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Teaching and Learning in Chinese Higher Education

  • February 2018
Authors:
Chang Zhu at Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Chang Zhu
Chun Cao
Chun Cao
Chun Cao
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Qian Meng at Oslo Metropolitan University
Qian Meng
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Abstract

Since the entry of twenty-first century, Chinese higher education has gone through immense and rigorous changes in quite a few aspects, such as speedy and substantial increase in enrollments, educational resources relocation, and an emphasis on internationalization. Many of these higher education reforms are initiated and issued by Chinese government in pursuit of building more world-class universities. Accompanied by these changes, some shifts in teaching and learning have also emerged in Chinese higher education. Even if these shifts are not nationwide phenomena, they may represent a trend that deserves interpretation. This chapter focuses on some major shifts in teaching and learning within Chinese higher education context in the last two decades and discusses the potential reasons and implications.
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T
Teaching and Learning in
Chinese Higher Education
Chang Zhu
1
, Chun Cao
1,2
and Qian Meng
1,2
1
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
2
Changchun University of Science and
Technology, Changchun, Jilin, China
Introduction
Since the entry of twenty-first century, Chinese
higher education has gone through immense and
rigorous changes in quite a few aspects, such
as speedy and substantial increase in enrollments,
educational resources relocation, and an emphasis
on internationalization. Many of these higher
education reforms are initiated and issued by Chi-
nese government in pursuit of building more
world-class universities. Accompanied by these
changes, some shifts in teaching and learning
have also emerged in Chinese higher education.
Even if these shifts are not nationwide phenom-
ena, they may represent a trend that deserves
interpretation. This chapter focuses on some
major shifts in teaching and learning within Chi-
nese higher education context in the last two
decades and discusses the potential reasons and
implications.
Characteristics in Chinese (Traditional)
Teaching and Learning
In a society, education and its many manifesta-
tions do not exist in isolation but closely relate
to the societal and cultural environments (Ozer
2015). Chinese students are largely brought up
in collectivism cultures and Confucian ideals.
Hofstede (2001) identified six national cultural
dimensions, among which the dimension of col-
lectivism versus individualism is often researched
together with the dimension of power distance,
particularly in terms of cross-cultural education.
In comparison to many Western countries, China
is rated rather high in both collectivism and power
distance. Chinese students from collectivism cul-
tures are often regarded to obey teachers, engage
less in class discussions and activities, and tend to
avoid the attention of teachers. Of relevance, Chi-
nese students from cultures characterized by high
power distance tend to view it as an inappropriate
behavior to question and challenge teachers and
instead behave rather respectfully in response to
the instructors. In collectivism cultures, it is
highly valued to pursue harmonious relationships
among group members in a given community.
This can also be reflected in student–teacher rela-
tionship in that Chinese students usually do as
much as they can to maintain good relationships
#Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
M. A. Peters (ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_602-1
... For academic personnel, stressors include high pressure to publish and taskrole balance management put extra burden on their shoulders (Graça et al., 2020). This situation can be even harsher for Chinese university teachers due to the ambition of building more worldclass universities (Zhu et al., 2018;. According to a survey conducted among Chinese university teachers in 2013, more than 36% of young teachers reported that they were facing great stress, and job stress has been a critical negative factor affecting their job satisfaction (Liu and Zhou, 2016). ...
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