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Revisiting The Chinese Learner

Changing Contexts, Changing Education

  • Book
  • © 2010

Overview

Editors:
  1. Carol K.K. Chan

    1. Fac. Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

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  2. Nirmala Rao

    1. Fac. Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Debunks stereotypes about Chinese teachers and learners
  • Advances our understanding of the changing Chinese learner
  • Considers traditional and contemporary influences on pedagogies
  • Considers the influence of educational reform on teaching and learning in Chinese societies
  • Synthesizes earlier seminal research on Chinese learners and charts new directions

Part of the book series: CERC Studies in Comparative Education (CERC, volume 25)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
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  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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  3. INTRODUCTION

    1. Moving Beyond Paradoxes: Understanding Chinese Learners and Their Teachers

      • Nirmala Rao, Carol K. K. Chan
      Pages 3-32

  4. Student Beliefs and Approaches to Learning

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 34-34
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  5. STUDENT BELIEFS AND APPROACHES TO LEARNING

    1. Learning to Self-Perfect: Chinese Beliefs about Learning

      • Jin Li
      Pages 35-69

    2. Motivation and Competition in Hong Kong Secondary Schools: The Students’ Perspective

      • David A. Watkins
      Pages 71-88

    3. New Experiences, New Epistemology, and the Pressures of Change: The Chinese Learner in Transition

      • Nancy W. Y. Law, Allan H. K. Yuen, Carol K. K. Chan, Johnny K. L. Yuen, Nicol F. C. Pan, Ming Lai et al.
      Pages 89-129

  6. Teacher Beliefs, Changing Pedagogy and Teacher Learning

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 132-132
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  7. TEACHER BELIEFS, CHANGING PEDAGOGY AND TEACHER LEARNING

    1. The Chinese Learner of Tomorrow

      • Ference Marton, EDB Chinese Language Research Team
      Pages 133-167

    2. Classroom Innovation for the Chinese Learner: Transcending Dichotomies and Transforming Pedagogy

      • Carol K. K. Chan
      Pages 169-210

    3. Teaching Mathematics: Observations from Urban and Rural Schools in Mainland China

      • Nirmala Rao, Jin Chi, Kai-ming Cheng
      Pages 211-231

    4. Teaching English to Chinese-Speaking Children

      • Linda Siegel, Ellen Knell, Miao Pei, Haiyan Qiang, Wei Zhao, Lin Zhao
      Pages 233-254

    5. Preschool Pedagogy: A Fusion of Traditional Chinese Beliefs and Contemporary Notions of Appropriate Practice

      • Nirmala Rao, Sharon S. N. Ng, Emma Pearson
      Pages 255-279

    6. In Search of a Third Space: Teacher Development in Mainland China

      • Amy B. M. Tsui, Jocelyn L. N. Wong
      Pages 281-311

  8. Conclusion

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 314-314
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  9. CONCLUSION

    1. The Paradoxes Revisited: The Chinese Learner in Changing Educational Contexts

      • Carol K. K. Chan, Nirmala Rao
      Pages 315-349

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 351-360
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Keywords

About this book

It is seventeen years since I first formulated ‘The paradox of the Chinese learner’ in a conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. My original formulation of the paradox was that westerners saw Chinese students as rote learning massive amounts of information in fierce exam-dominated classrooms – yet in international comparisons, students in the Confucian heritage cla- rooms greatly outperformed western students learning in ‘progressive’ western classrooms. This seeming paradox raised all sorts of questions to which many others have contributed important answers, especially that by Ference Marton on how Chinese learners construed the roles of memory and understanding in ways that were foreign to typical western educators. Much of this work was brought together in The Chinese Learner (1996), edited by David Watkins and myself. That work raised more questions still, especially about educational contexts, beliefs and practices, which were investigated in contributions to Teaching the Chinese Learner (2001). And now we have Revisiting the Chinese Learner, which is a very timely collection of excellent contributions that take into account the many changes that have taken place since 2001, changes such as: 1. The globalisation of education especially through educational technology, and enormous socio-economic changes, especially in China itself. 2. Changes in educational policy, aims, curriculum and organi- tion, and decentralisation of educational decision-making in many Confucian heritage cultures. 3.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Fac. Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

    Carol K.K. Chan, Nirmala Rao

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