Teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and its relationships to self-reported teaching practices

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.04.006Get rights and content

Abstract

This study surveyed Chinese middle school (n = 951) teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and examined the relationship of those conceptions to their self-reported teaching practices. Responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. These teachers identified one examination-oriented dimension and four interactive, pedagogical dimensions of excellent teaching and four dimensions of teaching practice. The structural model indicated a high consistency rate (83%) between teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and the corresponding self-reported practices. Implications for teaching standards, teacher professional development, and examination system are discussed.

Highlights

► Survey validated new Teachers' Conceptions of Excellent Teaching inventory. ► Chinese middle school teachers identified 5 factors for excellent teaching. ► Student-oriented ideas of excellence were endorsed more than examination success. ► Excellence factors predicted similar importance of factors of teaching practices. ► The professionalism factor predicted both examination and student-engagement practices.

Introduction

China is going through massive education reforms in order to prepare more students for success in the 21st century (Feng, 2006). A key to the success of the reforms is the quality of teachers and their teaching methods (Zhang & Collis, 1995). Chinese teachers tend to rely heavily on traditional forms of teaching highly focused on school examinations, hence, the success of the reforms depends in part on changing how teachers carry out their pedagogical role (Gao & Watkins, 2002). Research in China has shown that unless teachers realize the need for a new approach to teaching and challenge their traditional views of the nature of learning and teaching, real change is unlikely to occur (Gao, 1992; Gao et al., 1989). As Liu (1995) claimed: “Changing the conceptions of teaching and schooling is now the key to improving students' quality” (p. 9). Thus changing how teachers conceive of teaching appears to be urgent in the current Chinese educational context. However, first it is important to understand teachers' current conceptions of teaching excellence.

Excellent teaching is considered the basis for enhancing student learning, achieving school effectiveness, improving teacher evaluation, and designing and improving teacher education programs (Betoret & Artiga, 2004; Skamp & Mueller, 2001). It would be useful to understand how teachers conceive of excellent teaching and how their conceptions relate to teaching practices as a way of informing education reforms in China. It may be that a clearer understanding of how excellent teaching relates to teaching practices will contribute to improved teaching and student learning.

Section snippets

International perspectives of excellent teaching

Researchers have been investigating the very best teaching for decades. A variety of terms have been used: for example, ‘good’ (Watkins & Zhang, 2006), ‘effective’ (Witcher, Onwuegbuzie, & Minor, 2001), ‘highly accomplished‘ (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), 1987), ‘excellent’ (Kane, Sandretto, & Heath, 2004), and ‘qualified’ (Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002). Despite the variation in terminology, all of the studies seem to be describing a similar set of attributes

Method

This study was based on two pilot studies from the same sample population (Chen, 2010). One was a qualitative study that independently explored how Chinese middle school teachers, students, and principals conceived of excellent teaching. The findings were used to construct the questionnaires of excellent teaching and teaching practice in Chinese middle schools. The other study was a quantitative study to explore teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching using trial versions of the

TCET model

Initial analysis identified five factors of excellent teaching: Examination-oriented, Developing Lifelong Learners, Student Focused, Being Responsible For Engaging Students In Learning, and Being A Professional Learner. However, it was clear from inspection of factor inter-correlations that the examination-oriented factor was relatively independent of the four other factors that were highly inter-correlated. Hence, a hierarchical model with two dimensions and five first-order factors was

Discussion

This study answered two research questions about the structure and relationship of teacher conceptions of excellent teaching and the importance of various teaching practices. The survey of Chinese middle school teachers established further the usefulness of the teacher-centered vs. student-centered continuum (Kember, 1997) in understanding teachers' thinking. The teacher-centered conception of excellence was the most weakly endorsed and was very much focused on examinations. While this

References (100)

  • S. Beach

    Teacher's theories and classroom practice

    Reading Psychology

    (1994)
  • J.J. Beishuizen et al.

    Students' and teachers' cognitions about good teachers

    British Journal of Educational Psychology

    (2001)
  • F.D. Betoret et al.

    Trainee teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning, classroom layout and exam design

    Educational Studies

    (2004)
  • M.D. Boston et al.

    Transforming secondary mathematics teaching: increasing the cognitive demands of instructional tasks used in teachers' classrooms

    Journal for Research in Mathematics Education

    (2009)
  • G.T.L. Brown

    Measuring attitude with positively packed self-report ratings: comparison of agreement and frequency scales

    Psychological Reports

    (2004)
  • G.T.L. Brown et al.

    Assessment for student improvement: understanding Hong Kong teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment

    Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice

    (2009)
  • G.T.L. Brown et al.

    Assessment policy and practice effects on New Zealand and Queensland teachers' conceptions of teaching

    Journal of Education for Teaching

    (2009)
  • M.W. Browne et al.

    Single sample cross-validation indices for covariance structures

    Multivariate Behavioral Research

    (1989)
  • B.M. Byrne

    Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming

    (2010)
  • J. Chen

    Teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching in middle schools in the north of China

    Asia Pacific Education Review

    (2007)
  • J. Chen

    Teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching in Chinese middle schools (Doctoral thesis, The University of Auckland, New Zealand)

    (2010)
  • H. Cheng et al.

    Quality education and social stratification: the paradox of private schooling in China

    Comparative Education

    (1999)
  • G.W. Cheung et al.

    Evaluating goodness-of-fit indices for testing measurement invariance

    Structural Equation Modeling

    (2002)
  • China Civilisation Centre

    China: Five thousand years of history and civilization

    (2007)
  • Chiu, Y. I. (2006). Cross-cultural comparison of teacher beliefs about discipline and behavior management, teaching...
  • C.M. Clark

    Asking the right questions about teacher preparation: contributions of research on teacher thinking

    Educational Researcher

    (1988)
  • M. Cortazzi et al.

    English teaching and learning in China

    Language Teaching

    (1996)
  • A.B. Costello et al.

    Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis

    Practical Assessment Research and Evaluation

    (2005)
  • L. Cuban

    Hugging the middle: teaching in an era of testing and accountability 1980–2005

    Educational Policy Analysis Archives

    (2007)
  • L. Darling-Hammond et al.

    Defining “highly qualified teachers”: what does “scientifically-based research” actually tell us?

    Educational Researcher

    (2002)
  • A.P. Dempster et al.

    Maximum likelihood estimation from incomplete data via the EM algorithm

    Journal of the Royal Statistical Society

    (1977)
  • G. Ding

    Nationalization and internationalization: two turning points in China's Education in the twentieth century

  • X. Fan et al.

    Sensitivity of fit indices to misspecified structural or measurement model components: rationale of two-index strategy revisited

    Structural Equation Modeling

    (2005)
  • X. Fan et al.

    Sensitivity of fit indices to model misspecification and model types

    Multivariate Behavioral Research

    (2007)
  • Z. Fang

    A review of research on teacher beliefs and practices

    Educational Research

    (1996)
  • J. Feng

    Asian–American children: What teachers should know?

    (1994)
  • D. Feng

    China's recent curriculum reform: progress and problems

    Planning and Changing

    (2006)
  • G.D. Fenstermacher et al.

    Approaches to teaching

    (1998)
  • L. Gao

    The generative style of teaching: Rationale and practice

    (1992)
  • L. Gao et al.

    An account of action research investigating teacher change

    Research in Science Education

    (1989)
  • L. Gao et al.

    Conceptions of teaching held by school science teachers in P.R. China: identification and cross-cultural comparisons

    Science Education

    (2002)
  • L. Gow et al.

    Conceptions of teaching and their relationship to student learning

    British Journal of Educational Psychology

    (1993)
  • Hay McBer

    Research into teacher effectiveness: A model of teacher effectiveness

    (2000)
  • A. Ho et al.

    The conceptual change approach to improving teaching and learning: an evaluation of a Hong Kong staff development programme

    Higher Education

    (2001)
  • B.K. Hofer

    Epistemological beliefs and first year college students: Motivation and cognition in different instructional contexts

    (1994, August)
  • R.H. Hoyle

    The structural equation modeling approach: basic concepts and fundamental issues

  • L. Hu et al.

    Cutoff criteria for fit indices in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives

    Structural Equation Modeling

    (1999)
  • I. Hughes et al.

    The status of action research in the People's Republic of China

    Action Research

    (2005)
  • R.G. Kane et al.

    Telling half the story: a critical review of the research into tertiary teachers' beliefs

    Review of Educational Research

    (2002)
  • R.G. Kane et al.

    An investigation into excellent tertiary teaching: Emphasizing reflective practice

    Higher Education

    (2004)
  • Cited by (39)

    • Self-reported teaching effectiveness and job satisfaction among teachers: the role of subject matter and other demographic variables

      2021, Heliyon
      Citation Excerpt :

      Throughout history, investigators have been examining the very best teaching and educational practices. Several terms have been applied in order to describe and define the best teaching practice such as ‘good’ teaching as proposed by Watkins and Zhang (2006), ‘excellent’ teaching as introduced by Chen et al. (2012), ‘highly qualified’ teaching as originally used by Darling-Hammond and Youngs (2002), and ‘good and effective’ teaching as initially proposed by Van de Grift (2007). Even though the disparity in terminology is unavoidable, all of the aforementioned research studies address relatively the same set of the best teaching and educational practice modules.

    • Factors that influence senior secondary school students’ science learning

      2020, International Journal of Educational Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      Further, many Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, have a tradition of examination preparation. While in some countries this is referred to as “teaching to the test” (Popham, 2001), it is not always viewed negatively (e.g., in China – see Chen, Brown, Hattie, & Millward, 2012). There have been no studies of “washback” (i.e., the positive or negative influence that a test has on the way students are taught) related to O/L science subjects in Sri Lanka (although there have been of O/L language tests – see Sultana, 2018 for a review); therefore, it is unknown whether or not examinations in science subjects have led to a narrowing of the curricula and/or led to limitations on the range of pedagogical practices used by Sri Lankan science teachers.

    • Beginner Teachers’ conceptions of a successful lesson in English secondary schools: structure and implications

      2019, Teaching and Teacher Education
      Citation Excerpt :

      There has been good consistency between the conceptions discovered in different educational contexts, in different subject disciplines, amongst different groups of teachers (e.g. BTs and experienced teachers) and over time (e.g. Paakari et al., 2011; Taylor & Booth, 2015; Wood, 2000). The results chime with non-phenomenographic studies of both experienced teachers' and BTs’ conceptions (e.g. Chen, Brown, Hattie, & Millward, 2012; Cheng, Chan, Tang, & Cheng, 2009; Swinkels, Koopman, & Beijaard, 2013; Tigchelaar, Vermunt, & Brouwer, 2014). Descriptions of BTs' conceptions are powerful for teacher educators because they make qualitative differences in BTs' understanding explicit.

    • Students' voice on literature teacher excellence. Towards a teacher-organized model of continuing professional development

      2016, Teaching and Teacher Education
      Citation Excerpt :

      She advocated a shift in teaching standards from government-imposed to teacher-developed, from regulation to development, from imposed accountability to individual responsibility, from direction and control by the government to development and management by the profession, from mistrust to trust, from external regulation to self-regulation, and from compliance to activism. The shift from government regulation to teacher regulation is clearly evident in recent research and discourse on teacher professionalism: we have seen a growing number of studies in which teachers play an active role in developing teaching standards as part of their professional development (e.g. Chen, Brown, Hattie, & Millward, 2012; De Vries, Van de Grift, & Jansen, 2013a; Hilton et al., 2013; Kriewaldt, 2012; Mayer, Mitchell, Macdonald, & Bell, 2005; Mulcahy, 2011; Witte & Jansen, 2015). The evolution from government regulation to professional activism is also evident in the Netherlands.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text