ABSTRACT
In much of the early Western literature, Chinese classrooms are described as conservative and dominated by drilling and rote learning (Cleverley, 1991). Teaching in Mainland China is most often delivered in a lecture and explanatory format. This has been described as the ‘virtuoso’ model, which is characterized by high-quality performance by teachers with direct, whole-group instruction and teacher talk (Paine, 1990). These conservative features are believed to have stemmed from two traditions: the Confucian pedagogical tradition that favours drilling and repetition skills in learning, and the Soviet mode of instruction that is basically textbook-based, teacher-centred and content overloaded (Leung, 1991). However, the fact that Chinese and other Asian students outperform their Western counterparts in international comparisons of student performance, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (https://www.timssandpirls.bc.edu" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://timssandpirls.bc.edu) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (HKPISA Centre, 2011), has led researchers to take a closer look at teaching in China and other parts of Asia influenced by the ‘Confucian Heritage Culture’ (CHC) (e.g., Lee, 1996; Watkins and Biggs, 2001). Such endeavours have resulted in a more pluralistic description of Chinese classrooms. For instance, researchers have noted that the lessons that they observed in several cities in China involved considerable student engagement and interaction with the teacher (Stevenson and Lee, 1997; Cortazzi, 1998). The lessons, although were very much teacher controlled, involved learners quite heavily and were “well-thought out, carefully timed, and broadly planned within the framework of interactive activities” (Cortazzi and Jin, 2001, pp.127). Similar research has revealed that Chinese teachers have a more profound understanding of subject matter, particularly in Mathematics, than their counterparts in Western countries, although the former have less formal education than the latter. The lessons taught by Chinese teachers look very traditional, but teaching is aimed toward achieving a conceptual understanding of Mathematics in the classroom (Ma, 1999).
