A Comparison between Pedagogical Approaches in UK and China

Abstract

With globalization increasingly define the world, international students are undertaking an important agentic role in terms of communicating different cultures. Therefore, their experiences are significant in revealing the pedagogic practices between different country settings. This article attempts to compare pedagogic practices between the UK and China by examining their cultural origins and the potential connections with pedagogical assumptions, placing on a spectrum of teacher/learner-centered pedagogy. Combining with the perspective of Chinese international students who have been studying in the UK, it captures the lived experiences of the actual classroom differences experienced by these students. It concludes with each pedagogy has its benefits and drawbacks respectively, and has its cultural fits, therefore, it is not possible for one particular educational system to completely 'borrow' pedagogic practice.