Student-centred teaching, deep learning and self-reported ability improvement in higher education: Evidence from Mainland China

ABSTRACT

This study aims to determine the benefits of student-centred teaching methods for students’ cognitive and practical improvement and the mediating effect of deep learning on the relationship between them. We developed a scale of student-centred teaching for the Chinese context using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis. Data were collected from 976 students from 16 large classes in a university in Mainland China. Results showed that the student-centred teaching method positively predicted student’s use of a deep learning approach and self-reported ability improvement in large classes, and deep learning had a mediating effect on the relationship between the student-centred teaching method and self-reported ability improvement. This finding suggests that even in large classes, teachers can also use a student-centred method to promote students’ use of a deep learning approach and improve their cognitive and practical abilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Deep learning
• student-centred teaching
• self-reported ability improvement
• large class size
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Science Foundation of China [CFA130154];

Notes on contributors

Shutao Wang

Shutao Wang is a ZJU100 Young Professor in College of Education at Zhejiang University. His research interests include college student development and education evaluation.

Demei Zhang

Demei Zhang is a research assistant in curriculum and teaching at Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include deep learning and teaching improvement.