TY - JOUR
T1 - Chinese expert teachers’ critical thinking strategies for professional growth
AU - Liao, Wei
AU - Liu, Miao
AU - Wang, Zhaoxuan
AU - Qin, Kongji
N1 - Funding Information:
Zhang reported similar experiences and perspectives. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Zhang served as a consultant for designing an online professional development programme for about 13,000 rural teachers in eight counties in her home province Gansu. The project was sponsored by Gansu Province Department of Education as part of the efforts for alleviating educational poverty (教育脱贫). The initial curriculum was focused on enhancing the teachers’ subject matter knowledge, teaching methods, and technology use. Zhang said, ‘we cannot use the same contents and approaches as we did with teachers working in well-developed city schools. They [the targeted rural teachers in the project] are so different.’ She further explained that many rural teachers in the targeted counties could not speak fluent Putonghua or the standard Chinese – the official language required in most Chinese classrooms. This reality was a major factor that compromised the effectiveness of those teachers’ teaching and their own learning. Therefore, following Zhang’s suggestion, the project enriched the curriculum with a series of courses on improving the targeted teachers’ Putonghua skills.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 International Professional Development Association (IPDA).
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This qualitative case study examines how Chinese expert teachers use critical thinking strategies to seek opportunities for professional growth. Taking a practice-oriented perspective, we conceptualise teachers’ critical thinking as a series of strategies for improving instructional practice, school engagement, and social service in situated contexts. Through thematic analysis of interviews with six Chinese expert teachers, we identified three critical thinking strategies that played an important role in the teachers’ professional growth: (a) justifying pedagogical decisions to enact high-quality instructional practice; (b) extending school norms to develop democratic relationships with colleagues; and (c) addressing critical reform issues to make contributions to the society. This study adds to the literature an integrative, practical, and context-specific conceptualisation of teachers’ critical thinking. It also suggests implications for teachers, school administrators, and teacher educators to leverage critical thinking as a guiding force to advance teachers’ professional growth.
AB - This qualitative case study examines how Chinese expert teachers use critical thinking strategies to seek opportunities for professional growth. Taking a practice-oriented perspective, we conceptualise teachers’ critical thinking as a series of strategies for improving instructional practice, school engagement, and social service in situated contexts. Through thematic analysis of interviews with six Chinese expert teachers, we identified three critical thinking strategies that played an important role in the teachers’ professional growth: (a) justifying pedagogical decisions to enact high-quality instructional practice; (b) extending school norms to develop democratic relationships with colleagues; and (c) addressing critical reform issues to make contributions to the society. This study adds to the literature an integrative, practical, and context-specific conceptualisation of teachers’ critical thinking. It also suggests implications for teachers, school administrators, and teacher educators to leverage critical thinking as a guiding force to advance teachers’ professional growth.
KW - Critical thinking
KW - expert teacher
KW - teacher education
KW - teacher professional growth
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U2 - 10.1080/19415257.2022.2097290
DO - 10.1080/19415257.2022.2097290
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133703720
SN - 1941-5257
JO - British Journal of In-Service Education
JF - British Journal of In-Service Education
ER -