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A Relational Paradigm of Cross-Cultural Learning

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Constructivism and Teachers in Chinese Culture

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Abstract

When I shared my research question of why selected Beijing teachers think constructivism is useful, people were often curious about how I came up with such a complicated but interesting topic. While I was attracted by Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories as an undergraduate in Beijing, I had difficulty putting them into practice. After coming to the United States and learning more about Western psychological theories, I became curious about why and how teachers in Beijing demonstrated constructivism in practice. Based on the beliefs and practices of the three teachers, this chapter examines the probability and necessity of applying constructivism as one of the guiding pedagogies in China. The cultural appropriateness is discussed in terms of moral teaching, reciprocal learning, similarities between constructivists’ and Confucian pedagogies, the importance of distinguishing the means from the end, as well as implications for cross-cultural research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    Zitong Wei

  2. China Women’s University, Beijing, China

    Zitong Wei

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  1. Zitong Wei
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Wei, Z. (2019). A Relational Paradigm of Cross-Cultural Learning. In: Constructivism and Teachers in Chinese Culture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2691-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2691-2_8

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