Social learning of values and teacher-student interactions in a transitional socialist China

The issue of the growing anomie, particularly among the youth of China, has prompted the following research questions. How do teachers' values influence students' values in China? What are some of the predominant values that students and teachers in China possess? How are the relationships between teachers and students characterized? How do teachers' values and their relationships with students influence students' development of values? Are there other background, societal or institutional factors that compete with teacher-values influences?; Conceptually aligned to Arthur Bandura's (1971) Social Learning Theory, the expectation is that: Chinese teachers who foster strong affective relationship with their students and project salient values in the classroom will have a major socializing effect on their students.; The methodology involves the use of surveys administered to sixth grade teachers and students in China. The sample for this study includes approximately 1352 students and 65 teachers from diverse schools covering a broad geographical region throughout China (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzen). After the surveys were collected, translated, transcribed, and coded, the factored data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear regressions, analyses of variance and cross-tabs.; We discovered that teachers' values significantly influence the values of their students across our three axiological categories: Noun-Values (Ethics, Morals, Ideals); Adjective-Values (Worth, Utility, Desirability); Verb-Values (Motivation, Interests, Goals). Social Learning Theory suggests that saliency is a key factor in determining whether modeling occurs, and our results confirm that premise, where students' perceptions of teachers' values were of greater influence than the stated values of teachers themselves. An interaction was exhibited between teacher-student relationships and the influence of student-perceived teacher values on the values of students, validating the affective component of Bandura's theory. Other important influences on student values included student gender, student grades and the characteristics of schools that students attended. Our analysis of the data reveals that there is no simple way to describe the values of teachers or students in China. In both the general sample as well as in single individuals, the oxymoron of traditional and modern values seemed contradictory, embodying simultaneously the miracle of diversity and the threat of anomie.