What Constitutes Poor Teaching? Perspectives from Chinese College Students

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.