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This study used the data from the TALIS 2018 to explore how teacher job satisfaction is affected by factors at the teacher-level (e.g., teacher motivation and teachers' perceived disciplinary climate) and school-level (e.g., school delinquency and violence) simultaneously. The HLM results showed that both the school- and teacher-level factors were significantly related to teacher job satisfaction. These findings were discussed in relation to Chinese educational contexts.

Yinyang philosophy encompasses an essential understanding of the mechanism and laws of nature, cosmos, and human society in Chinese culture, and reaches to many other parts of Asia and around the world. The purpose of this article is to explore how yinyang philosophy can serve as a philosophical underpinning of mixed methods research (MMR). In particular, harmony, one of the important features in yinyang philosophy, is applied to interpret the design of mixed methods research. Guided by this philosophy, other beliefs about an integrated approach to using qualitative and quantitative methods fit in with the MMR approach. These underlying precepts are not necessarily held by researchers, and will be shown to indicate harmony and a dynamic equilibrium of yin and yang. This perspective provides a novel window for considering controversial issues that have arisen about the use of different philosophical underpinnings for MMR during its emergence over the past several decades. The implications are for a softer interpretation, for example, when selection of quantitative rules needs to harmonize with certain types of MMR, and validity of self-developed questionnaires needs to consider different levels of criteria for MMR.

This study employed a quantitative research design to investigate Chinese teachers' conceptions of classroom assessment and perceived skills. A total of 746 teachers were recruited through professional teaching groups. Results showed that a higher percentage of Chinese teachers selected contemporary assessment approaches to classroom assessment (e.g., assessment for learning) than more traditional approaches (e.g., assessment of learning). Chinese teachers also reported high levels of confidence in items that addressed aspects of assessment theory. Significant differences in approaches to classroom assessment were found across (a) age groups, (b) educational qualifications, and (c) between full-time classroom teachers and classroom teachers that held additional positions (e.g., school administrator, leader, head). Implications for educational policy-makers and practitioners in light of enhancing teacher assessment literacy are discussed.

The Chinese Ministry of Education recently called for improvements in undergraduate teaching. One way to meet this mandate is to codify what Chinese undergraduate students consider to be poor teaching behaviors. Across three phases, this study investigated poor teacher behaviors and compared them to existing data from American students. The categories of poor teaching generated by both sets of students overlapped considerably. However, some characteristics of poor teaching--such as teachers being unfair to students--may be unique to China. The specific behaviors that are representative of poor teaching qualities differed across the two cultures, suggesting the need for a nuanced approach to examining what students perceive to be poor teaching.

This study employed survey research in China to investigate the relationships among teacher evaluation, teacher self-efficacy, and teacher job satisfaction, while controlling for demographic variables. Four hundred and twenty-five teachers from a medium-sized city in Heilongjiang Province participated. The study examined the teachers' perceptions regarding using student achievement data in evaluation, finding mixed views about the inclusion of student scores, consistent with many recent studies on teacher evaluation reforms. Principal component analysis was conducted on the perception data and three factors emerged. The three factors were used in hierarchical multiple regression analyses and, in addition, three variables of teacher self-efficacy (i.e., efficacy for student engagement, efficacy for instructional strategies, and efficacy for classroom management) also were included in the analyses. The analyses found that (a) teachers' perceptions of their evaluation have a significant explanatory power on their job satisfaction, and (b) when their perceptions of evaluation are controlled, teachers' self-efficacy can explain additional variance in teachers' job satisfaction. Specifically, teachers' self-efficacy for student engagement was significantly predictive. Implications for educational policymakers and practitioners in light of enhancing teacher job satisfaction and developing rigorous teacher evaluation are discussed.

We discuss Chinese students' assessment of key qualities of excellent teaching based on a study of master teaching using the Teacher Behavior Checklist. Although male and female students agreed on several qualities, we also found several interesting gender differences in students' perceptions of the qualities that constitute master teaching.

This article presents the results of an interpretive policy analysis of China's Ministry of Education Standards (2013) for the professional practice of principals. In addition to revealing the evolution of the evaluation of principals in China and the processes by which this policy is formulated, a comparative analysis was conducted to compare it with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Standards 2008 (ISLLC 2008). The analysis was conducted on the specific standards and indicators across the two documents. The results indicate the presence of both significant similarities and differences in performance expectations for principals: differences are explained by the cultural and national contexts within which school leaders work in both countries. In February 2013 the Ministry of Education in China issued for the first time the national Professional Standards for Compulsory Education School Principals, which provide the specific expectations of quality school leadership. The unprecedented interest in international benchmarking of student academic performance has led to the belief that there are common elements in education policy and school leadership practices. It is hoped that this research sheds new light onto the current thinking on the expectations and evaluation of principal leadership.

This study investigated effective teaching factors and student reading strategies as predictors of student reading achievement in the United States and China. Participants were 10,348 students in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, 5115 from China and 5233 from the United States. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed 22 effective instructional indicators in a four-factor structure in the two countries: "morality," "environment," "strategies," and "stimulation." The results from hierarchical multiple regression (HMR) indicated that both effective instructional factors and student reading strategies predicted student reading achievement in the United States and China. In particular, "morality" and "stimulation" were significant for the Chinese sample and not significant for the US sample. "Environment" and "strategy" were significant for both countries. "Text-summarize" was not significant for both countries. "Text-discuss content" was not significant for the Chinese sample and significant for the US sample. "Text-underline" and "summary-check paragraph" were significant for the US sample only. "Summary-write own words" was significant for the Chinese sample only. These results were explained from both economic and cultural perspectives. The high-speed economic development in China affected teachers' beliefs and values about education. From cultural perspectives, some results may have been caused by cultural uniqueness. A typical example was Chinese teachers not advocating "text-discuss content" associated with Confucian beliefs of learning while the US teachers perceived this as important since they were nurtured in the Western culture. This study also proposed a notion of "cultural free factors" related to teaching and learning that may be important for culture studies.

Teacher performance evaluation currently is receiving unprecedented attention from policy makers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide. This study is one of the few studies of teacher perceptions regarding teacher performance measures that focus on China. We employed a quantitative dominant mixed research design to investigate Chinese teachers' preferences for teacher performance measures and the possible reasons for their preferences. Considering the quantitative results, the surveyed Chinese teachers identified fulfillment of additional roles, collaboration with faculty and staff, and students' test scores as the most important measures for performance evaluation. Qualitatively, the most important measures that the surveyed teachers reported were the teacher's morality, workload, and students' test scores.

Two research questions guided this study of teacher selection: (a) What characteristics do Chinese principals look for when hiring teachers? And (b) what is the effect of participants' gender, experience, or school location on perceived characteristics of effective teacher candidates in hiring? Both interviews and a questionnaire survey were used to collect data from a southwest city of Shandong Province, China. In this mixed design study, quantitative results were consistent with the qualitative results. Additionally, the study results are intended to help readers better understand school principals' perceived characteristics of effective teachers in a Chinese context and provides a framework for future comparative research between China and the USA.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese teachers' attitudes toward performance pay. Specifically, this study examined the extent to which Chinese teachers supported performance-pay programs. The study also examined the effects of these programs on teachers, particularly on their levels of collaboration, work motivation, and job stress. Design/methodology/approach: This research was conducted in a northeastern city of China. Criteria sampling and maximum variation sampling techniques were used to select three schools, representing different characteristics of teacher performance pay (TPP) programs. In all, 150 questionnaires were administered to each of the three schools. The questionnaire contained three parts. Part 1 asked about respondents' overall attitude toward pay-for-performance in general. Part 2 was composed of 20 closed-ended items asking respondents to rate their levels of agreement with various aspects of implementation of performance pay. Part 3 of the questionnaire comprised open-ended items. Findings: Approximately 48.5 percent of the teachers supported the teacher-performance-pay programs. This indicated a low support of Chinese teachers in comparison to that in some countries. Regarding how teachers' attitudes toward performance pay are related to teacher characteristics (e.g. teaching experience, professional ranking), the ANOVAs results showed no significant differences in any of the factors. This quantitative result was different from the qualitative result of this study (e.g. veteran teachers complained about the implementation of performance pay). In spite of the differences between quantitative and qualitative findings, some findings from the current study are consistent with those found in western countries. Research limitations/implications: One limitation of this study was the small sample size for quantitative analyses. Future research should consider a larger sample size to conduct more advanced statistical analyses such as structural equation modeling to examine further the relations among, for example, how much the incentive pay should be, and what proportion of teachers should receive it, the level of teacher stress, their work enthusiasm, and peer relationships. Another limitation of this study was that the qualitative data were collected through open-ended questions of the questionnaire. Future research should interview teachers and principals to obtain richer voices from the teachers. Originality/value: Very few articles published in Chinese journals surveyed the implementation of TPP. In addition, these few articles were not well-designed from an empirical sense. So far research of teacher opinions about performance pay was a missing area in China's educational discourse. The present study provides information to non-Chinese readers who are interested in Chinese teachers' attitudes toward TPP. It is hoped the present study adds knowledge to the literature of TPP from the perspective of Chinese teachers.

Researchers have found that students from different academic disciplines tend to value different qualities in their teachers, and cultural differences play a role in which qualities students appreciate in their professors. The present/current study employed the Teacher Behavior Checklist as an operationalization of teaching qualities in a comparative investigation among psychology, chemical engineering, and education students in China. Chinese college students' perceptions of excellent teachers' qualities differed across the three disciplines. We offer some contextual and cultural explanations for the differences and conclude that student evaluations of instruction should always be interpreted within the context of the evaluation.

We "employed the Teacher Behavior Checklist" (TBC) to investigate Chinese college students' perceptions of excellent teachers' qualities and then compared the results to those from previously collected data from American and Japanese students. Chinese students tended to favor additional structure both in the classroom and in teachers' roles than either Japanese or American students. Teachers wishing to use the TBC to improve teaching quality should carefully consider subtle cultural differences that influence students' perceptions of their teachers.

This study employed a partially-mixed concurrent equal-status design to investigate factors motivating Chinese teachers to enter the teaching profession and sources of teacher job satisfaction in China as opposed to those described in the international literature. The data were collected in Jilin Province of China from 510 teachers who participated in a survey. The quantitative results indicated that Chinese teachers were motivated by both intrinsic (e.g. liking to be a teacher) and extrinsic factors (e.g. salary) to enter the teaching profession. Furthermore, MANOVA showed that teachers who were more intrinsically motivated to enter the teaching profession reported a higher level of job satisfaction. Qualitative data revealed that some job-satisfaction factors were universal across countries and some were specific to China. This study offered some implications for educational policy makers and practitioners worldwide and in China.

With the implementation of teacher performance pay in 2009 in China, teacher performance evaluation has become a heated topic. This research study follows up on two previous studies of teacher evaluation in China and continues the dialog by analyzing the latest trends in the context of teacher performance pay. There were two sources of information for this article: academic journal articles and teacher evaluation practices of two schools from Beijing. Seven themes were derived from a content analysis of the academic journal articles: (a) studies on teacher evaluation within the context of curriculum reform, (b) methods of teacher evaluation, (c) studies of miscellaneous responses, (d) studies on developmental teacher evaluation, (e) studies on teacher performance evaluation, (f) studies on teacher effectiveness, and (g) philosophical thoughts of teacher evaluation. The two cases of teacher evaluation practices revealed some changes since the implementation of teacher performance pay, such as a more comprehensive teacher evaluation system.

This survey study employed qualitative dominant mixed research to explore the sources of teacher stress in China and the possible reasons for Chinese teachers' turnover intention. The data were collected in Jilin Province of China, and 510 teachers participated in the survey. Quantitatively, 40.4% of the surveyed teachers reported that they probably or certainly would leave the teaching profession for another occupation if the opportunity arose. Qualitative data showed that the possible reasons for the Chinese teachers' turnover intention found from this study included a high level of stress, low salary, inadequate breaks and holidays, heavy workload, and student behavior. (Contains 1 table.)

This study employed survey research to investigate the differential relationships between dimensions of teachers' job satisfaction (e.g. salary) and their turnover intention, after controlling for demographic variables (e.g. school location). Five hundred and ten teachers from a northeastern city of China participated. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that (a) teachers were more likely to stay in teaching profession if they worked in urban schools, always wanted to become a teacher or had a realistic view of teaching before they began their career training and (b) a negative relationship existed between teachers' compensation and their turnover intention. This study offered some implications for Chinese educational policy-makers and practitioners regarding how to remain qualified teachers. (Contains 2 tables.)

The aims of this study were to examine the factor structure of the attitudinal questionnaire items from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and to investigate low- and high-performing students' mathematics self-concept in East Asian societies and in the USA. The participants were 24,119 eighth-graders, 4856 from Japan, 4972 from Hong Kong, 5379 from Taiwan and 8912 from the USA. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were conducted revealing a same factor structure across the four societies. The MANOVA results showed that (1) the US students reported a statistically significant higher mathematics self-concept than students in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Japan; (2) across the four societies, high-performing students had statistically significant higher self-concept than low-performing students; and (3) the US low-performing students' self-concept was higher than Japanese high-performing students' self-concept. The implications of these findings are discussed. (Contains 8 tables.)

Since the 1920's many researchers have conducted studies exploring the qualities of good teachers. However, a limited number of empirical studies have been conducted in the People's Republic of China (hereafter called China). The current study has two objectives. The first one aims to compare a good teacher's characteristics in China and the USA. To achieve this, qualitative data of a good teacher's characteristics were collected in China. The results obtained from China were then compared to those reported in the USA. The second objective was to test whether or not there are differences among teachers', students' and parents' perceptions of a good teacher's characteristics in China. To achieve this, questionnaires were administered, and then statistical analyses were conducted. The qualitative data analyses have revealed four themes about the characteristics of good Chinese teachers: Teacher ethics, professional skills, professional development, and students' test scores. The ANOVAs have found no differences among teachers', students' and parents' perceptions of the qualities of good teachers in China on most of the items. This study helps readers better understand good teachers in a Chinese context and provides a framework for future comparative study between China and the USA regarding the qualities of good teachers.

Much educational effectiveness research has been conducted over the past 40 years in developed countries, whereas few studies have focused on developing or newly industrialized countries such as the People's Republic of China. The case studies discussed in this article are part of a larger multiple-case, mixed-methods study that investigated 6 pairs of more and less effective Chinese schools. The research described here focused on differentially effective rural schools and revealed several important differences and similarities between those schools. The study also found differences between Chinese urban and rural schools and contrasts between the processes of educational effectiveness in China and those described in the international literature. Suggestions for improving educational effectiveness in rural China are presented. (Contains 3 tables and 8 footnotes.)

The objective of this study was to advance our understanding of educational effectiveness processes within contexts where they have seldom been studied before: rural and urban areas in China. Utilizing a "contextually sensitive" school effectiveness research design, we collected classroom observation data to address our research hypotheses and question. The research design called for crossing 2 levels of effectiveness status (more effective, less effective) and 2 levels of community type (urban, rural). Multivariate analyses of variance with traditional teacher effectiveness variables as the dependent indices yielded significant differences between more effective and less effective schools and between urban and rural schools. Qualitative results complemented the classroom observations by identifying unique characteristics of classroom teaching in the People's Republic of China. (Contains 2 tables and 13 notes.)

This research study follows up on previous investigations of the ongoing curriculum reform in China and its repercussions (actual and potential) on the effectiveness of the teacher evaluation process there (Liu & Teddlie, 2004, 2005). With the full implementation of the new curriculum reform throughout the country, teacher evaluation is becoming more and more important in today's China. Practitioners are exploring new methods for making practical reforms in teacher evaluation in individual districts and schools. There are two sources of information for this article, which focuses on events that have transpired in China beginning in 2004: a content analysis of academic sources related to teacher evaluation and interviews conducted with Chinese teachers at different sites and grade levels. Six themes were derived from an analysis of the academic sources. Interview results focus on issues such as (1) the utilization of student test scores in the evaluation of teachers and (2) "teaching to the test." The article ends with eight suggestions for improving practices currently associated with teacher evaluation in China.

John Dewey was one of the most significant figures in the history of the Chinese people. When he and his first wife visited China from May 1, 1919 to July 11, 1921, delivering lectures on the philosophy of education, social and political philosophy, ethics, experimental logic, art, and other topics, Dewey was met by the people of China with open arms and open minds. At that time, he became the highest educational authority in China. Despite Dewey's strong initial impact, his influence underwent an eclipse in China, particularly after the early 1940s. With the change in political regime, and the institution of communism, Dewey fell from favor. Recently however, interest in Dewey's ideas has been revived, and Dewey's educational philosophy seems to emerge as part of China's new curriculum reform. This reform movement involves several major changes: (1) moving China's education from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction; (2) shifting from abstract teaching content to the learning materials related to real life; and (3) changing from student memorizing to reflective thinking. In this article, the authors argue that the philosophical ideas underlying this newest curriculum reform are drawn essentially from Dewey's early philosophy and his progressive educational ideas.