CULTURE ANDCOMPARATIVE STUDIES

William W. Cobern, Section Editor

Cultural Context of School Science Teaching and Learning in the People’s Republic of China

LINGBIAO GAOInstitute of Curriculum Study & Teaching Materials Development, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; e-mail: lbgao@hkucc.hku.hk

Received 14 March 1995; revised 14 January 1997; accepted 28 March 1997

ABSTRACT: This article reviews the educational tradition and philosophy of Confucianism,the communist ideology, the psychological characteristics of the Chinese, and the Chinese lan-guage as the cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the People’s Republicof China. It also discusses some of the cultural influences on the goals of school sciencecourses, the pressure of examinations, the roles of teachers, teachers’ conceptions and styles ofteaching, students’ approaches to learning, and their understanding of scientific terminology.© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 82:1–13, 1998.

INTRODUCTION

Recent research has shown that school teaching and learning are context dependent(Biggs, 1992; Samuelowicz & Bain, 1992; Van Rossum, Deijkers, & Hamber, 1985;Watkins & Regmi, 1992). Teachers and students in different cultural contexts have differ-ent values and beliefs regarding education, teaching, and learning that might cause differ-ences in their motivation, strategies, and performance in schooling (Biggs, 1996; Lee,1996; Watkins, in press). Culture, as a contextual lens through which people view and un-derstand the world, has direct influences on students’ cognitive processes and understand-ing of science (Cobern, 1993; Gao, 1995). This work examines some aspects of how thecultural context influences school science teaching and learning in the People’s Republicof China (PRC).

© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0036-8326/98/010001-13

*Present address: Department of Education, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong KongCorrespondence to: L. Gao

COMBINING MORAL CULTIVATION AND IDEOLOGICAL EDUCATIONWITH SCHOOL SCIENCE

Education and schooling are perceived as important not only for personal development butalso for societal development in China. Over 2000 years ago, Confucius, in his book Da Xue1

(The Great Learning), noted:

Great learning consists in manifesting and clearly displaying the illustrious, natural virtue thatis given by the Heaven, so that men may be renewed and brought back to his original purity,and it does not stop till this is perfectly accomplished.

Through the investigation of things, knowledge is perfected. With the perfection of knowl-edge, thoughts become sincere. With sincerity in thoughts, the heart is rectified. Throughrightness in heart and mind, the self is cultivated and disciplined. When the self is disciplined,the family can be rightly regulated. When the family is rightly regulated, the state can be well-governed.

To students in China, learning is not only a means for knowing and understanding, but alsofor personal perfection, family honor, and social development. To traditional Chinese societyeducation was seen as necessary and important for governing and ruling. This pattern ofthinking has not been discarded in China today but has been integrated with Marxism andMao’s thought (Cleverley, 1991). Education is also seen as important for the development ofthe nation and the development of a socialist-communist ideology in students. A governmentdocument (CCCCP/SCPRC,2 1993) stated:

Education must serve the socialist modernization drive, be integrated with productive labourand help train builders of the country and successors to the socialist cause who are developedmorally, intellectually and physically . . .

The aim of school science in China is not only to deliver scientific knowledge or to developstudents’ skills, abilities, and scientific literacy, but more importantly, to “train socialist citi-zens who have lofty ideas, moral integrity, a good education and a strong sense of discipline,”and to “improve the quality of the entire nation” (SEC,3 1990). These could be achieved be-cause “by school physics [science] courses, students will learn the basic knowledge about mo-tion and substance, develop their skills in observing, experimenting and thinking, master thescientific methods step by step, set up good attitude towards both learning and science, andobtain moral enlightenment . . .” (SEC, 1990).

To achieve these aims, science teachers are encouraged (Ma, 1993):

• To promote students with the sense of pride about China and about being Chinese byintroducing the glories and successes of ancient China and her modern scientificachievements.

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1Da Xue (The Great Learning) is originally one of the books of Li Ji (The Record of Rites) written by students ofConfucius to illustrate the philosophy of Confucius on learning and education. The English translations are adoptedfrom Tsai Chih Chung, The Wisdom of Confucius—Da Xue-Zhong Yong, translated by Mary Ny En Tzu (AsiapacBooks, Ltd., Singapore, 1994).

2CCCCP/SCPRC: Centre Committee of the Chinese Communist Party/State Council of the People’s Republic ofChina.

3SEC 5 State Education Commission of the People’s Republic of China.

• To establish Marxist philosophical points of view in students’ minds by teaching thehistorical process of science and methods applied in scientific study.

• To foster the right attitudes (e.g., to be realistic, practical, and serious in scientificstudy) by telling stories of the great scientists in Chinese history to students, and by themodeling effect of teachers in the classroom.

Parents in China today place more emphasis on their children’s moral development than theirintellectual development. In a survey carried out by the SPAS Group4 (1994) in Zhongshan, acity in southern China, 97 parents were asked to rank five kinds of children according to theirown preferences. Table 1 gives the results.

Parents were also asked for their suggestions on school science teaching and learning.Ninety-two percent of them suggested that teachers should use materials on the history of sci-ence to promote good conduct and good attitude of students. Eighty-six percent of the parentssuggested that stories of great scientists be used for the same purpose. Ninety-one percent ofthe parents expected science teachers to act as models of good conduct as well as learningmodels for their children. Eighty percent of the parents hoped that the school science courseswould help their children to view the world in a scientific way, and thus rid them of their blindfaith in ghosts and unnatural powers.

Teachers also see the importance of student moral cultivation and personal development byschool science courses. They view teaching science as a way to conduct cultivation and atti-tude promotion as well as intelligence and ability development. As explained by teachers inthe interview (Gao, 1996a):

. . . Many physics teachers, including myself, restrict our target to knowledge teaching.However, teaching should be far more than knowledge delivery. It should include educat-ing, cultivating students and teaching them how to be a person, so-called “Jiao Shu YuRen.”5 This should be much more important than the others. . . . (Interview records8.46)

I think if a teacher could motivate his/her students and arouse their interests in the sub-ject he/she taught, helping students to set up good habits and attitude to learning byhis/her instruction, that’s the most wonderful outcome you can expect. (Interview records8.44)

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4SPAS Group: A research group on student potential and ability in science (South China Normal University).5“Jiao Shu Yu Ren”: a set phrase which means teaching as well as cultivating good people.

TABLE 1SPAS Group Results

Rank Performance of the Child Percentagea

1 Good conduct and high intelligence 100%2 Good conduct and average intelligence 82%3 Average conduct and high intelligence 85%4 Good conduct and low intelligence 73%5 Bad conduct and average to high intelligence 65%

aThe percentage column shows the percentage of parents who agree to put this item in this rank.

TEACHER AS A MODEL OF GOOD CONDUCT AND LEARNING

With the above emphasis of the educational function of school science, teachers are viewedas models of good conduct and learning for students in the Chinese tradition. One of the mostoutstanding scholars and educators in the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu, said: “What is a teacher? Ateacher is the one who shows you the way of being human, teaches you knowledge and en-lightens you while you are confused.”6 Confucius emphasized the importance of the exem-plary effects of teachers when he said “When the personal conduct of a man is upright, thepeople will be attentive even if he does not issue orders; however, if his personal conduct isnot upright, even if he issues orders, they will not be followed.”7 Confucius put his ideas intopractice seriously and successfully. He was honored as “a model teacher for ten thousand generations.” His way of cultivating students by his exemplary role is regarded as a successfulway of teaching and educating. Many science teachers in China today follow Confucianismunconsciously. They think that good teaching means not only educating students in terms ofintellectual or academic aspects, but also in terms of conduct or moral aspects. Good teachersshould not only perform well in teaching and learning, but also in other aspects of their lives.They should position themselves as models in both academics and conduct, both inside andoutside the classroom, so that students may follow their lead and find the correct ways in theirlearning and development, the so-called “Wei Ren Shi Biao.”8

With this conception of teaching, many science teachers in China prefer a “parental direct-ing” style in their teaching practice (Gao,1996a). Most of them are highly responsible (Law,1995) and think that they should play a shaping and directing role in student learning. Theyexpect students to follow their directions and achieve better. They see the importance of stu-dent– teacher interaction and students’ independent learning activities, but think that every-thing in the classroom should be well organized and go as planned. They think that classroomlearning is not the whole picture of student learning. In class students learn mainly from theirteachers. But, after class, student learning should become more active. So teachers in class tryto dominate most of the class time to provide students with good examples of learning.

In a study conducted by Gao (1996b), 17 senior secondary physics lessons in Guangzhou,China, were observed and videotaped. In summary, teacher lecturing occupied 65% of the classtime, teacher–student interaction (question–answer or discussion) occupied 23% of the classtime, and student reading or paper-and-pen exercises occupied 11% of the class time; however,only 1% of the class time was spent on students’ observing or experimenting or doing groupdiscussion. Yet these physics teachers do not see any conflict between this style of teaching andthe idea that students should be the center of schooling. One of the teachers remarked:

I would like to spend more time on student activities such as group discussion, but I can’t be-cause of limited time and large class size. I need to cover the syllabus, but there is so much init. I have to face more than 50 students, and it is very difficult to keep them involved in activi-ties and, at the same time, keep the class in order and make sure that everyone is on task. But Ithink the outlook of a class is not most important. It is the students’ attitude which is most im-portant. If the students are interested in the content and the way you present it, if you chal-lenge your students every now and then, if students think actively in the direction which youshow in the lecture, in a word, if the students do not passively accept what you say and just

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6Chinese original adopted from the book, Shi Shuo (On Teachers), by Hans Yu. See Liu Zhen, The Way of Being aTeacher in China; The Way of Teachers (Chung Hwa Book Co., Ltd., Taipei, 1973, p. 754).

7See The Analects, Chapter 13; the English Translations are taken from Tsai Chih Chung, The Saying of Confu-cius, Translated by Lun Yu (Asiapac Books, Ltd., Singapore, 1994, p. 134).

8“Wei Ren Shi Biao”: a set phrase that means a teacher should be a conduct model.

imitate what you do, then I don’t think this is the so-called “teacher centered style.” A teachershould play both a shaping and a directing role and take the responsibility for how much andhow well his or her students learn. (Interview records, p. 9.53)

PRESSURE OF EXAMINATION

Confucius viewed schooling as a way to educate government officers, so-called “Xue ErYou Ze Shi.”9 This led to the “Ke Ju”10 system in China. Since then, schooling became an offi-cial and glorious ladder to reach the top of society. It encouraged many ancient students andscholars from average or poor families to study diligently and consistently. Their energymight come from the beliefs that, “although studying anonymously for 10 years, once you aresuccessful, you will become well-known in the world,” and that “there are golden houses inbooks and there are beautiful girls in books.”11

Today, in China, education is still an important and effective way to raise one’s social andeconomic status. Success in schooling, especially if one can pass the national university en-trance examination, and then graduate from the university, means that he or she could expect abetter career with security and high income. To many students from poor, rural areas, it be-comes “a distinctive line which decides whether they wear straw sandals or leather shoes laterin their lives.”12

Parents are very keen on the results of schooling, especially the exam marks of their chil-dren. Most parents in China will reward their children if they get higher marks on examina-tions, or will punish them for poor marks. According to a recent survey of the key schools inShanghai (Zhao, 1996), 45% of the parents employed home tutors for their children duringthe last year of senior secondary schooling. All parents aim at improving their children’s ex-amination performances.

Student records in public examinations are treated as the most important or even the onlyindicator of the quality of schools by the communities. In Guangzhou, for example, there is areward system for schools dependent on how many of its students pass the national universityentrance examination and enroll successfully in universities. If students within the communityperform poorly on the public examinations, the head of the education department in the localgovernment might be fired. If the performance of a school is much lower than expected, theprincipal of the school might be removed from his or her post. If the performance of studentsin a class is not as good as it should be, the class teacher might lose a part or even all of his orher bonus.

It is no wonder then that teachers also regard external evaluation as the most important cri-terion and place students’ achievement, especially their marks on public examinations, as themost reliable and valuable indicator of successful teaching. As a school physics teacher said(Gao, 1996a):

What I expect from my students is that they all get good marks in the national university en-trance examination . . . I think that is my central focus of teaching. (Interview records, p. 5-30)

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9A quotation of Zi Xia, one of the followers of Confucius. It means that when a scholar is excellent in studies, heshould take office in government.

10Ke Ju is the name of the national selection and examination system in ancient China which began in 606 A.D.and ended in 1905.

11Two ancient Chinese idioms.12This is a popular saying in rural China which means that, if one can get good records in school and on examina-

tions, he or she can then expect a bright future and enjoy a better life.

ACHIEVING MOTIVATION AND HARD WORK

Under the great pressure of public examination, some school science teachers in Chinaview teaching as a process for accomplishing the institutional targets so that the students passexaminations and become qualified for further studies or careers. Teachers feel that studentsshould not only be motivated by intrinsic interest in the subject matter but also be more ener-getic in achieving the targets set for their learning. Therefore, teaching is not only a process ofknowledge delivery, but also a process to lead students to achieve the set goals. In a recentsurvey conducted in Guangdong (Gao, 1996a), five questions regarding this teaching conceptwere included in a questionnaire:

4. I always publish lists of student ranks in tests as a promoter to motivate student learning.

12. I am very keen on updating information and sharing experiences on public exams when Imeet my counterparts from other schools.

16. To students, the aim of schooling is to obtain necessary certificates for future studies orcareer.

20. I very much like those students who get the highest marks in exams.

24. The highest expectation for my students is that they all get high marks on public exams.

This survey involved 450 school physics teachers. Their responses to these questions areshown in Table 2. From the table we can see that about two thirds of the teachers stated thatthe highest expectation for their students was that they all get high marks in public exams.Half of these teachers were very keen on seeking clues to public examination questions.

Even those teachers who did not agree that exam records are the most important measure ofstudent learning spent lots of time in collecting exam-related information and seeking clues topublic examination questions. They did not spend enough time in making conceptual changesin their students. Instead, they drilled their students to improve their skills in solving exam-type questions. As one teacher said during the interview (Gao, 1996a)

. . . because the public focuses sharply on the exam results, and uses it as the only measure toevaluate our teaching and our schools. So we are forced to try every possibility to help our stu-dents to get higher marks on public examination, including seeking exam cues, pushing theminto “the sea of items,”13 etc. I know that this is the opposite of all my knowledge about educa-tion. But I have no choice . . .” (Interview records 1-7)

Almost all senior secondary school teachers are asked to cover the 3-year national syllabus in2.5 years, or in 2 years, so that students could save 6 months or 1 year to prepare for the ex-amination. During this period, students become very bored learning. Old knowledge is re-peated day after day. Hundreds of exam-type items are placed before students. Studentscomplained that they had become a machine for solving exam-type questions. Over a 5-yearperiod, Gao (1996b) visited more than 200 school physics teachers and recorded how manyexam-type items teachers gave to their students during the last year of secondary schooling.The numbers ranged from 1000 to 2000.

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13“The sea of items” is a popular saying. It means drilling students with large amounts of exam-type items.

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TABLE 2Results of Survey Questionnaire

Choice

1 5 Definitely 5 5 Definitely0 5 Missing Disagree 2 5 Disagree 3 5 Medium 4 5 Agree Agree

Item Number Freq. % Freq. % Freq. % Freq. % Freq. % Freq. %

4 2 0 30 7 106 24 165 37 105 23 42 912 2 0 8 2 51 11 171 38 153 34 65 1416 4 1 32 7 73 16 197 44 112 25 32 720 3 1 8 2 69 15 199 44 147 33 24 524 5 1 1 0 21 5 126 28 220 49 77 17

The community, family, and teachers all expected students to get high marks on public ex-aminations. This becomes a powerful external motivating force driving Chinese students tolearn with a sharp focus on examination achievement. Additionally, Chinese culture attributessuccess to effort and failure to lack of effort (Lee, 1996). Students have been influenced byrole models of diligent ancient Chinese learners since their early age. These stories do not ad-vocate the talent of those great scholars, but their diligence, which implies that everyone maysucceed if they all use every ounce of energy. Within such a cultural atmosphere, Chinese stu-dents can be expected to work hard.

Biggs (1987) recognized the close relationship between student motivation and learningstrategy and combined them into so-called “approaches” to learning. He identified three kindsof student approaches to learning: surface, deep, and achieving. The surface approach is signi-fied by the extrinsic motivation and rote learning strategy. The deep approach relates to the in-trinsic motivation or curiosity in learning, and the strategies adopted usually relate to deepunderstanding, meaningful construction, and problem-solving. The achieving approach comeswith competition and ego enhancement that goes with obtaining high grades, and its relatedstrategy is to maximize cost-effectiveness of time and effort.

Based on this model, Biggs and Telfer (1987) developed a questionnaire called the Learn-ing Process Questionnaire (LPQ) to assess students’ learning process. The questionnaire in-cludes 36 items and 6 subscales, and each subscale relates to one aspect of student learning:surface motivation, surface strategies, deep motivation, deep strategies, achieving motivation,and achieving strategies. Student responses are measured on a five-point scale from the mostpositive to the most negative. Gao (1996a) used this instrument on 1250 students in Guang-dong, China. The mean scores of these students and their Hong Kong and Australia counter-parts are shown in Table 3.

From Table 3 we can see that, in both achieving motivation and strategy scales, meanscores of Guangdong students are significantly higher (by t-test, p 5 0.01) than their HongKong and Australia peers. Consequently, Chinese students are more competitive and eager toget higher marks. They work harder and plan better in doing their tasks. A follow-up conver-sation with about 100 students in Guangdong confirmed that they all highly valued the examresults. Most of these students were self-disciplined, and they were neat and systematic intheir work habits. They also tended to plan ahead, and preferred to take clear notes, and tosearch for clues to help them understand and do well on examinations. They enjoyed activitiesrelated to “learning skills.”

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TABLE 3LPQ Mean Scores of Students in Different Culturesa

Surface Surface Deep Deep Achieving AchievingNumber Motive Strategy Motive Strategy Motive Strategy

GD 10 total 1215 19.59 14.36 21.47 18.87 21.81 20.85GD 10 boys 686 19.02 14.38 21.91 19.66 22.00 20.42GD 10 girls 529 20.33 14.33 20.91 17.84 21.56 21.41HK s4 total 1493 19.59 15.50 18.91 17.95 19.62 17.62HK s4 boys 701 19.64 15.73 19.32 18.46 20.16 17.64HK s4 girls 792 19.54 15.29 18.54 17.49 19.15 17.60AU 11 total 984 21.1 16.8 19.1 17.2 19.4 17.2AU 11 boys 464 21.1 17.2 18.7 16.9 19.8 16.2AU 11 girls 520 21.1 16.4 19.5 17.5 19.0 18.0

aSource of data: Hong Kong: Biggs (1992); Australia: Biggs (1987). GD 5 Guangdong;HK 5 Hong Kong; AU 5 Australia.

Another survey, which investigated students’ quality and potential in science in Guangdong,China (SPAS Group, 1994), showed similar findings. This study concluded that:

• Most students are conscious of learning science from a social or external point of view.They think that the social and family requirements are very important. They also regardinternal motivation as important.

• Most students devote much attention to their academic ranking within schools. They at-tach importance to competition in learning.

• Most students emphasize the understanding of the basic concepts, principles, and laws,and pay attention to the interrelationship between different parts of the knowledge.

• Most students have a positive attitude toward their learning task and put lots of effortinto their study. They think highly of learning on their own.

IMPORTANCE OF BOOK KNOWLEDGE

Chinese culture emphasizes the value of knowledge, especially book knowledge. In Confu-cianism, knowledge is important not only in fostering students’ ability, but also in developingstudents’ moral character and behavior. However, Confucians only emphasized knowledge re-lated to personal perfection, interpersonal relationships, or social relationships. They ne-glected knowledge about nature and daily life or laboring techniques (King, 1992). Theythought ideologically but neglected rational analysis and substantial evidence in thinking. Theability of doing technical work was belittled as a trifling skill by Confucians. Although thereare so many great scientific discoveries and technical inventions in ancient China, none ofthese discoveries or inventions was viewed as significant by Confucians. The names of thediscoverers or inventors never appeared in the official historical documents or books; conse-quently, many of them have remained unknown.

The importance of science and technology and the importance of developing students’ abili-ties to solve scientific and technological problems are now widely recognized. However, thepower of Confucian tradition still has impact on school science education in China today.First, emphasis is placed on mastery of a well-structured body of theoretical knowledge in sci-ence. How to build such a body of knowledge is still the first consideration of curriculum de-velopers (Zhang, 1993) and school teachers (Law, 1995) in China. Therefore, the structureand content of school science courses are very similar to the university courses, but the sec-ondary courses are at the lower levels. For example, in junior secondary physics, students areexpected to learn about mechanics, then heat and molecules, electricity and magnetism, op-tics, the atom, and atomic energy. This cycle is repeated again and again in senior secondaryand tertiary levels. The main differences between the junior secondary, senior secondary, andtertiary courses are that the contents of the courses are becoming more abstract and the math-ematics skills applied are growing more complex.

Second, daily life problems and modern technology are treated as applications of scientifictheories or unimportant branches in the tree of knowledge. Teachers contend that it would beimpossible to give students an overall view of the subject or a firm starting point for furtherlearning by using everyday problems or technical problems as the framework or basis ofschool science courses (Gao, 1988). This was strongly re-enforced by the negative experienceof the Cultural Revolution. Subsequent to Mao’s criticism of the theoretical tradition, allschools in China canceled school science courses during the Cultural Revolution. In theirplace, two courses were implemented in all schools: one of the courses was based on the prin-ciple, structure, and operations of “engines, electric generators, electric motors, and waterpumps”; another course was based on the “planting and growing of crops and the farming of

CULTURAL CONTEXT 9

livestock.” This proved to be a total disaster to school science education and the whole educa-tion system. It is, therefore, very difficult today for anyone to suggest that school sciencecourses should be based on daily life or technical topics.

Third, the development of practical skills is placed in a subordinate and unimportant place.Student experiments, classroom activities, and demonstrations are only used as teaching aids tohelp students to understand theoretical knowledge. For example, in the time scheme set for theschool physics course in the national syllabus, the total teaching hours of senior middle schoolphysics is 340, but there are only 27 hours for student experiments (SEC, 1990). Experimentalskills are not included in the national university entrance examination. Only 17 student experi-ments are included in this syllabus (SEC, 1994) and because the exam is a paper-and-pen test,what it really measures is students’ knowledge of experiments. Because school science has be-come exam-focused, many teachers and students in rural areas cut-off student experimentsfrom the course, and some of the teachers suggest that “doing experiments by oneself is lesshelp than watching others; watching others doing experiments is less helpful than memorizingthe details of experiments.” Science learning has become solely book learning.

RESISTANCE TO DIVERSITY AND DECENTRALIZATION

All Chinese share several common cultural and psychological characteristics (Yin, 1988).One of the characteristics comes from the importance of obtaining high social status and win-ning the respect of others and his or her family. This leads to a distinctive concept “face” inChinese culture. “Keeping face” is very important to everyone (King, 1992). Chinese, too, areused to comparing themselves with each other and wish not to be “dropped out of the crowd.”This leads to another psychological characteristic of the Chinese people—to “follow thecrowd” (Yin, 1988). Confucius regarded it as important to keep hierarchy in every aspect ofhuman relations and that obedience should be shown to those in higher positions (Yin, 1988).Following this tradition, Chinese people are used to obeying or following the central govern-ment—the most powerful and authoritative body in the Chinese hierarchical system. This sit-uation can sometimes become an obstacle to implementing educational reforms that wouldlead to less centralization and more diversity.

One example of the above was the failure in diversifying the school syllabus for math-ematics and science in the mid-1980s. In the early 1980s, there was only one set schoolsyllabus (and textbooks) for schools in all of China. It was reported that about 80% of stu-dents were not able to follow this syllabus, especially in mathematics, physics, and chem-istry. The national syllabus was too difficult and its content was too abundant (PEP, 1987).The State Education Commission (SEC) set about making some changes. In 1983, the SECpublished the B-level school syllabus for mathematics, physics, and chemistry (SEC,1983). Compared with the original syllabus (distinguished as A level), some topics weredeleted to make the courses easier and not as lengthy. The SEC encouraged schools tomake a free choice and decided which syllabus they would follow according to the condi-tions of their students. However, parents, school principals and teachers saw the B-levelcourses as lower level courses. They were not willing to let their children/students studycourses that they perceived as lower level and regarded it as something made them “loseface” if their children studied the lower level courses. Parents and teachers also worriedthat if their children/students followed the B-level syllabus, they might drop out of thecrowd because all other children/students kept on following the A-level syllabus. So, mostof the schools kept on using the A-level syllabus no matter how much their students reallylearned. The SEC finally had to suspend both the A- and B-level syllabi in 1988. All

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schools in China today use the same syllabus. The only difference is that the new syllabusis at a lower level so as to fit student needs a bit better.

The SEC sets not only the school syllabus but also determines which school textbooks areedited and published. In the 1980s, there was only one set of school textbooks for more than150 million students.14 To change this extremely unreasonable situation, the SEC decided todiversify the school textbooks in 1988. Several provinces, such as Guangdong and Sichuan,were allowed to edit and publish textbooks for the 9-year compulsory schooling in theseprovinces. These new textbooks came to be published in 1993. Some of these textbooks areup to date and have greater relevance to students’ lives. However, most of the schools inGuangdong and Sichuan decided to keep using the original textbooks, which were edited andpublished by the People’s Education Press (official editing body and publisher of the SEC inBeijing). School principals gave several reasons for their decision. The most common reasonwas simply that they considered it to be safer to follow the central government and adopt thetextbooks used by most other schools in China.

UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS

The understanding of science terminology is also culturally dependent. The term used toexpress a given scientific concept might imply something else in a nonscientific context. Thus,the meaning of these terms could vary from culture to culture. For instance, the concept of en-ergy causes misunderstanding for Western students. However, similar misunderstandings hap-pens with another concept “forces” for Chinese students. The meaning of the Chinese term“forces” in daily life implies the meaning of “energy” or “power” to some extent. Another ex-ample is the term “weight,” which could be explained as “the amount of weight” and impliesthe meaning “the amount of substance” in everyday Chinese language. (The latter would bet-ter fit the term “mass,” although there is debate on the exact connotation of the term.) Teach-ers in China have to put more effort into helping their students distinguish the concepts of“mass” and “weight.”

Most of the modern scientific terms used in the West have to be translated into Chinese.Different translations often cause misunderstanding for students. A comparative study of stu-dents’ alternative frameworks in “particulate” concepts between Guangzhou and Hong Kong(Gao et al., 1988) shows that there are more than ten different patterns of alternative frame-works. Most of these could be attributed to differences in curriculum and teaching strategy.However, some may be due to the language context. For example, more Hong Kong studentsmismatch the term “Li Zi” (particle) with “tiny grains of solids” while answering the testitems. That might be because the direct translation of the term “Li Zi” in daily Chinese lan-guage means “tiny grain,” but in scientific terminology it is a special aggregate name for amolecule, atom, ion, etc. In schools in mainland China, the terms “Fen Zi” (molecule) and“Yuan Zi” (atom) are used as standard textbook terms, and if teachers want an aggregatename for all of these, the translation “Wei Guan Li Zi” (microparticles) is used to avoid misunderstanding.

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14The central government edited the textbooks for main school subjects only. The local education authoritieswere allowed to edit textbooks for other subjects, such as laboring skills, local geography, etc., or complementarymaterials. Furthermore, there were some “experimental textbooks” edited by other academic bodies or private writ-ers; for example, the experimental physics textbook edited by the Chinese Physics Teachers Association. But, thesebooks are used in a very small number of schools. And, although the permitted “experiment period” ended, theycould not be published again unless they were admitted by the central government.

SUMMARY

The mainstream of modern Chinese culture could be seen as a mixture of Confucianismand Marxism (King, 1992). These belief systems exercise an important influence on the edu-cational function of school science courses. Teaching and learning science is not only aprocess of delivering scientific knowledge and developing scientific literacy. It is also viewedas a process of affective cultivation and ideological education. However, the enormous pres-sure of public examinations, together with the Confucian tradition of looking down on practi-cal and technical knowledge and skills, pushes school science courses into an academicdirection thus diverting learning away from the world of everyday experience. This causesmany problems for school science teaching and learning in China today.

Chinese science teachers are expected to play varied roles. They are asked to play exem-plary roles in both learning and daily performance. Many of them prefer a “parental directing”style in their teaching. Students in China are more achievement-oriented and hard-workingthan their Western counterparts. As a result, Chinese students learn with deep achieving strate-gies and perform better than their Western counterparts (Biggs, 1996).

Psychological characteristics of the Chinese and the Chinese language also have their ef-fects on school science teaching and learning. The Chinese place special emphasis on meth-ods and ways used in learning and inquiring. We can see some of these effects in schoolscience teaching and learning, but most remain unknown. Further research is necessary in thisimportant area of teaching and learning.

REFERENCES

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Great thanks go to Dr. John Sachs; he read through and polished my preliminary manuscript.

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