Meaning-Making of Chinese Teachers in the Curriculum Reform

Abstract

In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MoE) launched a national basic education curriculum reform, with the objective of changing the predominant knowledge transmission model to a more constructivist approach with more student participation and self-initiated collaborative inquiry. This reform has raised many new challenges for schoolteachers, the most striking of which is the conflicting demands between “education for student quality” (素质教育) and “education for exams” (应试教育). Since ancient times, examinations have been playing a vital role in assessing students’ attainment, determining promotion to higher levels of learning, and human resource allocation. Nowadays, parents, especially those with only one child, pressure teachers to produce high test scores from their children who, however, have been long frustrated with the current test-driven system. The new curriculum reform requires teachers to provide an all-rounded education focused on student development. From the government’s perspective, such education will produce more creative working people so that China will become an even stronger world superpower. From the academic reformers’ perspective, the raison d’etre for the reform is for the well-being of the younger generation.