Student-Centeredness Dichotomy: A Case Study of a Shanghai Mathematics Lesson

Teacher-dominated classrooms with some student-centered elements are a perplexing phenomenon of Chinese mathematics classrooms. In-depth exploration of this phenomenon is helpful for understanding the features of mathematics teaching in China. This paper demonstrates how the teacher can encourage students to actively generate knowledge under the teacher’s control from a perspective of variation and further deconstruct the legitimacy of teacher-centeredness and student-centeredness dichotomy. Teacher-dominated classrooms in countries under the influence of the Confucian-heritage culture (CHC) are often seen as an environment not conducive to learning in western countries (Biggs, 1996). However, students from CHC countries have consistently performed well in recent international studies of mathematics achievement (Beaton et al, 1996; Mullis et al, 1997; 2000; 2003). The mismatch between the unfavorable learning environment and the outstanding achievement has prompted discussion on the so-called “paradox of the Chinese learners ” which led to many studies about the teaching in CHC classrooms and the psychological and pedagogical perspectives about Chinese teaching and learning (Leung, 2001; Watkins & Biggs, 2001; Fan, et al, 2004). To crack the paradox, some studies have tried to explore the mechanism of mathematics teaching in CHC settings (Huang, 2002