that students reported referential skill, ego support, and conflict management as being most important to effective teaching. Study two found referential skill, ego support, and immediacy to have a strong relationship with student learning and motivation. Some sex differences also were found and explored in both study one and two.
This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness.
Person-centered education is a counseling-originated, educational psychology model, overripe for meta-analysis, that posits that positive teacher-student relationships are associated with optimal, holistic learning. It includes classical, humanistic education and today’s constructivist learner-centered model. The author reviewed about 1,000 articles to synthesize 119 studies from 1948 to 2004 with 1,450 findings and 355,325 students. The meta-analysis design followed Mackay, Barkham, Rees, and Stiles’s guidelines, including comprehensive search mechanisms, accuracy and bias control, and primary study validity assessment. Variables coded included 9 independent and 18 dependent variables and 39 moderators. The results showed that correlations had wide variation. Mean correlations (r= .31) were above average compared with other educational innovations for cognitive and especially affective and behavioral outcomes. Methodological and sample features accounted for some of the variability.
Most corporate owners and leaders are successful teachers (also read as trainers) or coaches, and they take certain steps in their own way to pass along what they have learned to their people or employees. Teachers continue to learn. In this paper, the practitioner-researchers talk about how one can be a good teacher; they are asking questions or raising issues to find out more on how to be a good teacher. The various pointers, among other things, include: being an ever willing teacher, applying different strokes for different folks and giving students carrots and incentives (or giving them
something to hold onto) as well as applying a variety of teaching methods.
We studied and compared the views of Chinese and American high school students as to what attendance at school should achieve, and what brings success in work. The worlds of school and work were perceived by American students to be related, but not so by Chinese students. American students are more firm in the view that school should teach them to understand science, think critically, be useful to society and consider the family first. In contrast, Chinese students showed greater preference that school should teach them to face challenges, creatively sacrifice, and respect authority, and to prepare them to earn money for respect, and luxuries, and to enter high status colleges and jobs. Significant country by sex interaction effects were found, indicating that generalizations about cultural differences which ignore gender are suspect.
This study proposes the ideal role of teachers through the examination of Plato, Confucius, Buber, and Freire on the subject. Teachers not only contribute to the development of individuals and societies but also attain self-realization through teaching. As such, the role of teachers is important as a goal as well as a means. To examine such role, this study selects four major approaches to understanding teaching. Plato regards teaching as guidance into objective knowledge through the reasoned understanding of causes. Confucius regards teaching as leading self-cultivation. Buber sees the role of teachers as building a relationship with their students. Freire focuses on critical consciousness towards oppressed situations. This study regards the role of teachers as a complex of various aspects. Thus, it tries to show a more complete understanding of the role of teachers through the synthesis and comparison of these four aforementioned approaches.
This article describes how a multidisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum was established at the School of Stomatology at Wuhan University (WHUSS) in China for preclinical education in a seven-year dental school program. Based on positive feedback from a modified PBL program implemented in one discipline, a multidisciplinary PBL curriculum was established. PBL training for facilitators and students, development of resource materials, curriculum design, and case writing were done in a manner that is consistent with the characteristics and learning style preferences of Chinese dental students. About 80 percent of the lectures were kept in the new PBL program. The multidisciplinary PBL curriculum has been successful in helping dental students mentally construct an understanding of the interrelationship between dental knowledge and basic science concepts. The experience at WHUSS indicates that there are clear benefits for students in the PBL format. A benefit to faculty is that PBL tutorial facilitators were partly liberated from their traditional roles and developed additional skills for facilitating. However, conflict arises when PBL-trained students encounter the traditional exam-centered education system.
Chinese students experience many difficulties in developing communicative competence in English in their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses in China. This essay provides cultural information that may be useful for researchers and American EFL teachers of Chinese-born students, in Chinese or American universities. It first reviews the pedagogical approaches used by native Chinese-speaking teachers of English in an educational environment grounded in Confucian precepts for teaching, learning, and educational roles and responsibilities. It suggests that many of the limitations on Chinese students’ learning of English stem from a traditional teacher-centeredc lassroom and the use of rote-memorys trategies. After noting the obstacles faced by Chinese EFL teachers who have tried to implement communicative approaches, this essay offers guidelines for reconciling a communicative approach with traditional Chinese methods
Shor and Freire discuss here the dialogical method of liberatory education. Dialogue is not a mere technique to achieve some cognitive results; dialogue is a means to transform social relations in the classroom, and to raise awareness about relations in society at large. Dialogue is a way to recreate knowledge as well as the way we learn. It is a mutual learning process where the teacher poses critical problems for inquiry. Dialogue rejects narrative lecturing where teacher talk silences and alienates students. In a problem-posing participatory format, the teacher and students transform learning into a collaborative process to illuminate and act on reality. This process is situated in the thought, language, aspirations, and conditions of the students. It is also shaped by the subject matter and training of the teacher, who is simultaneously a classroom researcher, a politician, and an artist.
This article reviews the educational tradition and philosophy of Confucianism, the communist ideology, the psychological characteristics of the Chinese, and the Chinese language as the cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the People's Republic of China. It also discusses some of the cultural influences on the goals of school science courses, the pressure of examinations, the roles of teachers, teachers' conceptions and styles of teaching, students' approaches to learning, and their understanding of scientific terminology.
Problem-based learning (PBL) is widely regarded as a successful and innovative method for engineering education. Since the development of the PBL model at McMaster University in Canada in the late 1960s, many different varieties have emerged. This paper highlights the Dutch approach of directing the learning process through problem analysis and the Danish model of project-organised learning. Various definitions of the concept PBL identify characteristics at the levels of theoretical learning principles, educational models and educational practices. The McMaster-Maastricht PBL model and the Aalborg model of project work share characteristic features such as the theoretical principle of the problem analysis at the basis of the learning process, integration of knowledge and practice, collaboration and group work. Notable differences were found with respect to the type of assignments, assessment methods and organisation of the group work. In comparison to traditional engineering curricula, the PBL models appear to inspire a higher degree of involvement in study activities and, consequently, a higher level of complex comprehension. A possible drawback is the risk of gaps in specific knowledge areas. Therefore, it is crucial that the students in a PBL curriculum become lifelong learners who have learned to take responsibility for their own learning process.
The picture that often emerges from the research literature on ‘Chinese learners’ is a caricature of rote-learning, memorization and passivity. This article takes issue with the stereotype. The paper is in three parts. The first part considers the extent to which Chinese culture may influence Chinese learning styles. Some received opinions are counterpoised with more recent reinterpretations. The paper later examines some of the findings from the literature on effective adult learning. The third part explores the extent to which Hong Kong adult learners adopt learning styles consonant with those outlined in the second section. The results of the survey research, action learning projects and case studies considered suggest that Hong Kong adult learners are receptive to new modes of learning and go on to adopt learning styles quite different from those they deployed in school. The arguments are situated within the literature on adult Chinese second language (L2) learning but have wider resonance and application to Hong Kong adult learners in general.
This paper reports research into the conceptions of teaching of school physics teachers in Guangdong, China, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, which involved interviews of 18 teachers and a survey of 450 teachers, respectively. On the basis of analyses of both sets of data, five conceptions of teaching and two higher order orientations were identified and a multiple-level model was proposed. Comparisons with previous Western studies suggested that, while most teaching conceptions might be universal, some distinctions could be found between those held by Chinese and Western teachers. Chinese teachers seemed to view students' exam performance as the most important indicator of good teaching and successful schooling while its parallel conception in the Western context focused more on the general institutional standard. Two other teaching conceptions commonly held by Chinese teachers seemed to combine classroom teaching with the cultivation of good learning attitudes and good conduct while their Western counterparts only focused on the facilitation of and interest in learning.
This chapter focuses on ways in which talk and culture mediate learning in large classes in China. We suggest reasons why classes are kept large and show how language teachers use pair and group work but seem to scaffold dialogue with the whole class. We argue that teaching large classes is successful in China partly because of interactive techniques in classroom dialogue, but mainly because of the underlying culture of learning. The Chinese culture of learning is elaborated using questionnaire data with both British and Chinese students and interviews with Chinese teachers. The dialogue about large classes needs to take cultures of learning into account and in the Chinese case to consider collectivist and Confucian values. Classroom events are illustrated using visual ethnography, particularly the stages in a large-class language lesson in a primary school.
This paper reports on a five-year study of a technology-enhanced educational reform initiative at a university in eastern China. A faculty team attempted pedagogical and curricular reform to better prepare English majors for international communication, collaboration, and research using new technologies. The effort resulted in the development of several project-based courses as well as incorporation of technology as a supplement to traditional lecture courses. Participant observation, interviews, surveys, and text analysis were used for focused examination of two project-based courses within a broader study of the reform program. The project-based instruction brought about several positive changes in learning processes and outcomes, including increased amounts of authentic interaction, greater learner autonomy, and more relevance of content to students' lives and careers. However, few faculty were willing to teach project-based courses due to the great amount of time and effort that such instruction demanded, as well as the mismatch between student-centered learning and traditional norms and incentives in Chinese higher education. The study concludes by assessing the overall gains and shortcomings of the reform effort and the implications of these results for future attempts at educational restructuring in China.
A Chinese proverb has it that, “learning colors a man more than the deepest dye”, and indeed learning
and education is critical. Here, in this paper, the practitioner-academician author examines the various
teaching methods and ways of Confucius or Master Kung. Interestingly here, various vital don’ts of
teaching, and in fact, several gems of teaching methods, done the Masterly way, are highlighted. The
teaching methods, just to mention a few, discussed are to be the role model, to deliver and teach
according to the students’ needs, learn from others, generate stimulation and exude influence as well
as to love all and serve all.
This paper explores the question of how and what a school can do to foster student discipline and effort. Personal experiences and observations are offered about the approaches and strategies used in schools and by parents in Taiwan, China to foster students' positive attitudes toward learning and school. This document focuses on the approaches that encourage students to study hard and to behave in a manner which allows teachers to devote most of their time to instructional activities rather than classroom discipline and management. The paper explains that Chinese society emphasizes education as a passport to or an insurance for a successful and happy life, particularly for those individuals with disadvantaged backgrounds. This emphasis has made the Chinese education system extremely competitive. As a result, Chinese children are constantly reminded by parents, teachers, and friends to study hard and to discipline themselves. Because of this, studying hard becomes a norm rather than an exception among school children in Chinese society. Even so, good self discipline and willingness to work hard do not come naturally to all students, and so, schools and parents must create environments that support this demand by making students conform to the social norm. Observations about the educational system and school practices in Taiwan include: (1) keep student life simple, (2) provide examples and guidance, (3) expand teachers' role, (4) keep classroom orderly, (5) test students frequently, and (6) have strong parental support. In addition to the cultural environment, students are constantly couched, herded, and sometimes forced to work hard. (DK)
In a dialog format, discusses the dialogical method of liberatory education. Dialog is a means to transform social relations in the classroom and to raise awareness about relations in society at large. In a problem-posing participatory format, the teacher and students transform learning into a collaborative process to illuminate and act on reality. (Author/BJV)
This article reviews the educational tradition and philosophy of Confucianism, the communist ideology, the psychological characteristics of the Chinese, and the Chinese language as the cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the People's Republic of China. It also discusses some of the cultural influences on the goals of school science courses, the pressure of examinations, the roles of teachers, teachers' conceptions and styles of teaching, students' approaches to learning, and their understanding of scientific terminology. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed82:1–13, 1998.
Teacher and student are an archetypal role pair in virtually any society. When teacher and student come from different cultures, such as in the context of economic development programmes, many perplexities can arise. These can be due to different social positions of teachers and students in the two societies, to differences in the relevance of the curriculum for the two societies, to differences in profiles of cognitive abilities between the populations of the two societies, or to differences in expected teacher/student and student/student interaction. This paper focuses in particular on these interaction differences. It relates them to the author's 4-D model of cultural differences among societies, based on research on work-related values in over 50 countries. Differences in expected teacher/student and student/student interaction are listed with reference to the four dimensions of Individualism versus Collectivism, large versus small Power Distance, strong versus weak Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity versus Femininity. Some effects of language differences between teacher and student are also discussed. The burden of adaptation in cross-cultural learning situations should be primarily on the teachers.
This study examines the evidence for the effectiveness of active learning. It defines the common forms of active learning most relevant for engineering faculty and critically examines the core element of each method. It is found that there is broad but uneven support for the core elements of active, collaborative, cooperative and problem-based learning.
Autonomy in language learning is sometimes presented as a Western concept unsuited to contexts, such as those in East Asia, which have different educational traditions. This paper argues that this view is unfounded but that we need to match the different aspects of autonomy with the characteristics and needs of learners in specific contexts. First the paper analyses the concept of autonomy as it relates to language learning and proposes a framework which would be applicable to learners in all contexts. Then it looks at three sources of influence which many teachers and researchers believe to have an important effect on students' approaches to learning in East Asia: the collectivist orientation of East Asian societies; their acceptance of relationships based on power and authority; and the belief that success may be achieved through effort as much as through innate ability. The paper then considers some of the attitudes and habits of learning which we might expect to result from these sociocultural influences. These are presented as hypotheses which might guide us towards a better understanding of our students but should not blind us tot the immense variation that exists in reality. Within the framework for analysing autonomy developed earlier, the paper considers what aspects of autonomy might be most strongly rooted in East Asian traditions and how they might be developed in support of language learning. The paper warns against setting up stereotypic notions of 'East Asian learners' which, if misused, may make teachers less rather than more sensitive to the dispositions and needs of individual students.
Characterisations of 'the Chinese learner' in education and applied linguistics have frequently taken a 'large culture' approach, which involves describing the values, attitudes and learning practices of individuals in terms of fixed, homogeneous, reified national cultures. A shared Confucian cultural heritage is offered by way of explanation for supposedly consistent Chinese behaviours in Western classrooms. This paper examines some features of the deficit model of Chinese learner discourse attributed to Confucian cultural heritage (passive, lacking critical thinking, reliant on simplistic rote memorisation strategies resulting in surface learning, unwilling to participate in classroom talk), and refers to research findings which propose alternative characterisations and alternative explanations rooted in social and contextual factors. An alternative approach based on post-structuralist, critical pedagogy and cultural studies perspectives is considered which focuses on 'small culture' explanations for the behaviours of Chinese learners abroad. Situated identity is a key concept in this approach; the influence of national culture on individual values and behaviour through socialisation in shared educational practices is moderated or disrupted as the individual learner is transplanted into a different context. Agency is recognised as learners attempt to negotiate new identities for themselves in a more or less alien environment.
Record on the subject of education (礼记:学记) Retrieved from http
- Rites Books
Equal and leading: Two perspectives of teacher-student relationship (平等与主导:师生关系的两个视角)
- L X Cong
- LX Cong
Retrived from http:// ctext. org/ mengzi/ teng-wen-gong-i/ ens
- Mengzi
The metaphor of “teacher-student as father-son” in China and its Ethical Implications
- X Li
- Y Liu
Review on the relation between teachers and students in China in recent ten decades (十年来我国师生关系观述评)
- X Shao
What kind of teacher-student relationship we need actually (我们究竟需要什么样的师生关系)
- X Shao
- Q Liao
Reconstruction of the teacher-student relationships in China ’s schools in the transformational age: Change and its regulations (转型期中国师生关系的重构变革及其规制)
- G Zhou
Distance creates beauty: Authority formulation of young teachers (因距离而美-浅谈年轻班主任威信的树立)
- S Song
Maintain a distance between teacher and student (教师与学生要保持一定的距离)
- S Zhao
On the traditional relationship between teachers and students and the modern transformation (师生关系传统及其现代转型)
- Y Wu
Alienation of the teacher-student relationship and its recovery (师生关系异化与回归浅析)
- Y Zhao
The teacher-student relation and teacher role in the perspective of intersubjectivity (论主体间性视角下的师生关系及其教师角色)
- Y Wu
Analects: Zilu (论语.子路) Retrived from http
- Confucius