Teaching For Learning:Research On Learning-centered Teaching

Achievements which have amazed the whole world have been since 2001 when the new round of fundamental educational curriculum reform was initiated.However,the reform is still subject to many problems.Especially,low-efficiency teaching and passive learning,formalized teaching and false learning problems have become serious.The present research is established on a new significant concept which the new curriculum advocates,namely learning-centered teaching,which is aimed to building a localized learning-centered teaching famework to guide teaching practices in primary and secondary schools and provide professional paths for promotion of curriculum reform both in scope and in depth.The core of learning-centered teaching is "teaching for learning",it refers to that on the basis of respecting students’ personality characteristics and needs,teachers create multiple conditions and utilize multiple teaching strategies to help students to realize autonomous and responsible learning.It abandons the traditional teachers-centered or contents-centered class teaching paradigm and advocates the students-centered or learning-centered teaching practice paradigm.The idea of learning-centered teaching has started since Confucius and Socrates.However,Dewey can be regarded as the vanguard in this area due to his earlier contribution on proposing the learning-centered teaching theory.Later,the cognitivism scholars and humanism scholars explored the learning-centered teaching theories from the emphasis on cognition process and emotional experience of learners respectively.Currently,researchers have presented learning-centered teaching theories which emphasize both the learning process and individual development of learners in the perspective of social constructivism.There are mainly two types of learning-centered teaching theories so far:the learning-centered teaching theoretical model proposed by McCombs and Miller and the learning-centered teaching theoretical model put forward by Blumberg.From the analysis on these two models,a comprehensive analysis framework for the present research is established,which focuses on investigating what learning-centered teaching is,what factors it is influenced by and what roles it is playing.Based on above considerations,the combined qualitative and quantitative research method is applied to explore the above problems of learning-centered teaching on the basis of interviews and the large-scale database of Investigation of Curriculum and Instruction in China.Following results have been found in the present research:Firstly,based on qualitative research method,the learning-centered teaching analysis framework proposed by Blumberg is verified and revised.The learning-centered teaching analysis framework proposed by Blumberg is demonstrated and revised through in-depth interviews on 6 teachers with abundant teaching experience.It has been found by this research that the localized learning-centered teaching can be disintegrated into five dimensions,respectively teacher role,learning responsibility,contents function,power balance and evaluation process and purpose.The dimensions are both interdependent on each other and independent from each other.Secondly,in adherence to the consistency principle of "theory-variable tool-data or proof’,the evaluation tool on learning-centered teaching is compiled.It has been found by empirical examination that the homogeneity Cronbach’α coefficient of the overall questionnaire is 0.899 and the split-half reliability is 0.884.The homogeneity reliability coefficients on the five sub-questionnaires,including contents function,teacher role,learning responsibility,power balance and evaluation purpose&process,range between 0.739 and 0.839 and their split-half reliability coefficients vary from 0.708 to 0.868.The correlation coefficients between the learning-centered teaching evaluation questionnaire and each sub-questionnaire range between 0.791 and 0.862.In addition,the dual correlation coefficients among each sub-questionnaire range between 0.261 and 0.523.It has been found by further analysis on confirmatory factors that the value of χ2/df is 3.132,the values of IFI,TLI,CFI and GFI are all around 0.9,and RMSEA is 0.049.These indicate that the reliability and validity of the questionnaire are good and can be used to evaluate leaming-centered teaching.Thirdly,the above evaluation tools on learning-centered teaching are applied to investigate and analyze the current situation of iearming-centered teaching in China.It has been found by the present research that the learning-centered teaching level in China is slightly higher than the medium level.However,the scores of evaluation process and purpose and learning responsibility are relatively lower;in addition,it is found that in current Chinese learning-centered teaching background,there are differences in the distribution characteristics of grades,urban-rural areas,teaching years,titles,class sizes and graduation universities.Aiming at these differences,the present research has discussed the relevant cause and proposed corresponding suggestions.Fourthly,a Hierarchical Linear Modeling is applied to inspect the influence which the teacher beliefs factor and school administration factor have on learning-centered teaching.It has been found by the results that all the six teacher beliefs(teaching efficiency,reconsideration awareness,and trust in students,autonomous support,learning-centered concept and disciplinary values)can predict the learning-centered teaching.In addition,the learning-centered concept has the highest predicative effect on the learning-centered teaching.The three school administration tactors(school policy support,school practices support and school cultural support)can directly influence the learning-centered teaching Furthermore,the school policy support fector has the most obvious predicative effect.Fifthly,the method of Regressive Analysis and Structural Equation Model is applied to explore and examine the action mechanism which learning-centered teaching imposes on the student outcomes(non-academic achievement factor and academic performance).It has been found by the results that the learning-centered teaching can not only directly act on the students’ academic performance but cast an indirect influence on the students’ academic performance through the mediators,such as students’ learning interest,academic efficiency and school happiness.In addition,it has been found by the research that among the five factors of learning-centered teaching,the teacher role has the most obvious predicative effect on students,academic performance and learning interest.Specifically,the contents factor and learning responsibility factor make relatively more obvious predicative effect on the students’ academic efficiency while the learning responsibility factor has the most obvious predicative effect on the students’ school happiness.Sixthly,the present research has found some research results beyond the theoretical "teacher beliefs-teacher practices-student outcomes" model,which refers to that the learning-based teaching can directly influence the students’ academic performance.According to this finding,the overall analysis framework has been revised in the present research.Finally,according to the analysis on the above research conclusions,four significant inspiration points have been concluded for the curriculum and teaching reform in China:(i)For teachers,they need to build learning-centered teacher beliefs and improve their assessment literacy,(ii)For students,they need to cultivate students’learning responsibility awareness and autonomic learning capacity;(iii)For schools,they need to implement the policy of respect for teachers and students;(iv)For training system,it needs to reinforce the learning-centered of teacher training.