Criteria for teaching/learning resource selection : facilitating teachers of Chinese to work with English-speaking learners

Abstract

Teaching/learning resource selection is an important aspect of teaching and learning activities, which can largely decide what and how teachers teach and what students learn. However, little previous research exists on how to select teaching/learning resources, let alone selecting resources to make Chinese learnable. This research is directed at the development of criteria for teaching/learning resource selection. A main research question addressed by this research is: What are the theories and criteria for teachers of Chinese to select resources to make Chinese learnable for English learners? The contributory research questions are: What are teachers' attitudes and preferences regarding resource selection and their reasons for these? What are the difficulties or problems teachers in selecting resources and what solutions do they generate? What are students' attitudes towards the selected resources? What are the criteria for effective teaching/learning resource selection? A grounded theory approach with conceptually-driven data analysis is adopted as the methodology intending to generate theories for effective teaching/learning resource selection. Interviews, observation and document-gathering were employed in data collection to collect evidence from 12 teachers and 48 students. Five criteria were developed from data analysis. Specifically, teaching/learning resource selection should be (a) curriculum-appropriate; (2) make students interested; (3) balance students' interests and other factors when facing conflicts; (4) students-appropriate; (5) and flexible.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English