Review on dialogue-based teaching interventions offers insights on principles and general directions for successful implementation in Chinese classrooms

Dialogic pedagogy has been highly valued and promoted in classrooms globally over the past few decades. However, there persists a stereotype that view Chinese classrooms as authoritative and full of rote learning. A new study has systematically reviewed several dialogue-based teaching interventions implemented in Chinese elementary and secondary schools. This review suggests that these interventions were mostly integrated with school subject fields and exert both cognitive and noncognitive effects on Chinese students.

In the past few decades, dialogic pedagogy has been highly valued and promoted in classrooms globally. Meanwhile, Western observers typically perceive teaching in China as involving examination-oriented rote learning in a highly authoritative climate, hindering the promises and values of dialogue-based teaching interventions. However, a series of recent studies conducted in China indicate that dialogue-based teaching interventions can be successfully implemented in Chinese classrooms to yield cognitive and noncognitive benefits comparable to those of Western students.

In a review published online on May 27, 2025, in Volume 8, Issue 2 of the ECNU Review of Education, a team of researchers from East China Normal University, examined 26 empirical studies which conducted dialogue-based teaching interventions in Chinese elementary and secondary schools since the 8^th curriculum reform. A systematic analysis of these studies was framed around three themes: disciplinary fields, effects on students, and factors that contribute to the effects.

This review adopted the term “dialogue-based teaching” to integrate seemingly disparate sociocultural instructional approaches and intervention studies conducted in China.

“Our goal is to provide more relevant references for future researchers to carry out teacher development programs related to dialogic pedagogy, thereby holding the potential to scale up dialogue-based teaching in China,” the authors explain.

The researchers found that the existing dialogue-based teaching interventions conducted in Chinese classrooms were mostly integrated with school subjects, including Chinese language arts or English as a second language, science, mathematics, and social sciences, with only 20% of interventions implemented as stand-alone courses. Meanwhile, cross-disciplinary differences were identified in these interventions conducted in China.

The review revealed both cognitive and noncognitive benefits of dialogue-based teaching interventions on Chinese students, with the greatest cognitive effect involving higher-order thinking skills, and the greatest noncognitive effect involving student engagement in classroom learning. This finding suggested that a Confucius cultural background did not necessarily pose a threat to the successful implementation of dialogue-based teaching.

The study found that both internal and external factors might influence the successful implementation of dialogue-based interventions. Specifically, teachers played a critical role in the implementation of dialogue-based teaching and their practices were amenable to changes through professional development efforts. Additionally, systematic and continued professional support was required to enable teachers to successfully transition from teacher-centered, monologic teaching to student-centered, dialogic teaching.

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Reference

Titles of original paper: A Systematic Review of Dialogue-Based Teaching Intervention in Chinese Classrooms

Journal: ECNU Review of Education

DOI: 10.1177/20965311241310880