Measuring Chinese teacher professional competence: adapting and validating a German framework in China

ABSTRACT

The study presented in the paper has the following goals. The first is to review and compare teacher competence frameworks developed in Eastern (Chinese) and Western (German) contexts, exemplified for the domain of mathematics. Major similarities of the two contexts could be reconstructed in the conceptualization of teacher competence as a multidimensional construct comprising knowledge, teaching-related skills and beliefs. Distinct differences could be identified as well, with the Chinese frameworks including a wider range of teacher-competence facets and emphasizing more teaching-related competencies than the Western (German) frameworks. The second purpose is to adapt and validate a German framework of the measurement of mathematics teacher competence in a Chinese context. This adaptation and validation uses exemplarily mathematics teacher, in detail follow-up-studies of the international Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M). With the integration of a qualitative approach (e.g. elemental validity) and a quantitative approach (e.g. construct validity) to validate the framework, the results of both approaches suggest a satisfactory validity for the adaptation. Overall, the results point out that the examined teacher competence framework and its instruments can be used for comparative analyses in Germany and China.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher competence
• adaptation and validation
• comparative study
• mathematics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships [grant number 658303].

Notes on contributors

Xinrong Yang

Xinrong Yang is an associate professor of mathematics education the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Southwest University, No.2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, P.R. China; e-mail: [email protected]. His research interests mainly include mathematics education, cross-cultural comparative education and teacher education.

Gabriele Kaiser

Gabriele Kaiser is a full professor of mathematics education at the Faculty of Education at the University of Hamburg. Her research interests include the teaching and learning of mathematical modelling, teacher education and comparative studies.

Johannes König

Johannes König is a professor of empirical school research and the director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Empirical Research on Teachers and Teaching at the University of Cologne, Germany.

Sigrid Blömeke

Sigrid Blömeke is a professor of educational assessment and the director of the Centre for Educational Measurement at the University of Oslo, Norway (CEMO).