Pre Service Teacher Education And Induction In Southwest China

This book is a narrative inquiry that focuses on four participating Chinese teacher candidates’ cross-cultural learning in Canada and stories of induction in Southwest China. Through the lens of “three-dimensional inquiry space” and “reciprocal learning in teacher education,” the author explores the influence of cross-cultural experiences on the dissonance of pedagogies, teacher-student relationships, socialization, and beliefs about teaching and learning that interweave global and national curriculum boundaries. The chapters provide insight into how Chinese beginning teachers struggle to voice and to socialize among a cacophony of past practices, lived experiences, and cross-cultural experiences.

This edited volume examines new ways of teaching mathematics through a cross-cultural reciprocal learning project between sister schools in Canada and China. Situating teacher learning in the intersection of the two different school systems, curriculums, and cultures of mathematics learning and teaching in both nations, this volume offers teachers a unique and much-needed perspective on how practices between countries become more and more likely shaped by each other in the emerging global society. Born out of a comparative study project sponsored by the SSHRC, this volume compiles five years' worth of findings from reciprocal partnerships between researchers, teachers, school administrators, and students from both nations. Through the process of reciprocal learning and narrative inquiry, the research described in these chapters illuminates the unknown and shares newly-created mathematics education knowledge.

This pivot considers the impact of INSET courses on EFL teachers practicing under the national curriculum reform in China. Providing context-specific findings on the policy and implementation of INSET as well as its impact on teacher education initiatives in both China and similar contexts, it explores the limitations of one off training events such as INSET and the inconsistency between teacher learning results and their classroom practices. The book argues that teachers, when returning to pre-INSET teaching, are influenced by their prior deeply-rooted beliefs largely considered more powerful than newly-learnt theories. Addressing the rarely discussed fact that the complex and dynamic characteristics of teacher learning change over time and support the construct of teacher learning as a social event rather than a one-off event, the book also offers practical solutions on how to improve teacher education and enhance the long-term INSET impact on teacher development, with the ambition of promoting education reform for both teachers and students alike.

In 2000, the “Western Development” plan of the Chinese Mainland attracted attention of educators and policy makers. Around that period, the Chinese government also launched large scale and systemic curriculum reforms in basic education and secondary education in achieving quality education across the vast country. Despite significant progress that has been made in educational investments and attainments in China, issues of quality and regional disparities across China remain, especially in the less developed, western part of China where the significance of ethnic diversity, urban-rural disparity and variations in school development exists. In addition, there have been entrenched problems of teacher and teaching quality, resources inadequacy and ‘left-behind’ children. Written by a group of Chinese and international scholars, the book provides an updated analysis and discussion of educational development and related issues in the less developed part of Western China. These chapters cover broad contextual issues of educational development and reforms, issues of quality and equality in different sectors of education, as well as curriculum implementation, teaching innovations and professional development of teachers.

This book utilises expectancy–value theory and undermining effect of extrinsic reward theory to examine the impact of the Central Government-Funded Teacher Education (CGFTE) policy on Chinese pre-service teachers' motivations for choosing the teaching profession. Quantitative data analysis revealed six distinct categories of motivations to teach: teacher influence, job advantages (extrinsic), social value (altruistic), personal interest (intrinsic), others' suggestions, and fallback career. These categories were further exemplified in ten narrative stories. The findings indicate that the CGFTE policy attracts high-school graduates with higher intrinsic motivation to enrol in teacher-training programs, but it seems ineffective in increasing their intrinsic career-choice motivation. It is argued that the CGFTE policy, which emphasises extrinsic benefits but limits professional development, does not have a significant negative impact on pre-service teachers' motivation to choose teaching. This conclusion is supported by the offsetting effects of the policy's restrictive and encouraging aspects, as explained by expectancy–value theory and the qualitative data. Nevertheless, the intrinsic motivation of policy-funded pre-service teachers did not improve as much as that of their self-supported counterparts, indicating potential undermining effects of the policy. The study concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for enhancing the CGFTE policy, teacher training, and career education in China. The book will be an essential read for students and scholars of higher education, Chinese studies, and educational studies in general.

This book examines the pre-service teacher education policy development of seven countries, including the USA, the UK, Japan, Canada, Singapore, Australia, and Russia. This book reviews the history of pre-service teacher education policies in those countries and discusses relative case studies on pre-service teacher training practices. It also identifies problems in current pre-service teacher education in those countries and proposes potential countermeasures to resolve those issues. This book serves as a useful reference for various stakeholders in the teacher education field.

Drawing from the discourse of practice-oriented teacher education, this book investigates the state of pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge in mainland China, providing insights into the reform of initial teacher education programmes for teacher educators. Conducting empirical studies at a university in Beijing, involving 400 pre-service teachers, the author investigates factors influencing pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge. Five innovative methodologies, namely concept mapping, visual metaphors, video analysis, epistemic network analysis, and formative interventions are employed to make pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge visible, helping to increase our theoretical understanding of practical knowledge and proposing practical guidelines for the reorganisation of initial teacher education. While the study is grounded in mainland China, the methodological thinking and theoretical discussions can inspire international scholars and teacher educators, and therefore contribute to the global reform of teacher education.