Classroom Management in China

Management is not a new concept in teaching in China. Since the beginning of the reform era in 1978, there has been an inordinate espousal of management as a key element in improving institutional performance. For many, “management” embodies a modern, systematic, and scientific approach to organizing work. The educational system has shared this belief. In most handbooks on school work, notions of management and administration stand out in general and specific areas, such as educational administration, school management, and teaching management (Xiaoxue jiaoyu, 1987; Wu and Yu, 1991). However, classroom management is not visibly represented. Rather than representing a low priority, this absence reflects Chinese views of educational goals and the ways in which school work is organized to attain them. Moral education and the teaching of textbook knowledge are the primary goals of education in China. The former is pervasive in school life; the latter takes place in the classroom. “Teaching management” thus reflects the centrality of teaching in the classroom, when moral education is taken care of in as well as outside of it. A teacher’s classroom management strategies are typically focused on teaching per se, hence the term “teaching management.” ¹