Teachers' Conceptions Of Approaches To Teaching: A Chinese Perspective
Asia-Pacific Edu Res (2015) 24(2):341–351DOI 10.1007/s40299-014-0184-3REGULAR ARTICLETeachers’ Conceptions of Approaches to Teaching: A ChinesePerspectiveJunjun ChenPublished online: 2 April 2014Ó De La Salle University 2014Abstract Teachers’ belief systems about the nature andpurposes of a phenomenon such as teaching and learninginfluence strongly how they teach and what students learnand achieve. A sample of 891 Chinese middle schoolteachers from 15 middle schools in a province in Chinaresponded to a 48-item questionnaire which explored theirconceptions of approaches to teaching. Confirmatory factoranalysis was utilised to generate a model of approaches toteaching. This model comprised five factors, namely, BeingAuthorities and Teacher-centred, Focusing on ExaminationPractices, Developing Life-long Learners, Engaging Students in Learning, Being Responsible for Teaching andHome Connections. Differences in approaches to teachingwere associated with various teacher characteristicsincluding sex, age, teacher certificate and the year levelthey taught. The results strongly indicated a reliance ontraditional Chinese teaching, but also identified somemore student-centred teaching in Chinese middle schools.Implications for teaching improvement and professionaldevelopment are discussed.Keywords Middle school Approaches to teaching Chinese education Confirmatory factor analysisIntroductionTeachers’ belief systems about the nature and purposes ofa phenomenon such as teaching and learning influenceJ. Chen (&)Department of Education Policy and Leadership, The HongKong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, NT,Hong Kong SARe-mail: jjchen@ied.edu.hkstrongly how they teach and what students learn andachieve (Fives and Buehl 2012). Due to socialisation processes, teacher beliefs have been found to be contextdependent (Gao and Watkins 2002) and ecologicallyrational (Rieskamp and Reimer 2007). Teachers’ conceptions of approaches to teaching at the tertiary level havebeen investigated in Western contexts (Prosser and Trigwell 2006; Trigwell et al. 2011) and findings have shownthat teachers’ thinking on approaches to teaching influenceteaching approaches they adopt in the classroom, which inturn influences their students’ approaches to learning.These have impacts on students learning process andlearning outcome (Prosser and Trigwell 2006; Trigwellet al. 2011). This paper examines how teachers perceivedtheir approaches of teaching in Chinese middle schools.The China ContextChina is currently going through massive education reformsin order to prepare more students for success in a globalknowledge-based economy in the twenty-first century (Heand Pan 2003). Curriculum reform which currently dominates basic education in China was initiated in 2001 by theMinistry of Education of the People’s Republic of China(MOE), attempting to transform current Chinese educationinto a more student-oriented quality education (Hughes andYuan 2005). The concept of student-oriented quality education (in Chinese Su Zhi Jiao Yu) was first formally used asthe antithesis to ‘examination-oriented education’ and hasbecome a guiding principle of education policies in Chinauntil now (MOE 2010). The quality rhetoric has endured andcontinues to act as a broad framework for the major goals ofmany other current reforms. The increasing emphasis onquality also signals that curriculum reform focus has shifted123
342to the improvement of schooling, teaching and studentqualities from teaching and learning for examination(Li 2004; Walker and Qian 2012). One key to a successfultransition is the quality of teachers and their teachingmethods through reforming Chinese classroom pedagogy(Chen et al. 2014; Zhang and Collis 1995). Cuban (2007)argued that how teachers teach—their classroom pedagogy—is a powerful tool in getting students to learn andsucceed. The ‘National Outline for Mid and Long-TermEducation Reform and Development 2010–2020, releasedby MOE (2010), claimed that the current teaching methods inChinese schools were too outdated to achieve quality-oriented education. The former Chinese Vice Premier LanqingLi lamented, ’students are buried in an endless flood ofhomework and sit for one mock entrance exam after another,leaving them with heads swimming and eyes blurred’ (Li2004, p. 337). There is growing concern that too manyChinese students have become the sort of stressed-out, testfocused drones who lack the cultural skills, creative thinkingand practical experience of teamwork that multinationalemployers in a global era are looking for (Farrell and Grant2005). Indeed, Chinese teachers tend to rely heavily on traditional forms of teaching, highly focused on school examinations, hence the success of reforms depends in part onchanging how teachers carry out their pedagogical role (Gaoand Watkins 2002). Therefore, Chinese schools must striveto seek innovative teaching methods to liberate Chinesestudents from endless homework and examinations, geartheir efforts to each individual student, and give full scope tostudents’ ideological, moral, cultural and scientific potential(MOE 2010).However, the changing of current teaching practices intomore student-oriented teaching practices has been to proveperhaps the most problematic to implement since it would,by definition, challenge both the existing purposes, practices, values and beliefs of many teachers and the continuing prioritization of examination success required by thehighly competitive Chinese secondary education andhigher education system (Chen et al. 2014). Hence, beforechanging the current teaching approaches, it is necessary tounderstand how current Chinese school teachers reportwhat they actually do in classrooms. Based on a previousqualitative study (Chen 2010, 2012), this paper investigateshow teachers conceive their approaches to teaching using alarge sample of 891 Chinese middle schools. It is expectedthat findings from these Chinese teachers will generate apattern of their teaching approaches.Approaches to Teaching in the LiteratureResearch has shown that two worldwide broad traditionsof teaching have shaped classroom instruction: teacher-123J. Chencentred and student-centred (Samuelowicz and Bain 2001;Biggs 1999; Trigwell et al. 1999; Kember 1997; LindblomYlänne et al. 2006). Teacher-centred teaching refers toteachers controlling what is taught, when and under whatconditions. Teachers transmit knowledge, skills and valuesto students. In teacher-centred teaching, teachers ‘talk farmore than students, the entire class is most often taught asone group with occasional small groups and independentwork, and students regularly use texts to guide their dailywork’ (Cuban 2007, p. 3). In student-centred teaching,teachers see students as more than cognitive units; instead,teachers recognise that students bring to school an array ofphysical, psychological, emotional and intellectual needsplus experiences that require both nurturing and prodding.A student-centred classroom is usually arranged and rearranged frequently to permit students to work together inlarge and small groups or independently. Student talk has asignificance at least equal to, if not greater than, teachertalk. Materials are distributed around the classroom forsmall groups and individual students to use. ‘Guided byteachers, students learn content and skills through differenttasks such as going to activity centres in the room, joining ateam to produce a project and conducting independentwork’ (Cuban 2007, p. 3).Onwuegbuzie et al. (2007) similarly proposed that thereare two types of teaching approaches namely progressiveand transmissive. Progressive teaching (similar to studentcentred) focuses on human development, interaction withthe world of people and materials, and building humanistvalues (Nager and Shapiro 2000). Progressive teachinglinks school learning to students’ lives outside the schoolcontext. In this mode, decisions concerning practicesimplemented by progressive teachers are based on students’ personal experiences, and then students are morelikely to develop practical abilities and skills (Zhao 2007).Transmissive (similar to teacher-centred) teachers adopt anopposite set of approaches. These teachers emphasise dispensing knowledge to students and they use the lecture as aprimary teaching method. Existing literature suggests thatmore pre-service teachers hold a transmissive orientationrather than a progressive orientation in their teaching(Onwuegbuzie et al. 2007).Fenstermacher and Soltis (2004) invoked three conceptually incompatible, but practically integrated metaphors todescribe three teaching approaches—executive, facilitativeand liberationist. The executive approach views the teacheras a skilful manager of learning and focuses on theacquisition of knowledge, skills, understandings and competencies. The facilitative approach (previously called thetherapist approach) refers to teachers who focus on thedevelopment and nurturing of each student’s uniquecapacities and personal characteristics to help themattain authenticity and self-actualisation. The liberationist
Chinese Perspectiveapproach views the teacher as a liberator of the mind.The classical liberationist stresses initiation into ways ofknowing and the development of the student’s intellectualand moral virtues. The emancipationist variation of theliberationist approach stresses freeing the minds of studentsfrom false consciousness about their class, race, gender,and other forms of social repression. In overview, however,there would appear to be broad similarities between theteacher-centred and student-centred approaches proposedby Kember (1997) and the executive, facilitative and liberationist approaches proposed by Fenstermacher andSoltis (2004).Trigwell and Prosser (2004) identified five differentapproaches to teaching. Approach A is a teacher-centredstrategy which focuses on transmitting facts and skills, butnot on the relationships between these two. Approach B isteacher-centred and helps students acquire the concepts ofthe discipline and the relationships between them. Thedifference between approaches A and B is that students inApproach A are only expected to be able to recall facts andsolve problems, but students in Approach B are alsoexpected to be capable of relating concepts and solvingproblems. Approach C is an interactive strategy betweenteacher and students. This approach aims at helping students acquire discipline-based concepts and the relationships between them through an active teaching–learningprocess. Approach D is a student-centred strategy whichassists students in developing the worldviews or conceptions that they already have. Unlike Approach D, ApproachE requires students to re-construct their knowledge toproduce a new worldview or conception without teacherstransmitting their own conceptions to the students (Trigwell and Prosser 2004). Approaches to teaching in the Westhave generally been characterised by a duality and/orplurality of these and these can all be set onto the teachercentred to the student-centred continuum (Kember 1997).Chinese teaching is heavily influenced by both theConfucian tradition and the socialist ideology of the lastfifty years (Hsueh and Tobin 2003). The traditional Chinese model of teaching is characterised by the transmissionof knowledge principally through an imitative, repetitiveand memorising process (Hughes and Yuan 2005). The roleof a teacher is to deposit knowledge into students (Zhangand Collis 1995). Teachers prepare structured lessons andhave everything under control. Students are viewed asbeing dependent on teachers to gain knowledge and mostlyincapable of learning about the world without the teacher’sstrong guidance and advice (Hughes and Yuan 2005).Students are expected to be well-controlled and wellbehaved in classes with a large teacher–student ratio.Teaching methods are largely expository and teacherdirected activities which include drilling for externallymandated, high-stakes examinations (Watkins and Biggs3432001). The teaching process is teacher-centred and textbased. Both the teacher and the textbook are regarded asauthoritative sources of knowledge. Teachers select pointsof knowledge from authoritative sources such as textbooksand teacher handbooks. Teachers interpret, analyze andelaborate on these points for students, deliver a carefullysequenced dose of knowledge for the students to memorise,repeat and understand, and help them connect the newpoints of knowledge with old knowledge (Watkins andBiggs 2001). The immediate importance and potentialapplication of the knowledge is taught. Traditional Chineseteaching sees learning as a linear movement from teachersto students (Zhao 2007). The teacher is the focus and students are believed to be passive, rote learners (Watkins andBiggs 2001).These days, however, Chinese teachers are being askedto achieve new curriculum standards which aim to supportcreativity and individuality so that education is moreresponsive to students’ needs and the evolving Chinesesociety (Zhao 2007). Teachers are also being exposed toWestern views of teaching and social ideologies. Theinfluence of the hybridity of Chinese and Western education and social ideologies of teaching is becoming a majorissue in China (Zhao 2007). Given this situation, it isclaimed that Chinese teaching approaches must shift from ateacher-centred to a student-centred approach (Hughes andYuan 2005), and the role of the teacher should change fromone of being an authority over knowledge to that of afacilitator of Life-long learning (Hsueh and Tobin 2003).Western studies have already provided a range ofinformation about what teachers conceive constitutesteaching, but how Chinese perceive their approaches toteaching is much less understood. As there seem to bedifferences between Western and other cultures’ attitudesto education, it may be that different teaching approachesarise in relation to the different contexts. Therefore, itseems important to explore teaching approaches in teaching environments that differ greatly from that of Westernstudies (Gao and Watkins 2002). This is particularly relevant to China, which has one of the largest educationalsystems in the world.The Theory of Planned BehaviourThe theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen 2002, 2005) provides a powerful framework for positioning research intoconceptions and practices. What people believe, theamount of control they have or perceive they have, societalnorms and people’s intentions interact to shape thebehaviours and practices people carry out. Generallyspeaking, the more favourable the attitudes and subjectivenorms with respect to a behaviour, and the greater the123
344perceived behavioural control, the more likely it is thatpeople will perform the behaviour in accordance with theirintentions (Ajzen 2005). In addition, it seems that thestronger conceptions are, the more likely they are toinfluence the corresponding behaviour, while weak conceptions have little impact on behaviour (Ajzen 2002). It isnoted that subordinates (e.g., teachers) are especiallyinfluenced by the normative views of their superiors (e.g.,principals) to whom they are accountable (Lerner andTetlock 1999). Not every belief–action process, however,moves in this consistent chain. In some instances, people’sactions are not consistent with their conceptions (Ajzen2005). Ajzen suggested reutilization of behaviour as apossible explanation for any inconsistencies.The aim of the study is to help teachers to raiseawareness of their thinking and teaching approaches and tounderstand how variation in this practice might be relatedto their students’ approaches to learning and learning outcomes (Trigwell et al. 2005). Professional developmentprogrammes could then be offered to help them make anynecessary changes in their teaching approaches to meet therequirements of educational reform (MOE 2010).J. ChenSampleA sample of 1,500 Chinese middle school teachers, from15 middle schools in Liaoning province in China, wasapproached and 891 valid questionnaires were returnedgiving a response rate of 59.4 %. While populationdemographic characteristics for China middle schoolteachers are not available, the current sample of 891 relative to the population of just over 5,000,000 middle schoolteachers in China produces a margin of error, based onsampling theory,1 of only 3.28 %, meaning that greatconfidence can be placed in the sample means. Afterapproval was received from the principals in 15 middleschools in Liaoning province in China, researchers visitedthe schools to distribute participation information sheets,consent forms and questionnaires to volunteer teachers.Out of these teacher participants, 78 % of the teachers heldBachelor qualifications, around 65 % of the teachers werefemale, about 43 % of them were aged between 33 and40 years, 45 % of the teachers held intermediate teachercertificates, *30 % had 8 years work experience, 40 %had 8–15 years work experience, 35 % of the teacherstaught years 7 and 39 % taught year 9.MethodsAnalysisThis survey study is based on a previous qualitative studywhich examined approaches to teaching in Chinese middleschools (Chen 2007) and on previous empirical findingsregarding approaches to teaching reviewed above. Thestudy used a questionnaire to examine the approaches toteaching that teachers adopt in Chinese middle schools on afrequency scale. The data were handled using exploratoryfactor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA).A cross-validation method (Gerbing and Hamilton 1996)with EFA and CFA was utilised to generate, and then toconfirm the model. More specifically, EFA was used onone randomly selected half of the sample (445) to generatea new exploratory model, and CFA was used on the otherhalf (446) to test the replicability of the modified model.An advantage of the cross-validation method is that itallows the testing and modification of the exploratorymodel on an independent subset of the sample (Gerbingand Hamilton 1996). EFA with maximum likelihood estimation and oblique rotation was employed to test theapproaches to teaching model (Costello and Osborne 2005)using SPSS 21. Items were removed that had loadingssmaller than 0.30 on their intended conceptual factors orwhich did not match logically and theoretically with otheritems in the same factors. In this procedure, eight itemswere discarded and 40 items were included in the CFAprocedure.CFA was utilised to test the model using Amos 21 withthe same sample of participants (Anderson and Gerbing1988). According to general recommendations for selectionin psychometric theory and applied multivariate research,most fit indices are sensitive to different conditions (e.g.,sample size, model complexity, or model misspecification),thus it is recommended that multiple fit indices are reportedInstrumentBased on the authors’ former studies (Chen 2007, 2012)and the reviewed literature, a research instrument wasdeveloped to evaluate the teachers’ self-reported approaches to teaching in Chinese Middle Schools. This anonymous 48-item questionnaire comprised two parts. Part 1consisted of a list of 48 statements of possible approachesto teaching in Chinese middle schools. Participants wereinstructed that each teaching approach did not need tooccur over an entire class period in the last semester.Teachers were asked to indicate how frequently they utilised each approach on the list. The frequency scale hadfive responses with identical scores (e.g., 1 only rarely, 2sometimes, 3 about half the time, 4 frequently and 5 almostalways). In Part 2, teachers were asked to give their personal demographic information.1231Values calculated at http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html.
Chinese Perspectivewhen assessing model fit (Byrne 2010; Fan and Sivo 2007).In this study, five absolute and incremental fit measureswere employed to evaluate the data fit to the model: (1) thev2 package (p, v2/df); (2) CFI; (3) RMSEA; (4) SRMR with90 % CI (5) gamma hat. In terms of the cut-off values forthe above indices, acceptable fit occurs when v2 is roughlyequal to its df and good fit is inferred when the ratio of v2 todf has p [ 0.05. When RMSEA and SRMR are B0.05, fit isgood and when B0.08, it is acceptable. When the 90 % CIfor RMSEA falls in the range from 0.050 to 0.080, fit isacceptable. When CFI and gamma hat are C0.95, fit isgood and when they are [0.90, fit is acceptable (Byrne2010; Marsh et al. 2004). As with the EFA procedure,Items were removed that had loadings smaller than 0.30 ontheir intended conceptual factors, or which did not matchlogically and theoretically with other items in the samefactors, or which caused negative error variance by beingoverly correlated with each other. During this process, 16items were dropped.ResultsThe approaches to teaching model consisted of five-factorinter-correlated factors based on 24 items (v2 564.49;df 242; v2/df 2.33; RMSEA 0.054, 90 % CI0.050–0.058; SRMR 0.049; CFI 0.91; and gammahat 0.94) with good fit (see Fig. 1). The three moretraditional Chinese teaching approaches comprised BeingAuthorities and Teacher-centred, Focusing on ExaminationPractices and Being Responsible for Teaching and HomeConnections. Being Authorities and Teacher-centredfocuses on strict practices to discipline students (i.e., createclassroom rules) and teacher-centred approaches (i.e., askstudents to copy your notes). Focusing on ExaminationPractices consists of the items: do a mastery quiz; do aperiod test; drill with examination-type items; and askingstudents to remember by rote, which suggest that examination-based practices must be aligned to examinations andto prepare students for success. Being Responsible forTeaching and Home Connections refers to the responsibility as a teacher to support students to learn. It includeslesson preparation, checking student work, and settingexpectations and goals for each student, even through homephone calls and liaising with parents. The two more student-centred approaches consist of Developing Life-longLearners and Engaging Students in Learning. DevelopingLife-long Learners focuses on developing all-round students including skills, knowledge, character, habits andattitudes, interacting with effective in-class teachingapproaches. Engaging Students in Learning refers toencouraging students to achieve better learning outcome345through adopting a variety of teaching student-centredstrategies.All remaining item loadings were [0.50, which indicated that the items were related to each other as a separatefactor in the model. The inter-correlations between the fivefactors ranged from 0.51 to 0.82 with an average value of0.67 (see Fig. 1). These correlations indicate that the fivefactors had much in common but still varied in sufficientways. Some correlations ([0.70) were very high and thesemay lead to some redundancy in using multiple factors.However, the quality of fit is better by allowing these twofactors to co-exist rather than forcing them to be one factor.In other words, alternative modelling produces worse fitsand that there is some independence between factors sufficient to permit separate identification of the two constructs. In addition, based on Muthén and Muthén (2012),correlation values between 0.70 and 0.85 may be notproblematic. Hence, they will be kept as these five factors.Another interesting finding is that these five factors werepositively correlated with each other. This indicated thatthese teacher participants may not considered that one outof two clusters of teaching approaches (i.e., teacher-centredand student-centred) is superior to the other. Both of theseteaching approaches have their own functions in terms ofdifferent objectives in the Chinese contexts.Alphas within the range of 0.70 to 0.79 with an averagevalue of 0.74 were good, indicating that the items hadsufficiently robust reliabilities such that these items couldbe meaningfully used in further analysis (see Table 1).Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the fivefactors. Teachers endorsed most frequently BeingResponsible for Teaching and Home Connections(M 4.15, SD 0.58) followed by Focusing on Examination Practices (M 3.78, SD 0.73), Developing Lifelong Learners (M 3.76, SD 0.72), Engaging Studentsin Learning (M 3.67, SD 0.83), and gave least frequency (albeit still positive) to Being Authorities andTeacher-centred (M 3.61, SD 0.76). This model portrayed middle school teachers in China as being highlyteacher-oriented and preparing students for examinations intheir approaches to teaching, without neglecting engagingstudents in learning and developing life-long learners.Teacher characteristics were examined as a possiblesource of variance in teachers’ views about approaches toteaching. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)with main interaction was used to test whether teachercharacteristics caused any statistically significant meandifference for the factors of teaching approaches. Multivariate statistics found that four teacher characteristics(sex: F5,440 0.97, p \ 0.05; age: F5,412 0.04,p \ 0.00, teacher certificate: F5,439 0.03, p \ 0.00; andyear level they taught: F5,437 1.89, p \ 0.05) had123
346J. ChenFig. 1 Conceptions ofapproaches to teachingTable 1 Factor means andcoefficient alphasFactorsSDaBeing Authorities and Teacher-centred3.610.760.70Focusing on Exam Practices3.780.730.72Being Responsible for Teaching and Home Connections4.150.580.77Engaging Students in Learning3.670.830.79Developing Life-long Learners3.760.720.72statistically significant mean differences in the frequencyof their views on teaching approaches (see Table 2).When checking how great were these mean differencescaused by teacher characteristics, effect sizes were rangingfrom 0 to 0.33 with an average effect size of 0.14 (seeTable 3). Only two effect sizes were clearly of mediumsizes (Cohen 1988): Being Responsible for Teaching andHome Connections with teacher age (d 0.33) andFocusing on Examination Practices with the year level thatteachers taught (d 0.31).123MThese effect sizes reveal that younger teachers aged\33 years were more likely to do more about lessonpreparation, other duty work, and home connections thantheir elder counterparts (d 0.33). It appears that youngerteachers took more responsibility for liaising extramuralconnections and teacher routine work. Teachers who taughtyears 8 and 9 tended to do more examinations practice thantheir peers who taught year 7 (d 0.31). It is obvious thatthe pressure of the secondary entrance examination madethis difference.
Chinese PerspectiveTable 2 MANOVA results forfactors and teachercharacteristics347CharacteristicsWilks’ 1Teacher certificate0.972.9710,1766\0.01Year 5Subject0.971.5620,2926[0.05Work experience0.971.5020,1855[0.05Engaging Studentsin LearningDeveloping Lifelong LearnersTable 3 Effect size differences for factors and teacher characteristicsCharacteristicBeing Authoritiesand Teacher-centredFocusing onExam Practices0.1500.23Being Responsible forTeaching and eOld ? middle-youngTeacher certificateJunior ? intermediate-seniorYear8?9-7Old ? middle-young comparing teachers who were older than 40 years old (old) and were between 33 and 40 years old (middle) with teacherswere younger than 33 years old (young), Junior ? intermediate-senior comparing teachers who held Junior Teacher Certificate (junior) andIntermediate Teacher Certificate (intermediate) with teachers held Senior Teacher Certificate (Senior), Master ? bachelor-college comparingteachers who held Master degree and Bachelor degree with teachers held College degree, 9 ? 8 – 7 comparing teachers taught Grade 9 and 8with teachers taught Grade 7, [8 to \8 years comparing teachers who had \8 years work experience with teachers had [8 yearsDiscussionGenerally speaking, approaches to teaching in the modelidentified by these Chinese middle school teachers rangedfrom teacher-centred to student-centred on the continuum(Kember 1997; Trigwell et al. 2005). Being Authorities andTeacher-centred, Focusing on Examination Practices andResponsible for Teaching and Home Connections were allmore teacher-centred. The other two approaches, Developing Life-long Learners and Engaging Students inLearning, were more student-centred. Unlike the extremeduality of teaching approaches proposed by someresearchers (Maxwell et al. 2001; Onwuegbuzie et al.2007), the findings in this research were pluralistic, andidentified multiple teaching approaches ranging from teacher-centred to student-centred (Kember 1997; Trigwellet al. 2005). These results align with the findings in thereviewed literature (Fenstermacher and Soltis 2004;Trigwell and Prosser 2004). The approaches, we identified,cluster on the teacher-centred and student-centred continuum. This is not consistent with Cuban’s (2007, p. 6)finding that teacher classroom approaches in the UnitedStates ‘have been in the middle of the [teacher-centred andstudent-centred] continuum rather than clustered at itspolar extremes’. Cuban investigated teaching approaches inthree districts in the United States using multiple sourcesand methodologies between 1993 and 2005. In combination with the findings of related reviewed literaturebetween the 1890s and the 1980s, he found that teachers inthe United States exhibited ‘mixes of teacher-centred andstudent-centred practices’ hugging in the middle of thecontinuum (Cuban 2007, p. 20). The reasons for thedifferences are not clear, and further investigations areneeded.The results seem to be consistent with the strongexamination-oriented culture of China’s education system.Approaches to teaching were predominantly in terms ofteacher extramural responsibilities to support studentlearning an
tions of approaches to teaching at the tertiary level have been investigated in Western contexts (Prosser and Trig-well 2006; Trigwell et al. 2011) and findings have shown that teachers' thinking on approaches to teaching influence teaching approaches they adopt in the classroom, which in turn influences their students' approaches to .
tions. The sample consisted of 634 participants, 427 primary school pupils (aged 11–14), and 207 student teachers of biology (aged 20–23). We found that the populations of primary school pupils and student teachers of biol - ogy differ greatly concerning scientific conceptions of photosynthesis. The
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