A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of Teachers in United States Public Schools, China Public Schools, and East Asian International Schools

• In Event: Challenges and Possibilities of Teaching Innovation and Curriculum Reform

Proposal

Introduction
The quality of education, which largely implicates the quality of teachers, continues to grow as an area of concern as nations attempt to address economic, social, and political needs in their respective countries. Since teachers are the most important in-school effect on student success, investing in quality teachers and equitably distributing this resource can help successfully address student learning opportunity gaps in any school and in any country (Morgan, Farkas, & Maczuga, 2016; Author, Ward, & Author, 2011). The backdrop of educational reforms in the United States and China, along with the intensified global economic and educational competition in virtually all courtiers around the world, makes this an opportune time to conduct international comparative studies of teacher quality to develop better understandings of this complicated topic (See, for example, Crossley & Waston, 2003). The primary purpose of this study was to examine selected U.S. and Chinese government teachers and to compare them to teachers in independent international schools in the East Asia region. Specifically, we sought to answer the question: What are the beliefs and practices of effective teachers teaching across varied cultural contexts? This proposal is based on multiple studies from 2012 through 2023 that involved cross-case analyses of teachers identified as effective in their respective teaching and cultural contexts.

Methods
These multi-year cross-case studies used Author’s (2018) teacher effectiveness framework, which has strong correlations with teacher quality frameworks developed by Chinese researchers (e.g., Bai, 2000; Cui & Wang, 2005, Sun, 2004). We used maximum variation sampling to select participants within each context. Our sample included 13 U.S. national award-winning teachers, 12 China national award-winning teachers, and 19 (as of this submission date) independent international school teachers in East Asian countries (Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam) who were identified using teacher effectiveness selection criteria and nominated by their principals/heads of school. We observed each teacher using the Differentiated Classroom Observation Scale (DCOS) (Cassady et al., 2004) and a field-tested interview protocol (Author, et al., 2009; Author, et al., 2014; Author, et al., 2022) based on Author’s (2018) framework.

Findings
Instructional Activities Used
All instructional activities were recorded in 5-minute segments using codes established by the DCOS. The length of observations were comparable among the China teachers in the three teaching settings. According to the data shown in Table 1, minor differences were noted in the average number of different instructional activities used during an observation.

Cognitive Levels Evident in Teaching
Within each 5-minute observation segment, we noted whether each cognitive level of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy was (1) not evident, (2) evident, or (3) well-represented. Table 2 and Figure 1 provide the mean representation of each cognitive level across observations for China teachers, U.S. teachers, and international school teachers. The cognitive levels of Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, and Analysis all were documented as evident and well-represented in all three teacher groups. Evaluation and Creation ranged from not evident to evident, indicating that students were occasionally engaged in higher levels of thinking, but not consistently or with the same frequency as lower cognitive levels.

Director of Learning
We noted the degree of who directs the learning in the classrooms, based on a continuum of 1-5, with 1 indicating that the teacher directs all learning and 5 indicating that students direct all the learning. The observational data revealed that the teachers in all three groups, to a large extent, directed the learning as shown in Table 3.

Student Engagement
For teachers in all three group, student engagement was high as shown in Table 4. Among the observed classroom observation segments, low engagement was observed in a very small number of cases (approximately 1% of overall observational time), medium engagement was observed in approximately 13% of the teaching segments, and high engagement occurred in approximately 85% of the instances.

Classroom Management Strategies
Both observational and interview data indicated that teachers’ classroom management among all three groups was characterized by: consistent monitoring of student behavior, efficient pacing of class activities, smooth transition between activities, and well-established classroom routines and procedures for daily tasks. The teachers were observed to use proximity or movement around the classrooms to address trouble spots and encourage attention (McLeod, Fisher, & Hoover, 2003) using a high level of “with-it-ness” (LePage et al., 2005; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993).

Teacher Reflections about Their Practices
Multiple theme4 emerged. These themes were further classified into three major categories. Furthermore, subthemes emerged within several of the major themes. The categories and key themes are listed in Table 5. The findings revealed cross-system similarities and differences on each key theme. These findings indicated that there are certain practices and beliefs formed similarly across different cultures, and some distinctive teaching practices are shaped and nurtured in specific cultures and educational systems.

Summary
While various policy initiatives may offer promises of improving education, nothing is more fundamentally important to improving schools than improving the teaching that occurs every day in classrooms. This sentiment is echoed in the United States (Darling-Hammond, 2016) China (Sun, Author, et al., 2021), and international schools (Author, et al., 2021). While this proposal does not allow the space to explore the study findings and their implications (an omission that will be addressed in the conference presentation and paper), we are confident in surmising that strengthening quality in education is about enhancing learning opportunities and results for students – and that strengthening relies heavily on the quality of teaching. While various policy initiatives may offer promises for improving education, nothing is more fundamentally important to improving schools than improving the teaching that occurs every day in every classroom. We trust that this study, through observing classrooms of great teachers and soliciting their perceptions, can contribute to a deeper understanding about the concept of teacher effectiveness internationally.

Authors

• Leslie W. Grant, William & Mary School of Education

• James H. Stronge, William & Mary

• Thomas J Ward, William & Mary

• Xianxuan Xu

• Swathi Menon, William & Mary School of Education