Teaching to the Test: Approaches to Teaching in Senior Secondary Schools in the Context of Curriculum Reform in China

Abstract

It has been proved in the past half century that high-stakes tests hinder more than promote instruction. The College Entrance Examination (CEE) in China has thus been in widely questioned. When it comes to curriculum reform this century, the question becomes how has curriculum reform been implemented in the classroom? What role does the CEE play in it? A qualitative study of three high schools of different levels in a city of central China shows that transmission classes emphasizing teachers’ cramming and students’ passive memorizing are predominant in classrooms, with about one-third of comprehensive classes based on constructivism. Transformative classes calling for students’ positive inquisition and comprehensive development are still highly unusual. The CEE is a “ferocious” controller of teaching and learning. Though instruction is, in some way, promoted by CEE reform, it still has a long way to go to break itself out from a test-oriented predicament. It is, then, necessary to launch a structural reform of the CEE, change the teachers’ beliefs and develop their competence in curriculum implementation.