Chinese junior secondary school teachers’ beliefs about students’ learning from a constructivist perspective

Abstract

Beliefs that teachers hold about teaching and learning are very important because they directly impact on students’ learning. Nowadays, constructivist learning theory (CLT) is an advocated theory of learning that underpins many teachers’ pedagogy. It focuses on a student-centred teaching approach. However, China has been using a traditional teacher-centred teaching approach for many years. This research aimed to explore beliefs that Chinese junior secondary school teachers hold about Year 7-9 students’ learning from a constructivist perspective and their effects on teachers’ decisions. It also explored their beliefs about the importance of students’ ability or effort in their teaching. An interpretive-qualitative design was used. Convenience and purposive sampling procedures were employed. Ten teachers with five or more years’ teaching experience who taught different subjects took part in this study. Two types of data were generated through concept maps and individual semi-structured interviews. First, the participating teachers were asked to construct a diagram representing the components and elements of their beliefs about students’ learning. Then the teachers participated individually in a semi-structured interview lasting approximately 60 minutes. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Findings of this study showed that although only one teacher could identify what CLT was, all of these teachers unconsciously implemented CLT components in their teaching because they believed that a student-centred teaching approach was important and that students should play active roles in their learning, which are principles of CLT. Most of these teachers believed students’ effort was more important than their ability. This belief reflected an incremental theory of the relationship between effort and ability. However, these teachers also believed they could not always implement their beliefs in their teaching resulting in a teacher-centred teaching and students being passive receivers. The reasons given for this tension between their beliefs and implementation were identified as barriers they encountered which included time constraints, pressures on students and negative effects of examination-oriented system.