Improving Teaching Style with Dialogic Classroom Teaching Reform in a Chinese High School

Abstract

Lively and effective classroom instruction is an important feature of quality schools. Recently, the lead author's school
has launched a reform of classroom teaching methods to implement a dialogic model. The dialogic model, taking cues
from constructivist learning theories and Manabu Sato, expects educators to promote multiple kinds of classroom
dialogue, including teacher-student dialogue, student-text dialogue, student-student dialogue, and self-reflective
dialogue. The reform efforts of the school are all-encompassing and include changes to teacher training, classroom
observation and teaching evaluation, lesson planning, classroom activities, homework, and testing. This reform is
meant to improve teaching quality, enhance the classroom environment, and bring about better critical thinking
outcomes in the students. The following text chronicles the details of this reform in a large senior high school in a
Chinese metropolis, and the first attempts by teachers at the school to implement new dialogic teaching techniques.
The preliminary analysis finds evidence of positive effects on student engagement, confidence, and motivation using
dialogic teaching techniques.