ELT in Education

Digital learning and professional

development: Exploring the nexus
between digital teacher education,
classroom practices and teacher
development in China
Written on behalf of ELT-Consultants for the British Council
as part of the National Online Digital Development of English
Teachers (NODE) China Project (2022–2023)

Kuchah Kuchah, Ronggan Zhang and Wuji Wang

DOI: http://doi.org/10.57884/JSXB-TV67
ISBN: 978-1-915280-55-8

© British Council 2024

1 Redman Place, London E20 1JQ, United Kingdom
www.britishcouncil.org

Cite this report:

Kuchah, K., Zhang, R., & Wang, W. (2024). Digital
learning and professional development: Exploring
the nexus between digital teacher education,
classroom practices and teacher development in
China. British Council. doi.org/10.57884/JSXB-TV67
Contents

Abbreviations 3
Executive summary 4

Introduction 4
Methodology 5
Key findings 6
Recommendations 8
1. Introduction 10
2. Review of literature 11

2.1. The context of teacher professional development in China 11

2.2. Digital teacher education: Possibilities and issues 13

3. Methodology 14

3.1. Research participants 15

3.2. Methods of data collection 15

3.2.1. Phase One 15
3.2.2. Phase Two 17
3.3. Methods of data analysis 19
4. Findings from Phase One 20
4.1. Involvement in online CPD activities 20
4.2. Reasons for involvement in online CPD 21
4.3. Challenges to online CPD 23
4.4. Most used digital platforms for CPD 25
4.5. Digital learning and training and professional development 26
5. Findings from Phase Two 27
5.1. Initial expectations and programme experience 28
5.2. Practicality and relevance of the programme 28
5.3. The benefits of one-to-one (personalised) mentoring 29
5.4. Learning gains and transformative changes 30
5.4.1. Gaining research skills 30
5.4.2. Understanding and learning from students 31
5.4.3. Improved classroom practice 33
5.4.4. Self-realisation and developing sense of agency 33
5.5. Benefits of online mentoring 34
5.6. Challenges encountered and support systems 35
5.7. Teacher suggestions for future CPD provision 37
6. Conclusions and recommendations 39
6.1. Key findings 39
6.2. Recommendations 41

7. Limitations 43

References 44

Appendices 47

Appendix 1: Mentoring programme invitation and application form 48

Appendix 2: Survey of digital learning and professional development 51
Appendix 3: The open-ended questionnaire (bilingual, CEAIE version) 53
Appendix 4: Focus group interview guide 55
Appendix 5: Final reports by the five mentoring programme participants 56
Appendix 5a: Participant report 1 (Cassie, primary school teacher) 56
Appendix 5b: Participant report 2 (Daisy, primary school teacher) 57
Appendix 5c: Participant report 3 (Faye, junior high school teacher) 60
Appendix 5d: Participant report 4 (Summer, junior high school teacher) 62
Appendix 5e: Participant report 5 (Rachel, junior high school teacher) 64
Abbreviations
CEAIE China Education Association
for International Exchange
CoP communities of practice
CPD continuing professional development
EAR exploratory action research
EFL English as a foreign language
ELT English language teaching
IT information technology
MOE Ministry of Education
NODE National Online Digital Development
of English Teachers
OCPD online continuing professional development
PD professional development
RQ research questions
S-Star Survey Star
TPD teacher professional development
TPR total physical response
Executive summary
Introduction
In August 2022, British Council China published a call for proposals for a pilot year
of a National Online Digital Development of English Teachers (NODE) project in China.
The project consisted of two components – a continuing professional development
(CPD) training and a supplementary research component. ELT-Consultants, a UK-based
international consultancy organisation, submitted the successful bid to conduct the key
components of the planned project.

The aim of the CPD component was, among other things, to deliver online training and
development for English language teachers in basic education contexts in China through
a range of digital delivery methods. It was designed to offer a blend of global and localised
digital content that would help Chinese English teachers develop different aspects of professional
knowledge and skills, while also providing a platform for honing and improving materials and pedagogic
practices. Based on prior research (Borg et al., 2022), the British Council call identified four key thematic
areas to be addressed in the training. These included teaching speaking, motivating students, teaching
reading and 21st-century skills. The research component – agreed between British Council China and the
team of researchers from ELT – Consultants – was framed around the topic ‘Exploring the nexus between
digital training, classroom practices and teacher development in China’ and guided by the following
research questions (RQs):

RQ1 What is the nature of teachers’ current engagement with digital opportunities for teacher training
and professional development?

RQ2 What are teachers’ perspectives on the accessibility and usability of the different digital CPD*
opportunities in their context?

RQ3 How does access to digital professional development impact teachers’ classroom practices and
professional growth?

*Digital CPD is also referred to as online CPD (OCPD).

These terms are often interchangeable.

4
Methodology
Data for this study was collected between November 2022 and June 2023 through a sequential mixed - methods
approach framed around two main phases. Phase One data was collected in December 2022, through an online
open-ended baseline questionnaire distributed to NODE participants and a wider pool of teachers within the
networks of British Council China and the local research team members. The questionnaire consisted of five
questions that sought to identify online CPD platforms used by teachers, understand the nature and extent
of their involvement in online CPD, and gain insights into the perceived benefits and challenges of their
professional learning. A total of 2, 836 teacher responses were obtained from primary, junior high and senior
high schools from both urban and rural parts of China. Phase One survey data was analysed both quantitatively,
through descriptive statistics, and qualitatively, through thematic analysis.

Phase Two of the research component consisted of an exploratory action research training and mentoring
intervention with a smaller group of six teachers. Participants in the intervention were trained on different
components and stages of exploratory action research and were mentored through a process of identifying
classroom puzzles, developing exploratory research questions to understand the puzzles in their classrooms
as well as collecting, analysing and interpreting classroom data in order to make informed changes to their
practice. The intervention ran for 14 weeks, from 27 March to 30 June 2023, and the five teachers who
successfully completed the programme presented their research at a webinar organised by British Council
China in July 2023. Data for this phase of the study was collected through a focus group discussion with all
six participating teachers at the end of the mentoring programme, with the aim of obtaining participants’
experiences of the programme as well as any changes to their practices and sense of agency as a result of
their participation. Data from Phase Two of the study underwent thematic coding and analysis
(Braun & Clarke, 2006).

5
Key findings
In relation to the nature of teachers’ current engagement with digital opportunities for training and
professional development (RQ1), findings from the survey revealed that a vast majority of teachers
surveyed (76.5 per cent) were currently engaged in digital CPD. The findings also suggested that the
most important factors that motivated teachers’ participation in online CPD were intrinsic, including
their needs for professional excellence (improvement of professional knowledge, skills and expertise
– 51.5 per cent of China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) respondents and
44 per cent of S-Star respondents①) and personal growth (self-improvement – 29.3 per cent of CEAIE
respondents and 31.9 per cent of S-Star respondents), both of which represent their own personal
interest and enthusiasm. A smaller proportion of the teachers (16.2 per cent for CEAIE teachers and
18.7 per cent of S-Star teachers) expressed extrinsic factors (administrative requirements) as their
motivation for attending online CPD. It was also found that these intrinsic and extrinsic factors were
more important for teachers when considering CPD activities than the medium (online or face-to-face)
of their CPD experience.

Regarding teachers’ perspectives on the accessibility and usability of different digital CPD opportuni-
ties in their context (RQ2), teachers identified a large number of digital platforms through which they
engaged in OCPD, with Tencent Meeting (75 per cent), Ding Talk (70.6 per cent) and WeChat (9.8 per
cent) emerging as the top three most familiar platforms. Despite the many existing platforms with
which teachers are familiar, and through which they access OCPD, respondents highlighted a number
of challenges encountered during their engagement with digital CPD. These included challenges such
as time constraints, heavy workloads, low language proficiency exacerbated by the digital space, lack
of relevance and interaction in many OCPD events, as well as difficulties in translating the theoretical
knowledge from such trainings into their classroom practices (see sections 4.3 and 5.6). These
challenges show that teachers’ engagement in OCPD is influenced by factors other than simply the
accessibility and usability of digital platforms. The findings from both Phase One and Phase Two of
this study provide evidence that beyond the platform used for CPD, teachers engage better with
training and CPD opportunities that help them directly address their classroom concerns. Teachers’
perspectives on their experiences in the classroom research training and mentoring programme in
Phase Two highlighted practicality and relevance to the teachers’ immediate classroom needs as key
strengths of the mentoring programme.

A third key finding of this study was in relation to how access to digital professional development
impacts on teachers’ classroom practices (RQ3). Data from 1, 582 (56 per cent) survey respondents
revealed that online CPD offered teachers opportunities and rich resources for professional learning
and space to interact with like-minded colleagues or engage with people outside their schools (see
section 4.5). Such opportunities can potentially help teachers improve their own classroom practices
and enhance their sense of agency. Findings from Phase Two of this project showed that through
engagement in a structured online exploratory action research training and mentoring programme,
teachers not only gained research skills but they were also able to develop a better rapport with, and
understanding of learning processes from, their students, improve their classroom practice, and
develop a sense of agency. Phase Two participants’ reflections on these changes showed how the
evidence-base for their practices had been developed, positioning themselves not only as reflective
practitioners but also as generators of pedagogical knowledge in context.

① In this report we distinguish between two groups of teachers – the CEAIE teachers and the other teachers, whom we refer to as S-Star
teachers as their data was collected via Wenjuanxing (translation: Survey Star, henceforth S-Star), a popular survey platform accessible
to all teachers in China.

6
7
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are offered as
a way forward for sustainable digital teacher professional development in China.

1. Digital or online CPD (OCPD) providers should be aware of the platforms that teachers are currently
familiar with so that they can use these rather than introducing new platforms that might add to the
cognitive burden of teachers and impede their subject content and pedagogic knowledge develop-
ment. It is particularly important that foreign providers of OCPD are aware of local platforms, as what
is often construed as a ‘global platform’ and the generic norms of OCPD prevalent in the West are
often not applicable in China. Therefore, it is, for example, worth looking at the platforms that schools
currently use for teaching and learning and exploring these options for digital CPD offers and delivery
so that teachers’ digital learning spaces are consistent with their day-to-day digital teaching spaces.
2. OCPD providers need to consider teachers’ real and emerging needs and involve them in decisions
about the content and delivery of CPD. Chinese teachers are less concerned about the medium of
their CPD (digital or face-to-face) than they are about the method and materials used. As shown in this
study, teachers need hands-on practical resources and activities that can directly inform their class-
room practices rather than theoretical discussions that might not be immediately relevant for their
daily work. Consideration needs to be given to existing differences in teachers’ language proficiency
levels, their pedagogic knowledge and the levels (e.g. primary, junior high school, etc.) in which they
teach in order to design more focused and relevant CPD packages for more teachers.
3. Consideration should be given to diversifying digital CPD provision with the view of supporting
teachers to develop knowledge and skills for the classroom, while at the same time harnessing their
ability to generate their own knowledge and critical understanding of language education in their
context. In this study, the research team proposed a form of classroom research mentoring – explor-
atory action research – as a possible alternative to top-down theory-led training and the evidence
presented in section 5 of this report highlights that this can be a powerful way of developing student
– teacher collaboration, leading to improved classroom interaction, shared ownership of learning and
enhanced teacher agency. In consideration of supporting teachers at scale, the research team
recommend a cascading model of development, which initially supports a pool of local mentors
through experiential online training and expert mentoring via a combination of synchronous and
asynchronous modes. The sustainability, impact and eventual upscaling of classroom research
mentoring can be enhanced by collecting teachers’ research presentations and reports (such as
those from the programme trialled in this study) into an open access digital repository that other
teachers are encouraged to explore.

8
4. A combination of group and one-to-one school - or community of practice (CoP) - based mentoring
that provides teachers with step-by-step support while respecting their agency should be explored.
This could be through self-paced or self-directed online programmes, such as upscaling an improved
version of the content processes of the programme trialled in this study. Such a programme would
include pre-prepared recordings of key presentations with accompanying resources and embedded
tasks for teachers to complete. Establishing a community of practitioner-researchers working togeth-
er on exploring aspects of their practice could help them support, motivate and inspire each other
(as shown in section 5.6) and create long - term bonds to sustain their professional learning.
5. Education authorities and employers should consider making OCPD part of a comprehensive
formal offer of time and resource allocation for teachers to specifically engage in digital CPD. Particu-
lar attention needs to be paid to the CPD of primary - level teachers in rural communities, given that a
high proportion of respondents who had not participated in OCPD in the previous two years were
primary school teachers (405 out of 590), and 63.5 per cent of these teachers were from rural areas.
It is also important to bear in mind that while classroom research processes, such as exploratory
action research, can be embedded into teachers’ daily classroom practices, training to become a
classroom researcher requires time commitments that may be impractical for busy teachers strug-
gling to complete a syllabus and prepare students for high - stakes exams.
6. The research team recommend that classroom research should be treated in a similar way to
existing classroom-based teaching competitions that support a competitive comparison across
regions. This could include a collaborative dimension, with teachers encouraged to work together on
a joint classroom research project as part of a community of practice, either in their own district or
across multiple districts.

9
1. Introduction
This report presents the processes and outcomes of the research component of the British Council China
NODE (National Online Digital Development of English Teachers) project conducted between November
2022 and June 2023. The call for proposals for a pilot year of this project was issued in August 2022, and
ELT-Consultants (UK) submitted the successful bid to conduct both the large-scale CPD and the research
components of the project.

The aim of the CPD component was, among other things, to deliver online training and development for
English language teachers in basic education contexts in China through a range of digital delivery methods.
It was designed to offer a blend of global and localised digital content that would help Chinese English
teachers develop different aspects of professional knowledge and skills, while also providing a platform for
honing and improving materials and pedagogic practices. Based on prior research (Borg et al., 2022), the
British Council call identified four key thematic areas to be addressed in the training. These included:
teaching speaking, motivating students, teaching reading and 21st-century skills. The project processes,
outcomes and recommendations of this component of the project have been recorded in a separate
report.

The (supplementary) research component of the British Council China NODE project was to be based on a
topic agreed between British Council China and the preferred delivery partner – ELT-Consultants – and to
be independent of the ongoing monitoring, evaluation and learning of the training and development com-
ponent while, at the same time, offering real insight into pertinent areas of digital learning and training
delivery in China, based on the NODE project scope.

The proposed research component was expected to be outward-looking – that is, beyond the NODE project
– and to include some technical fieldwork, interviews and experimentation with selected stakeholders. It
was also expected to consider previous delivery experiences and other relevant regional and country-level
considerations to better understand digital teacher professional development possibilities and challenges
in the China context.

In consultation with British Council China, the research component for the pilot year was framed around the
topic ‘Exploring the nexus between digital training, classroom practices and teacher development in China’.
This report provides insights into the theoretical ideas that informed the research, the methodological
procedures undertaken, the findings obtained and some reflections on challenges, opportunities and the
way forward for sustainable teacher professional development in China.

10
2. Review of literature
2.1. The context of teacher professional development in China
China has been ‘going global’ since it adopted the policy of ‘Reform and Opening up’ in 1978 (Wen & Zhang,
2020). In the last four decades, China has experienced a dramatic leap in social development, although this
has not been evenly felt across different segments of the country, as acknowledged by government
reports (e.g. Xi, 2017) and academic researchers (e.g. Huang, Ning & Tian, 2018; Zhou, Guo & Liu, 2018).
Regional and urban – rural disparities persist across this geographically large country, with a population of
1.4 billion. According to local reports, the country’s poorer rural population was only lifted out of 'absolute
poverty’, defined by living on an annual income below CNY4,000, or roughly US$611.40, at the end of 2020
(Xinhua, 2021).

With great importance attached to education, China has invested great effort in teacher education over the
last four decades, despite various challenges (see e.g. Wen & Zhang, 2020). The government has devel-
oped interconnected systems of professional promotion and continuing education to support its teachers,
with the former setting out the route for teachers to obtain higher professional qualifications and titles
throughout their careers, and the latter providing professional development opportunities to help teachers
meet their promotion conditions (e.g. earning mandatory credits of continuing education) and to realise
lifelong learning (Zhang, 2021). The continuing education system involves two key departments within
educational authorities of different levels: the continuing education centre (in Chinese, jixv jiaoyu zhongxin),
which manages training programmes and the records of teachers’ continuing education credits, and the
teaching and research office (jiaoyan shi), with experienced teachers serving as researchers (called jiaoyan
yuan). These researchers regularly organise CPD activities and visit schools to support local teachers;
hence, teacher professional development is generally top-down and mandatory in China (Zhang, 2021;
Zhou, 2014).

As Villegas-Reimers (2003) notes, teacher professional development is seen as one of the key elements of
educational reform in many societies. Similarly, in China, the importance of enabling CPD among teachers is
often acknowledged by the authorities alongside the country’s continuous curriculum reform, which has
been part of its opening-up to the outside world agenda since 1978 (Zhang, 2021). In their latest curricu-
lum reforms, the relevant authorities underlined fostering integrity and promoting the rounded develop-
ment of people (in Chinese, lide-shuren) as a fundamental task of education (Hu, 2012), and they have also
underscored the importance of promoting the development of students’ key competencies and core
values (Lin, 2017) through their learning of school subjects. The English language curriculum (MOE, 2017,
2020, 2022a), for example, specifies the primary goal of learning English as gaining language ability,
cultural awareness, thinking capacity and learning ability. Many CPD programmes and activities are there-
fore organised to help teachers better understand, and put into practice, new curriculum ideas.

11
Despite significant differences in digital resources among teachers in rural and urban parts of China, the
21st century remains arguably a digital era for China, as it is for many societies. In the field of teacher
professional development, digital training – which incorporates digital methods of using technological
hardware and the internet in in-service training activities or programmes – has become increasingly
common around the world. The advantages of digital training have been acknowledged by education
authorities and numerous providers of CPD opportunities in China, including the British Council. With the
increasing feasibility and reach of digital training brought on by rapid, continuous economic growth, and
being normalised by the Covid-19 pandemic, education authorities appear keen on adopting digital training
mediums to help teachers, especially those in lower-resourced schools and districts. For example, Guang-
dong province includes in its 2021 Action Plan for High Quality Development of Basic Education a section
on education aid for lower-resourced areas in the province, and it notes that ‘support should be provided to
help teachers in lower-resourced areas to effectively use online learning spaces and CPD communities, and
to carry out online teaching research, school-based CPD and so on’ (People’s Government of Guangdong
Province, 2021).

Currently, there are various locally developed digital training platforms available making CPD opportunities
and resources more accessible to teachers, regardless of where they are in China. For example, in 2021,
five ministerial departments issued a joint document asking local governments, based on the efforts made
during the Covid-19 pandemic, to further strengthen the construction and application of online resources
and platforms for school education so that ‘ICT can be best exploited to help facilitate educational moderni-
sation’ (MOE et al., 2021). The Ministry of Education (MOE) has also upgraded the national platform, Smart
Education of China, which provides free learning, teaching and CPD resources and links to platforms devel-
oped by local governments and approved institutions such as state universities and publishing houses
(MOE, 2022b). Besides government or institutional platforms, there are also those constructed by private
institutions, such as computer or mobile apps developed by information technology (IT) companies. These
platforms and apps showcase China in the digital era and play an important role in teacher professional
development within the country.

The research component of the British Council China NODE project, which is reported on here, falls within
this policy framework in the sense that it has sought to better understand teachers’ current digital CPD
practices and experiences and to offer insight into areas of digital learning and training delivery based on
the NODE project scope, as well as more broadly. The main aims were to identify the optimum digital deliv-
ery method that supports positive change in teacher practice and professional development in China and
use the findings to inform the development of an in-built teacher research mentoring intervention with the
view of exploring its potential for enabling sustainable CPD and teacher agency.

12
2.2. Digital teacher education: Possibilities and issues
Advantages of digital training documented in the literature include bringing relevant content to a wider
base of teachers who might not otherwise have access to professional development opportunities (Her-
ranen et al., 2021) and connecting teachers physically far from each other to form an online learning
community that can help reduce a sense of teaching isolation and occupation burnout (Li et al., 2021). This
is particularly important in the Chinese CPD context where there may be significant differences in access to
training opportunities between teachers in urban and rural communities. Despite the increased CPD oppor-
tunities for teachers, there are challenges in the implementation of digital CPD and training (e.g. Li, 2011;
Zan, 2021). In a recent study by Zan (2021), the results of questionnaires and interviews indicated that
schoolteachers had insufficient motivation to engage in specific online training they had received, and they
considered that the online training content lacked practicality. These findings are consistent with Borg et
al.’s (2022) survey of 6, 469 teachers in China, which investigated factors that influence Chinese teachers’
participation in digital professional development and found interest in activities that have direct, practical
implications and use in their own classrooms as the most influential factor. The study also reported general-
ly high levels of interest in free online professional development opportunities or resources. Teachers from
both urban and rural contexts reported little difficulty in accessing digital teacher professional development
(TPD), although they acknowledged limitations caused by high data costs. An important implication of these
studies is that online training projects need to consider an inbuilt mechanism for supporting teachers as
they transition from virtual training into the real classroom.

Looking beyond China, researchers such as Dede et al. (2009) have argued that until more rigorous online
TPD research is conducted, developers will remain hard pressed to know the best design features to
include, and educators will remain uninformed on which program can best help support teacher change
and student learning. More recently, Nese et al. (2020: 151) also suggested that ‘while online learning has
shown to be an effective tool for increasing teacher knowledge, questions remain about how to best use
the technology in building and supporting effective teaching practices, and the extent to which stakeholders
perceive key features of Online Learning Modules as more or less supportive of its efficient and effective
use’ .

The NODE research project builds on the arguments above and the view that TPD is essentially ‘a continuing
process of becoming’ (Mann, 2005: 105), and a career-long process of an individual teacher’s change
manifested and influenced by a range of activities (Day & Sachs, 2004; Zhang, 2021; Zhang & Hanks, forth-
coming). In this light the research team considered digital training activities or programmes as situated
along the process of change, and designed a research procedure that allowed us to investigate this
process. Our investigation has also been informed by the British Council’s stages of teacher development as
captured in the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework for Teachers (2019). From this, the
study was designed to collect baseline quantitative data with the view of identifying patterns that could help
us design, trial and evaluate an alternative teacher research mentoring programme. To achieve our objec-
tives the study was guided by the following three research questions:

• What is the nature of teachers’ current engagement with digital opportunities for teacher training and
professional development?

• What are teachers’ perspectives on the accessibility and usability of the different digital CPD opportunities
in their context?

• How does access to digital professional development impact teachers’ classroom practices and profes -
sional growth?

13
3. Methodology
To respond to these research questions, this study adopted a sequential mixed - methods
approach framed around two main phases. A mixed - methods approach was considered the best
way of collecting data that addressed the research questions in both breadth and depth. What is
more, the sequential nature of the study allowed the research team to collect baseline data from a
large number of participants and to use the findings of this data to inform an intervention around a
second qualitative phase including a smaller number of participants. Below, the report describes
the participant selection processes and methods of data collection, including the background of
research participants and the data analysis procedures for each phase.

14
3.1. Research participants
Participants for this study were identified and recruited through convenient sampling. Phase One made use
of a stratified convenience sampling method to recruit participants from the British Council China NODE
teacher training project. The online questionnaire was distributed to NODE project teachers from within the
China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) and teachers from both the research team
members’ and the broader British Council China networks. Given the restricted nature of access to the
CEAIE teachers, the research team was forced to treat their data separately from the other groups', as
there was no independent control over how data was collected or filtered. For this reason, in this report the
research team distinguish between two groups of teachers – the CEAIE teachers and the other teachers,
whom the research team refer to as S-Star teachers as their data was collected via Wenjuanxing (transla-
tion: Survey Star, henceforth S-Star), a popular survey platform accessible to all teachers in China. In total,
there were 2, 836 responses to the survey in Phase One.

Phase Two participants were selected through an open invitation to respondents within the British Council
China network to recruit teachers interested in conducting classroom research. The research team
designed an invitation outlining the objectives and process of the classroom research mentoring
programme and inviting teachers who were both interested and able to participate in the programme to
complete an application form (see Appendix 1). In total, the research project received nine applications,
which were all accepted, although only six participants – all female – engaged with the programme till the
end. This number included five participants who successfully completed the classroom research-mentoring
programme and one who participated till the end but was not able to complete all of the required tasks.

3.2. Methods of data collection

3.2.1. Phase One
Data for Phase One of the study was collected in December 2022 through an open-ended baseline ques-
tionnaire. The questionnaire mainly consisted of five questions that sought to identify online CPD platforms
used by teachers, understand the nature and extent of their involvement in online CPD and gain insights
into the perceived benefits and challenges of their professional learning. The questionnaire was first
drafted in English (See Appendix 2) and then translated into Chinese. Given that the research team had no
prior knowledge of the English proficiency levels of the respondents, and to avoid responses being affect-
ed by possible language barriers, the S-Star teachers were administered a Chinese version of the question-
naire distributed through the British Council China and the research team’s professional networks. Follow-
ing guidance from the CEAIE hierarchy, CEAIE respondents were given a bilingual version of the question-
naire (see Appendix 3), which was uploaded on a platform designated by CEAIE. The CEAIE teacher
responses were later shared with the research team via an Excel spreadsheet.

15
A total of 2,836 questionnaires, 128 from CEAIE respondents and 2,708 from S-Star respondents, were
returned. As shown in Table 1, 2,594 participants (representing 91.5 per cent) of participants were female
and 229 (8 per cent) were male; while 13 teachers did not specify their gender. In terms of institutional
representation, 1,645 (58 per cent) respondents were English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers from
primary schools, 994 (35 per cent) from junior high schools and 184 (6%) from senior high schools. A
further 13 did not specify. Of the total respondents, 1,572 (55 per cent) taught at urban schools and 1,244
(44 per cent) taught at rural schools. A further 20 did not specify. The 128 CEAIE respondents were all
junior high school teachers, except for one who did not specify.

Table 1: Gender and school background (CEAIE N=128; S-Star N= 2,708; Total N=2,836)

CEAIE S-Star Total

Gender Male 8 221 229

Female 120 2474 2594
Not specified 0 13 13
School level Primary school 0 1645 1645
Junior high school 127 867 994
Senior high school 0 184 184
Not specified 1 12 13
School context Urban 111 1461 1572
Rural 16 1228 1244
Not specified 1 19 20

In setting up the questionnaire online, the research team programmed the Survey Star software to allow
respondents to skip questions for which they had no answer. This was to avoid teachers feeling pushed to
give an answer to every question given the fact that some questions were interconnected. For instance,
teachers who had not participated in any online professional development (PD) activities in the last two
years (i.e. choosing ‘no’ for Question 1) might have nothing to say about reasons for participating (Question
2) and challenges they met (Question 3). As expected, therefore, the response frequencies of the survey
varied from one question to another (see Table 2).

Table 2: Response frequencies (CEAIE N=128; S-Star N=2,708; Total N=2,836)

Q1 Q2 Q2 Q3 Q3 Q4 Q5
Reason 1 Reason 2 Challenge 1 Challenge 2

CEAIE 127 70 60 91 75 125 94

S-Star 2685 2088 1679 1885 1364 2574 1488
Total 2812 2158 1739 1976 1439 2699 1582

16
As the numerical spread of responses in Table 2 indicates, out of a total of 2,836 respondents, 2,812 (99
per cent) responded to Question 1 (Q1), and 2,699 (95 per cent) to Question 4, both of which were
closed-ended questions requiring participants to tick a box on a range of suggested responses. The other
three items on the survey were open-ended questions and received a significantly lower rate of response,
with average response rates of 69 per cent and 61 per cent for Questions 2 and 3 respectively, and 55 per
cent for Question 5.

3.2.2. Phase Two

Phase Two of this project was informed by Borg et al.’s (2022: 8) recommendation to diversify professional
development activities in order to provide Chinese teachers with ‘a wider range of online PD activities to be
explored and implemented, particularly those involving teacher-led and collaborative approaches'. Given
that the NODE project did not include a teacher research component, and following the benefits of teacher
research projects in other parts of the EFL teaching world, particularly in the global South (e.g. Smith ,
Kuchah & Lamb, 2018; Smith & Rebolledo, 2018; Kuchah, Salama & Salvi, 2022), the research team proposed
to explore the potential of digital classroom research training and mentoring in promoting teacher devel-
opment and agency.

a) The intervention

The programme was originally designed to support teachers on the NODE project in
translating the training received from the project into their classroom practices via a classroom
research mentoring programme. NODE participants were offered the opportunity to choose
between participating in the evaluation and monitoring component of the project or in the research
component. Unfortunately, none of the teachers volunteered to be part of the research project.
This might be explained by the fact that the NODE training itself was intensive and required a significant
time commitment from teachers who were working full-time. As a result, they could not afford additional
time to engage in research, which they perceived as additional work. Following discussions with British
Council China, the research team was encouraged to recruit participants from beyond the NODE project
via British Council China networks (see section 3.1). The teacher research component consisted of an
intervention – an exploratory action research training and mentoring programme – which ran for 14
weeks, from 27 March to 30 June 2023. Participants were asked to identify a problem or a puzzle with
their own practices as a starting point for the online training. Participants in the research mentoring
programme were then required to complete five core activities in the course of the research training and
mentoring as outlined in Table 3.

17
Table 3: Classroom research process

Classroom research process

1. Identify a problem or a puzzle with your own practices (e.g. (a) My students find it difficult to speak
in class or (b) How can I help my students develop their reading skills?)
2. Design a classroom research study to collect data that helps you understand the problem or
puzzle. This will include collecting data from your own students (and colleagues) through
questionnaires, focus group or individual interviews, student written or spoken productions, your
own reflective notes, etc.
3. Together with students and/or your colleagues, develop and try out ideas for solving the
puzzle/problem in your lessons. This will include at least two or three lessons (action research cycles),
with reflections after each lesson. Data to be collected at this stage could be reflective notes,
student feedback after each lesson or colleagues’ observation comments.
4. Analyse the data collected through the different stages of the study and prepare a PowerPoint
presentation.
5. Write up your research project for publication.

In addition to ongoing support from your research mentors, you will be required to attend a total of
four webinars at different points of your classroom research journey. These will help you develop your
research skills as you go along.

During the training, participants took part in four interactive sessions delivered by the lead researcher, Dr
Harry Kuchah. The sessions addressed different aspects of exploratory action research based on the work
of Smith and Rebolledo (2018) and following a model that has been successfully trialled in Africa (see
Kuchah, Salama & Salvi, 2022). The key topics covered in the training included ‘how to develop exploratory
questions around your puzzle’, ‘how to collect data in exploratory action research’, ‘how to analyse data’
and ‘how to interpret data and make use of findings in exploratory action research'. These sessions were
spread out over the first 12 weeks of the programme to allow individual participants to apply their knowl-
edge and engage with their mentors as they developed their individual classroom research projects. At the
end of their exploratory action research project, participants prepared and delivered individual presenta-
tions at a virtual event organised by British Council China. A video recording of the event can be found via
the following link:
https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/teach/JulyWebinar

18
b) Data collection
Data for the second phase of this study was collected by all three members of the research team, mainly
through a focus group discussion at the end of the mentoring programme. The focus group discussion
was designed to obtain the participants’ experiences on the programme and to record any changes to
their practices and sense of agency as a result of their participation. The focus group was semi-structured
in nature allowing participants to raise issues that were important to them while responding to four main
prompts (see Appendix 4). To supplement focus group interviews, further data was also collected through
(a) recordings of participants’ evolving ideas using informal online chats during the training sessions in
addition to conversations with mentors about participants’ work in progress, and (b) participants’ reflec-
tions on their experiences of the mentoring programme via online presentations. Data collection mostly
took place via the Tencent Meeting platform identified as the most used platform (by respondents) in the
baseline survey and confirmed by participating teachers. The research team also used the WeChat
platform to share documents such as presentation slides and research reports, which included those
about participants’ transformative experiences on the programme.

3.3. Methods of data analysis

The data collected from the questionnaire was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The research
team used Excel’s statistic functions to analyse the data for such descriptive statistics as those presented
in Tables 1 and 2. The S-Star platform also offered a descriptive statistics function that the team checked
against our Excel analysis, particularly for Questions 1 and 4. Data from other questions (2, 3 and 5), as well
as data from Phase Two of the study, underwent thematic coding and analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Below are the findings from this study, starting with an analysis of data collected in Phase One and then
Phase Two. Then, a discussion is offered on both sets of findings, in line with the aims and objectives of the
research component of the NODE project, in addition to recommendations for future reflection and action
in online teacher professional development in China.

19
4. Findings from Phase One
In this section, the report highlights emerging themes from the data collected through the baseline survey.
These themes are in respect to schoolteachers’ involvement in online CPD activities (Q1–Q3), their familiari-
ty with digital platforms (Q4) and their perspectives on the relationship between their involvement in digital
CPD and their professional development (Q5).

4.1. Involvement in online CPD activities

Question 1 of the baseline survey asked about the respondents’ involvement in online continuing profes-
sional development (OCPD) activities in the last two years. OCPD was roughly defined in the introductory
text of the survey as referring to a range of online opportunities for professional development, including
online courses, webinars, conferences and other online resources related to teaching English. Of the 2,812
teachers who responded to the question, 76.5 per cent were involved in online CPD activities and 23.5 per
cent were not (see Table 4). This result is consistent with the observation that teachers received more
online CPD opportunities in the last two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a rapid
digitisation of teaching and CPD activities and the provision of free resources by education authorities
(MOE, 2020; Xinhua, 2020), companies and institutions.

Table 4: In the last two years, have you been involved in any online CPD activities? (Q1)

CEAIE S-Star Total

n % n % n %

Q1: Yes 57 46 2093 78 2150 76.5

Q1: No 70 55 592 22 662 23.5
Responded 127 100 2685 100 2812 100

Worth noting from the data presented in Table 4 is the fact that there were significantly more CEAIE
respondents (55 per cent) than S-Star respondents (22 per cent) who reported that they had not been
involved in any online CPD activities. In other words, although online CPD resources and opportunities
might be ‘a click away’ (Zhang, 2008: 293), not all teachers were involved in using them for their profes-
sional development. Better understanding of teachers’ geographical (rural vs urban) or institutional (prima-
ry or secondary) contexts and motives for involvement in online CPD is necessary here. As shown in Table
5, a significant majority of CEAIE respondents who reported having no online CPD activities were from
urban areas (84.1 per cent). Of the S-Star respondents who reported the same, 59.3 per cent came from
rural areas, while only 40.7 per cent were from urban areas.

Table 5: No involvement in any online CPD activities: urban/rural distribution

Urban Rural Total

n % n % n %

CEAIE 58 84.1 11 15.9 69 100

S-Star 240 40.7 350 59.3 590 100

20
Given the inconsistency between the two data sets, the research team focused on and further analysed
the S-Star data, which had a much larger sample of respondents from different school levels rather than
only focusing on junior high schools as found in the CEAIE data set. The analysis took both geographical
contexts and school levels into consideration (see Table 6).

Table 6: No involvement in any online CPD activities in the last two years (Q1):
urban/rural and school level distribution (S-Star data)

Urban Rural Total

n % n % n %

Primary school 148 36.5 257 63.5 405 100

S-Star Junior high school 79 47 89 53 168 100

Senior high school 13 76.5 4 23.5 17 100
Sub-total 240 40.7 350 59.3 590 100

Consistent with the school level distribution in the full S-Star data set (Table 1), the majority of the S-Star
respondents who reported no online CPD involvement were primary school teachers (405 out of 590),
and 63.5 per cent of them were from rural areas. The results indicate that geographical and institutional
contexts play a role in teachers’ involvement in online CPD activities and that more rural primary
school teachers need support, for example in accessing digital CPD opportunities.

4.2. Reasons for involvement in online CPD

To ascertain respondents’ motivations for participating in online CPD activities, Question 2 asked them to
give two top reasons. Findings from the short responses of the 2,150 (76.5 per cent) who said they had
participated in online CPD events were analysed thematically, and responses within each theme were
collated numerically to identify trends in teacher motivation to participate in OCPD. The following four main
themes emerged from the thematic analysis of the short responses:
convenience during the Covid-19 pandemic
online CPD as mandatory administrative requirements
improvement of professional knowledge, skills and expertise
personal development and self-improvement.

21
The 57 CEAIE respondents who reported to have been involved in online CPD activities (see Table 4)
provided 104 responses, 99 of which fell into the above four categories of reasons and five did not include
sufficient information to be categorised (e.g. ‘no environment’). Some respondents gave no responses or
only one reason. Among the 99 categorised responses, the top reason was for the improvement of profes-
sional knowledge, skills and expertise (51 responses, 51.5 per cent), and the second reason was for
personal development and self-improvement (29 responses, 29.3 per cent), while the reason of conve-
nience had only three responses, with a percentage of 3.0 per cent (see Table 7).

A similar picture emerged when the responses of the 2,093 S-Star teachers with involvement in online CPD
activities (see Table 4) were analysed numerically using SPSS Statistics 26. The 2,093 S-Star respondents
gave a total of 3,488 responses, including 3,341 that could be categorised into the above four themes of
reasons and 147 that could not (e.g. ‘time conflict with work’). Improvement of professional knowledge,
skills and expertise was also the top reason for S-Star respondents, although the percentage (44.0 per
cent) was lower than that among the CEAIE responses (51.5 per cent). Similarly, the second top reason was
for personal development and self-improvement (31.9 per cent), and the reason of convenience during the
Covid-19 pandemic had the lowest percentage of responses (5.5 per cent).

Table 7: Category distribution of top reasons for being involved in online CPD activities

Administrative Professional Personal

Convenience Total
requirement improvement development

n % n % n % n % n %

CEAIE 7 3 16 16.2 51 51.5 29 29.3 99 100

S-Star 184 5.5 625 18.7 1471 44 1066 31.9 3341 100

The four themes are elaborated below in order of frequency, each followed by illustrative answers drawn
from the data set.
a) Improvement of professional knowledge skills and expertise: responses suggested that some
teachers were motivated by their ‘enthusiasm for teaching’ and participated in OCPD because it helped
them ‘to improve my teaching’ or ‘to improve my teaching skills’ and ‘to develop professional skills’.
Other responses included ‘to improve teaching and research ability’, ‘to update teaching concepts and
skills’, ‘to get more information about teaching’, ‘to learn advanced teaching methods’, ‘to learn new
ideas of teaching English’, ‘to teach students better’, ‘to improve professional abilities to motivate my
students to enjoy learning English’, ‘to help students develop well-rounded personalities’, ‘to improve
teaching quality’, ‘to improve classroom efficiency’. There were also references to ‘improve English
proficiency’, which suggests that teachers were conscious of the importance of subject content
knowledge in their professional work. Overall, the responses suggested four main areas. These were
teachers’ interest in (a) improving language proficiency, (b) developing pedagogical knowledge and
skills, (c) improving their teaching practices and (d) investigating their classroom practices; all key
themes in the literature on teacher professional development.
b) For personal development and self-improvement: beyond the need to develop professional
knowledge, skills and expertise, responses also revealed that OCPD offered teachers opportunities ‘for
personal development’, ‘self-development’ and ‘autonomous development’ that could help them build
their ‘self-confidence’. These perspectives point to the important role of CPD in developing professional
identities.

22
c) Online CPD as mandatory administrative requirements: respondents pointed out that their
participation in OCPD was ‘arranged by the school’ and as such was a mandatory ‘school requirement’.
Given that 23 per cent of respondents for Q1 said they had not been involved in digital OCPD over the
last two years, it seems that not all teachers were mandated to participate in OCPD by their institution.
Attending OCPD was also perceived as participating in ‘National Teacher Training tasks’, ‘[top-down] full
coverage teacher training’ to support their ‘continuing education’.
d) Convenience during the Covid-19 pandemic: respondents reported that ‘because of pandemic
restrictions’ imposed on them by the Covid-19 pandemic, CPD ‘had to be online’. They noted that online
CPD offered them the most convenient pathway to access CPD opportunities from their homes and
described it as ‘Convenient and fast’, reporting also that it provided them with ‘rich online resources’.

Among the four main reasons presented above, the last one (convenience during the pandemic) was
specific to online CPD, while the other three reasons could be argued to be more general. What is more,
the first two groups of responses that were highly mentioned by teachers point to intrinsic factors, while
the last two (‘c’ and ‘d’) suggest extrinsic factors at play. It appears, therefore, that when considering online
CPD activities, respondents are not only motivated by how and when CPD activities are provided but also
by their intrinsic needs for professional excellence (teaching improvement) and personal growth
(self-improvement) as well as by extrinsic reasons (administrative requirements).

4.3. Challenges to online CPD

Question 3 asked teachers to give short answers about the challenges they have met in prior online learn-
ing or training. The following eight categories of challenges were identified from the data set.
· Time challenge: time problems caused by schedule conflicts and overwhelming workload as illustrated
in the following excerpts from the qualitative data: ‘time conflict’, ‘time stress’, ‘training time and work
conflict’, ‘conflict between work and learning'. Respondents also reported lack of time and energy due to
their heavy workload: ‘I don't have enough time’, ‘It takes too much time’, ‘have to deal with too much
training’, ‘sometimes I am too busy’, ‘I have a heavy workload at the school in the daytime and have to
work overtime at night. The study time is tight’, ‘Work and training cannot be balanced at the same time’,
and ‘there is too much work and too many classes to teach. I have no more energy to deal with training
and learning beyond working hours’, ‘checking students’ homework takes up too much of my time so I
have no more time for my own learning’. Challenges with managing their time also meant that teachers
could not find time to ‘finish all the online lessons’ or to finish the ‘too many assignments’, some of which
they found ‘difficult’. This suggests that time flexibility needs to be given to teachers when planning online
CPD events (including live ones), in addition to provision of policy support for reducing teachers’
workload in the school and wider contexts. The perspectives expressed here have implications for
projects such as the NODE programme, and any kind of live CPD events that are time-bound. If teachers
are expected to pursue OCPD opportunities over and beyond their allocated workloads, CPD providers
need to engage with teachers to understand their preferred options
for accessing CPD. For example, it would be useful to know more
about whether teachers prefer accessing asynchronous or
recorded content for time, schedule and language
considerations.

23
• Technology challenge: IT problems caused by limited technology skills or poor internet connection and
equipment were noted, as illustrated in these excerpts: ‘not skilful in using technology’, ‘poor IT abilities’,
‘I can’ t skilfully use all kinds of IT software’, ‘I always want to get screenshots or take notes, but can’t manage
manage efficiently’, ‘unstable internet connection’, ‘network equipment is not good enough’, ‘greatly
affected by network speed’, ‘slow network speed’, ‘network congestion’, ‘difficulties in accessing the websites’.
• Low proficiency and the digital space: difficulty in understanding online learning and training content
due to limited English language proficiency or theoretical background knowledge was evident. This was
highlighted through excerpts from the data such as the following: ‘can’ t follow the teacher’, ‘some places
incomprehensible’, ‘can’ t understand, feel sleepy’, ‘language barrier’, ‘poor English proficiency’, ‘limited
vocabulary’, ‘weak listening’, ‘oral English is poor’, ‘Difficulty in English communication’, ‘[challenges of]
understanding and application of technical terms’, ‘knowledge is updated too fast, can’t catch up’, ‘not
enough professional abilities’, ‘too much input of knowledge.’
• Issues with the relevance and quality of provision: responses also suggested that online learning and
training was not often useful or effective when interaction with the speaker was restricted online, with no
opportunities to connect personally with trainers. This was particularly the case with large webinars
where participant microphones and videos were turned off and where there was very little engagement
between the presenter and the audience. They also suggested that many online seminars and lectures
were neither practical nor rooted in their contextual realities and that very few of the schoolteachers’
lessons available to observe online were of really good quality. These perspectives are supported by
excerpts such as: ‘not as efficient as offline training’, ‘lack of interaction’, ‘can’t ask if you can’t
understand’, ‘can’t observe on site’, ‘training knowledge is fragmental’, ‘not close to my own teaching
reality’, ‘not practical’, ‘not very useful’, ‘too much theory, little practice’, ‘not very pertinent’, ‘The
professor is boring. I need a lot of energy to focus my attention’, ‘real quality lessons are very few’, ‘online
training is bad for my eyes’. The responses indicate that what concerns teachers about online CPD
provision is not only the content and trainer but also the ways in which OCPD is delivered, particularly
whether teachers are given opportunities to interact with people (especially the trainer). Low interaction
may jeopardise the effectiveness of online CPD. A key message from these perspectives seems to be that
CPD events with low interaction between facilitators and participants could be even less effective than
recordings that include hands-on illustrative activities that teachers could see and try out.
• Application of professional learning: an additional issue emanating from the one above was the difficulty
of translating what they learned online into their classroom practice, in other words, ‘how to put the theory
into practice’, ‘how to apply what I have learnt to my own teaching’, ‘the application of the teaching methods’,
‘Using what I learnt in online training to class’, ‘how to integrate what I learn with my own teaching at
my school’. As these excerpts suggest, there seems to be a training – practice disconnection that necessitates
careful reflection on how to embed real contextual experiences into online training, particularly at a time
when teaching is returning to face-to-face. This is especially important as teachers also pointed out a ‘lack
of professional guidance’ that could support their efforts to put their learning into practice.
• Affective factors: Responses revealed negative feelings – such as of ‘loneliness and helplessness’,
stress, falling behind times, failing to settle down to learn or persist in learning, or a lack of experience,
energy or good memory – emanating from extended involvement in online training. Some respondents
said they had a ‘lack of experience’ or ‘lack of energy’ to concentrate online, and in some cases ‘eye
tiredness’ was a major challenge. This was the case with older teachers whose responses suggested that
OCPD highlighted a ‘mismatch between age growth and the development of new things’, while some
respondents reported ‘poor self-discipline, [and the inability to] finish watching’ trainers online. The
affective constraints require a reconceptualisation of OCPD that takes into account the diverse abilities
and realities of teachers. When planning and implementing OCPD events, it may be necessary to seek a
more detailed knowledge of trainee teachers in their contexts. Such work should include understanding
teachers’ present and possible affective constraints related to their OCPD processes.

24
The findings presented here illustrate that teachers may encounter challenges before, during and after
online CPD activities. This concerns not only teachers themselves and the activities per se but also contex-
tual factors (e.g. from related policies to teachers’ workload and equipment support), in addition to teach-
ers’ needs for application, psychological and developmental support.

4.4. Most used digital platforms for CPD

In Question 4, respondents were asked what digital platforms they currently used for professional develop-
ment. As previously presented in Table 2, a total of 2,699 teachers responded to the question and they
named over 45 digital platforms they currently used for their CPD. Of these, six of the platforms were
mentioned by over 50 teachers and another three by less than 50 but more than ten teachers. The
responses are summarised in Table 8.

Table 8: Top digital PD platforms teachers currently used (Q4)

CEAIE S-Star Total

(N=125) (N=2574) (N=2699)
n % n % n %

Tencent Meeting 114 91.2 1911 74.2 2025 75

Ding Talk 80 64 1825 70.9 1905 70.6
WeChat 5 4 260 10.1 265 9.8
Zoom 5 4 98 3.8 103 3.8
Official platforms* 4 3.2 88 3.4 92 3.4
SeeWo 1 0.8 84 3.3 85 3.1
QQ 0 0 42 1.6 42 1.6
ClassIn 1 0.8 23 0.9 24 0.9
Xiao’e 0 0 15 0.6 15 0.6

* Digital platforms developed by education authorities of different levels.

As Table 8 shows, the most used platforms included Tencent Meeting (75 per cent) and Ding Talk (71 per
cent). The other platforms – including WeChat, Zoom and SeeWo, as well as official platforms developed by
national and local education authorities – ranked very low. As previously noted in section 4.1.2 above,
education authorities built on earlier efforts to integrate and provide free online teaching and CPD resourc-
es for teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic (MOE, 2020; Xinhua, 2020).

25
Digital platforms for resources included the National Public Service Platform for Education Resources
(directly administrated by the Ministry of Education and run by its National Centre for Educational Technol-
ogy) and similar local official (government), platforms such as those titled ‘education cloud’, ‘smart educa-
tion platform’, ‘education service platform’, etc. Having over 45 digital platforms named in the responses
showcases part of the general picture for online learning and training in China. However, a significant
limitation of surveying such a list of digital platforms is that it is not possible to identify the different ways in
which respondents used the different platforms for different aspects of their professional development. It
may be suggested that these platforms are not necessarily in competition and that teachers’ choice of
platform is determined by the specific purpose for which they are using it at a particular time, or indeed the
platform mandated by their institution.

4.5. Digital learning and training and professional development

In Question 5, respondents were asked to choose one or two of the platforms they had noted in Question
4 and illustrate what they learned from the platform(s) and how this was useful in their practice and profes-
sional development. A total of 1,582 teachers provided short answers, from which four themes emerged.

• Online CPD platforms offer opportunities and rich resources for professional learning. These include
opportunities for language development – ‘I like attending online English courses through zoom, including one
on one English lessons and English online courses. It helped me a lot with my English learning’; innovative ideas
and teaching practices – ‘I attended webinars through Tencent Meeting or Ding Talk to get to know the latest
educational ideas and ways of practice.’ Digital platforms also offer teachers a range of ‘model’ practical
lessons to learn from – ‘I have seen many teachers’ videos on the platform of Smart Primary and Secondary
Schools, and I really learned a lot. I can choose my own courses to follow and sample lessons of every grade to
observe, which is very convenient and practical’ as well as a pool of teaching resources and materials – ‘On the
National Public Service Platform for Education Resources, I cannot only search for learning materials, but also
many excellent lesson plans to learn for my own teaching. This greatly helps improve my work efficiency.’
Again, as in Question 3 (section 4.3), responses here suggest the importance of relevance to teachers’ needs
and contextual realities, in both the provision of OCPD training and teaching resources.
• Respondents particularly valued the opportunity these platforms offered them to interact with like-minded
colleagues and engage with people outside their schools, for example to ‘communicate with teachers who are
excellent [and] listen to expert lectures.’ Such interaction opportunities through Tencent Meeting, as an illustra-
tive example, ‘make it possible for a group of English teachers to discuss on various problems and challenges
we might be confronted with during our teaching. Plus, we can have all sorts of lectures to help professional
teachers to learn from each other, even without considering the linguistic things and other factors related.’
These interaction opportunities are available through ‘meetings with [like-minded] workmates’ and ‘regional
teaching research activities’ organised by district or county education authorities through their affiliated
researchers and teacher mentors in English language teaching.
• Besides benefits for teachers’ own learning, responses also highlighted the perception that digital platforms with
functions designed for online teaching (e.g. Ding Talk) are convenient to use, and those platforms with rich
teaching resources (e.g. official platforms and WeChat) are helpful for daily teaching because they are ‘More
convenient and fast [and] Easy to master’ and some teachers were already using these platforms to ‘design some
listening and reading activities for the students to do in their free time and helped to improve their [students’]
learning.’

26
Despite the heavy focus on two platforms, it also emerged from responses that for some teachers the
platform was not as important as the content and nature of professional learning it offered them. In fact,
one respondent explained that ‘I think the key thing is the content that I learn. Platforms is not important for
me.’ Another participant explained that:

I often use Tencent Meeting to attend online lea[r]ning. For most of times I just listen to the lectures in a very
big meeting room, and I seldom 'talk'. I do learn something from the lectures, but I don't think it's enough for
me. Especially when I'm going to use some of the strategies I learnt. I'm not a very positive person and I prefer
to talk in a smaller group with someone I am familiar with. (PC30)

The response suggests that teachers may ‘accept’ the passive transmission approach as manifested by
CPD lectures, but they still have their preferred ways to learn that are more consistent with their personali-
ties. As illustrated by the above quotes, individual teachers might have different online learning and training
experiences and hence different perceptions of digital platforms and online PD activities. This highlights the
complexity of inquiring into teachers’ digital learning and training and professional development. Individual
differences, such as teachers’ own personal development needs and particular personalities, are necessary
to take into consideration when designing and developing a training course for them.

5. Findings from Phase Two

As explained in section 3, Phase Two of this project was guided by an intervention – an
exploratory action research (EAR) training and mentoring programme. The outcomes of this programme
included presentations (see https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/teach/JulyWebinar) and final research
reports submitted by the five participants who successfully completed the programme (See Appendices 5a
to 5e). Table 9 presents an overview of the participants’ presentations and reports.

Table 9: Phase Two participants and their programme outcomes

Years of Highest Title of presentation
Name Institution experience qualification and report
Improving my vocabulary
Cassie Primary school 1 year BA teaching for 2nd grade students
How can assessment help my
Daisy Primary school 11 years MA students with their English learning?

Jedlena Junior high school 1 year MA N/A

How to motivate my students

Faye Junior high school 10 years BA
[to] be active in class?
How can I engage all my
Summer Junior high school 10 years BA
students in group work?
My story of working with
Rachel Junior high school 16 years BA
disruptive students

27
In this part of the report, findings from the focus groups held with all six participating teachers at the end of
the programme are presented, and insights from their reflective accounts in their webinar presentations
are drawn. The findings are presented based on the broad areas covered in the interview and generally
reflect their experiences of the programme.

5.1. Initial expectations and programme experience

It was confirmed from all six participants that they had applied to join the programme voluntarily. They had
access to the call through a variety of channels: three of them – Cassie, Daisy and Rachel – received the
British Council China recruitment message from their colleagues and mentors or through seeing the
message reposted via WeChat groups by researchers in their city and provincial education departments.
The other three – Summer, Faye and Jedlena – were among five teachers from the same school who were
encouraged by their school leadership to apply for the programme. They all applied of their own will to join
the project, although two of their colleagues who initially applied withdrew early on in the programme.
Probing further, all participants denied being externally mandated or even encouraged to join the
programme beyond seeing the information in their professional forums and volunteering to join. Their
motivation to join the programme was two-fold – to ‘learn some teaching strategies’ (Jedlena) or to improve
their research skills: ‘I’m not very good at doing research, so I hoped that I can learn something about that’
(Rachel).
After engaging in the project, the teachers began to change their perceptions of the project. They realised
that in the project they were given the responsibility to find out new ways of teaching for themselves,
rather than being taught what to do. They valued the opportunity to focus on improving their own class-
room practices in their own contexts rather than doing academic research. For instance, Rachel had
initially planned an academic research project on the topic of teaching writing through the process
approach, and afterwards changed her research focus to explore how to work with ‘noisy’ students in her
class, inspired by the examples she observed in the project webinars. She remarked in the focus group
interview: ‘Forget academic research. […] I just do this one [EAR] and it helps my teaching directly.’ Another
teacher notes:
During the process, I learned that this project helped me find out by myself how to do research, and helped
me to have a chance to really think about or reflect on my class, the problems in my class, or the problem
in my teaching I think this is very important. It is more important than just giving us some teaching strate-
gies. (Daisy)

5.2. Practicality and relevance of the programme

As will be highlighted below (see section 5.6) teachers had initial challenges with the first training session
on this programme because they found it theoretical. This is partly, it may be argued, because their initial
expectations on joining the programme were not immediately met and they had to adjust to a different kind
of CPD that put the responsibility for identifying and researching their own classroom puzzles on them.
Once they had navigated the first session, teachers generally found the mentoring components of the
programme to be practical as they were supported to take up the responsibility to understand and improve
their own practices in their own contexts, rather than being taught or lectured to do something far from
their actual classrooms as in other training they had experienced. Cassie, for example, recalled and com-
pared her previous training with the mentoring programme:
Yeah, we have a lot of training, but the training in my province, we usually watch some sample classes, or
we just listen to some speeches, so we didn't have opportunities, I didn't have opportunities to do such a
practical research before, so this is my first time to do my own classroom research. So, we didn't do my
own research in the past training. That is the biggest difference. (Cassie)

28
 Executive Summary 15

She further explained why she found doing her own research relevant and helpful to her and her students:
Doing my own research can help me, um, I will have my own experience and feeling about how to improve
myself. If I just watch the video, I can learn from other teachers, uh, [but] it would not help me in my actual
class, because some research is useful for their students, but not my own student. (Cassie)

The participating teachers also noted that giving a presentation at the end of the mentoring programme
was different from their previous research training, which led to both academic and practical outcomes:
I found that this research [programme] is more practical, and helpful, which can improve my teaching. This
time there is a group report, which we didn't have the presentation before. (Jedlena)

Overall, the participating teachers considered the mentoring programme to be practical and helpful in
developing their ability to investigate their own classroom issues and finding their own solutions. As Cassie
remarked: ‘this research [programme] helped me a lot because it was very practical. It aimed to help us to
solve some practical problems’. Jedlena compared the programme with those she was involved in before
and noted, ‘Before I participated in some research in my college, but not as this. It’s different between
them. It used to be academic before, but now I know to do research to improve [my] teaching.’

5.3. The benefits of one-to-one (personalised) mentoring

The programme consisted of group mentoring and individual mentoring processes. Group mentoring
included meetings (e.g. webinars, presentation practice sessions) for all the teachers, and group meetings
with teachers led by the lead researcher. Individual mentoring was done through email and WeChat (text or
video chat) communications between a teacher and her mentor. Despite the mentoring programme being
online, the teachers reported that it felt like face-to-face because one-to-one mentoring support was
provided:

This training is, for me, just like one-on-one and face-to-face, not like other training, the trainer there, and a
lot of trainees there, but [this programme] for me, is just like face-to-face, because I could feel that you
devote your time to the project, and you listen to us, and you're so patient to the teachers. It's just like
personalized, because we talk about our own questions, and you give us all suggestions to our own ques-
tions and to each of us. [When] our mentors give us suggestions, that's just like, step by step, holding our
hands to go ahead, and working together as a team. Yeah, I could feel the power of the teamwork. (Rachel)

Comparing the mentoring programme and the training she had received before, a teacher explicitly noted
that the practical and one-to-one mentoring features made this programme unforgettable:

I think a very big difference between the former training and experience of this research is that during the
former training experience, just like what [teacher name] said, I just watch an English class, and then listen
to a lecture, and listen to how, maybe analyse the teaching content, the teaching techniques, something like
this, but this research, just like [teacher name] said, is one on one, that means you have to be responsible
for yourself, for your research, and for your students. The former training
experience is just when you listen, you finish, just finish. Maybe you will
forget them, but I think this research project, will impress us much,
much more. (Daisy)

29
Besides being ‘unforgettable’, the mentoring programme also inspired the teachers to take further actions
to improve themselves and their teaching, making ‘sustainable professional development’ (Zhang, 2021)
more likely.

5.4. Learning gains and transformative changes

All the teachers acknowledged that they had learned a lot and found the mentoring project ‘really useful’
(Daisy) and ‘rewarding’ (Rachel). They felt happy for having engaged in the project. Faye commented ‘It was
a wonderful journey for me'. In this section, the report presents both findings from the focus group and
teachers’ reflective comments during their presentation at the final webinar, organised by British Council
China, with the view of highlighting ways in which this research training and mentoring was perceived by
teachers to have informed their practices and professional experiences.

5.4.1. Gaining research skills

The teachers acknowledged that through the programme, they gained experience and skills in classroom
research to improve their own practices:

I’ve learned a lot about doing research … I’ ve really learned a lot from my research journey. And just like
[what] I shared before, I have now a new understanding about group work, and in the future teaching I
will apply what I learned in this research to teaching. (Summer)

In this project, I have learned what EAR is, the ways to collect data and how to analyze the data and how
to interpret the findings. It is of great significance and I'm sure it will influence my future career ... I can
say, I got how to fish [in this programme], but there's still a long way to fish well, to get big fish, maybe,
because I just mentioned that I still need to put into practice. I think that’s important. (Daisy, Webinar
reflections)

I’ve gained a lot of experience, um, for example, I’ve learned a lot of skills, especially the skills for doing
teaching research.’ (Cassie)

30
The perspectives expressed above were also captured in teachers’ reflections within their webinar presen-
tations. For example, one teacher expanded on this by explaining the benefits of engaging in classroom
research to her own classroom experiences:

Through the project, I’ve learned that doing classroom research can be helpful to improve my teaching
practice. This gives me the opportunities to learning it which is something I have never done before.
Students are able to be active if we as teachers encourage them and act according to their needs. I am
able to see a change in my students which motivate me to continue working like this. (Faye)

5.4.2. Understanding and learning from students

Another key gain expressed by teachers was in relation to the understanding of their students and the
importance of engaging with students in dealing with teaching and learning challenges. For example, the
teachers stated that through the programme they had learned that when they faced a problem in their
teaching they could reflect on their own teaching and communicate with their students, rather than turning
to experts from outside who may not be immediately available or may not understand their specific class-
room context:

I … learn that when I face a problem, I should, I cannot only talk about it with experts, like all of you
[mentors], and also I should listen to my students, listen to what they said about this problem and
worked out the way with the students together to solve the problem. (Summer)

It’s an opportunity to observe, to talk with my students, which helps me know more about what my
students think and want, and I also get a better understanding of doing classroom research. (Daisy)

The most important thing I have learned is that when we teach, we must know what students are inter-
ested in and what they need. During my research project, I have come to know my students better than
before. (Faye)

31
In addition to acknowledging working with students as a way to solve teaching problems, the teachers
noted how an improved understanding of their students as a result of the programme had helped them
build better rapport as well as enabling a dispensation to dialogue and an opportunity to learn from their
students:
After this research, I also learn how to get some suggestion from my students and I also learn it is
important to know my students’ ideas […] Classroom is a kind of corporation with students, so as a
teacher, I have to know my shortcoming from my students' point of view. (Cassie)

I have shared this whole story with my students too and listened to them for further reflection and action
plans in order to better improve the teaching and learning in our class. Even though my students are still
disruptive, they are quiet sometimes, and throughout the whole project, I have gained closer relation-
ship with them and better mutual understanding with them. (Rachel)

Overall, the teachers acknowledged that the mentoring project helped them ‘see things differently’
(Rachel), in relation to the problems or puzzles that arose in their practices, the theory–practice relation-
ship, the teachers themselves and other stakeholders (such as students as noted above):

The problems, the puzzles, in my classroom, always made me unhappy, even angry, especially, for
example, the disruptive students. Sometimes I really become angry in class. But now when I see it as a
puzzle, as an opportunity for me to do research, to learn more about my students and about me, and
about how to help them, and when I see it differently, I don’t feel angry anymore. I would like to thank my
students for their cooperation, and I mean for their cooperation in this project […] and so we become
partners to work together in this project. So, so, um, [the project] help me to see things really differently
and not like what I did before, so angry but to see it as an opportunity to improve. Um, don’t see prob-
lems as just problems, but see it as an opportunity to improve. (Rachel)

During our final presentation, and the Q and A, a teacher asked me to give more examples […] so it
made me realize that theories or researches … or all the academic things will just be empty top without,
um, the real classroom. So, I think in the future that I will try to put it into practice. I think that's very
important. (Daisy)

Daisy further claimed that participating in the programme helped her to be more self-critical of her class-
room practice and, as a result, she could already identify some of her shortcomings without being told by
an external person. She argued that rural teachers with limited access to professional support might
benefit from learning to develop good practices in their context and depend less on external sources for
their professional support. She also suggested that it would be worth extending the programme to more
teachers in such contexts:

[…] this project is really good so that I wonder if it can be opened to, um, a wider group of teachers, or
to a wider range of places, especially to the teachers or areas with lower or poor teaching resources. I
think that will be good for them. (Daisy)

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5.4.3. Improved classroom practice
An outcome of teachers' improved understanding and readiness to learn from their students seems to have
been an improvement in their classroom practices. Participating in the research mentoring programme
helped them to generate good practice in collaboration with their students. Teachers also acknowledged
transformative change in their classrooms emanating from a better understanding of their students. Cassie,
for example, said ‘After I did this research, I feel my student are happier in my class because we do other
things we didn’t do before, for example tPR [Total physical response], and we sing more songs. They are
much happier than before.’ Faye, for her part, suggested that she had developed a better understanding of
her students and their needs: ‘After the research, I think they [students] know I know what they really need,
and they are also very interested in the English class now. So, I am able to make them actively participate in
class.’

In her reflection at the end of her webinar presentation, Cassie shared two key pedagogic principles that
she had learned from her research:

First, children, they play to learn, touch to learn and feel to learn. As a teacher, I can give my students
more sensory experience. For example when I teach some new words about animal I can not only show
them the picture of the animal, but also play the animal sounds for them. Those different sensory
experience can attract students’ attention and help student to remember the words. And when the next
time they have similar or same experience, those words will cross students’ mind. Second, allow some
Chinese in the class. When a student cannot understand the teacher, they will lose their interest and
confidence in English class, which is very negative in English learning. (Cassie)

Through participating in the research mentoring programme, Cassie had herself developed these two key
principles – the value of sensory experiences and the place of L1 in the L2 classroom – simply by engaging
in a systematic process of exploring her own classroom practices and engaging in reflective action with
her students.

5.4.4. Self-realisation and developing sense of agency

As illustrated above, through the mentoring project, there were conceptual changes (in terms of better
understanding of their students as well as knowledge and skills of how to generate good practice in
context with students) among the teachers themselves as well as practical change in their classrooms (in
terms of more student-focused teaching). The teachers had a deeper understanding of, and knew better
how to approach, puzzles or problems in their practices, articulated in the following excerpt:

I have learned that if we have any problem, we can communicate and talk with others; both the
colleagues and the students can help us. We can use different ways to solve problems. We can first
communicate with others, and then we can do some research about it, and do the survey, and third, we
can think about ourselves. (Faye)

33
For some of the teachers, conceptual change also included some things beyond the classroom. For exam-
ple, Jedlena, who did not complete the expected outcomes of the programme but who participated till the
end, noted that:
after this research training, I think, I love this [teaching] job even more, because of your help. I was afraid
because I do not have any teaching experience, but now I think I am confident to start building my own
knowledge in my classes. (Jedlena)

Another teacher remarked:

Also it is the first time for me to do a teaching research and to do a presentation. Um, but through the
whole process, I am becoming more confident to, to do more research and, uh, share my ideas with
other teachers. Also, it develops my ability to deal with the classroom challenge by working with my
students. (Summer, webinar reflections)

Rachel also very eloquently and authoritatively captured her self-realisation of the importance of not
depending on her own assumptions, as was previously the case, at the end of her webinar presentation:
Then, I got to know myself better through this project. The first and most important thing I learned in this
project was that I had wrong assumptions about my teaching! I had never realized that or thought about
that! Usually, when I met a teaching problem, I would think, oh, the reason should be like this, then I took
actions to solve it. If it worked, it was okay. If it didn’t work, I would think out another solution and jump
into action again. I seldom stopped and thought about it, asked myself questions, asked my students
questions and listened to my students. In fact, students are the learners, they are the most reliable
people to answer our questions! And they learn best in their own ways! So, ask questions, listen to them,
and work with them! Understand the puzzle fully, then, look for ways to help students. Be critical and
reflective! (Rachel)

The imperatives at the end of Rachel’s reflections suggest an authoritative teacher who is confident with
her ideas because they are rooted in her own research and endorsed via the positive changes she is
noticing in her classroom.

5.5. Benefits of online mentoring

The mentoring programme was entirely online, and Tencent Meeting was used for all group and individual
meetings. Asked if they were happy with the Tencent Meeting platform, the teachers responded positively
and noted that they found it familiar and convenient. Cassie articulated:
We always use Tencent when we have online meetings in our school, so I think it’s convenient because
we can share our screens. Everyone can give their own presentation. (Cassie)

Asked further about the difference between online and face-to-face training, Summer added:
Our teachers are from different provinces, from different schools, so online training can get us together
in a very convenient way … I think I will be more nervous when we have to meet face to face. (Summer)

34
The above illustrative extracts from the focus group showed that the teachers were familiar with online
training and aware of its advantages, but it did not necessarily mean that they liked all online training
programmes. Asked if they had had online training before, the teachers responded that they had done a lot
of online training. However, they explained that for most mandatory online training (required by education
authorities) they would just ‘turn it on and then leave the laptop or the mobile phone there’. This explana-
tion resonates with data from survey data about issues with the relevance and quality of online CPD provi-
sion presented in section 4.3 above. This is even more so because these teachers acknowledged that
where OCPD provision was engaging and relevant to their immediate classroom teaching, they listened
carefully and even paused to take notes for some of the training. In the mentoring programme, however,
the teachers were more engaged, as Rachel articulated:

I followed every one [training session], and for some of them I didn't quite understand, I watched the
recording again, and I took some notes. (Rachel)

The teachers’ mixed responses to online training indicated that teachers did not decide their preference of
a programme only by judging whether it was on- or offline. As illustrated above, the mentoring programme
was entirely online, but the teachers felt it was more like a face-to-face programme, which suggests that
the teachers may prefer an on- and offline blended programme with practical, relevant and one-to-one
mentoring features. As Rachel explicitly noted, ‘If we talk about ideal training, I would like both online and
face-to-face’.

5.6. Challenges encountered and support systems

The teachers met various challenges and difficulties during the project. Time pressure was one of the
biggest challenges the teachers noted, an issue that was articulated by many teachers in the baseline
survey (see section 4.3.). In the three months of this project, the participating teachers had to find time out
of their already very full daily schedule to attend the required project learning (e.g. online meetings and
webinars) and conduct research into their own classrooms. Most of the teachers were not only English
teachers but also classroom teachers responsible for moral education and administrative affairs for a
specific class of students. Some of them were also young mothers at home. As one teacher explained:

I think the balance among my daily work, my family and the work for the research, was the biggest
challenge for me, and during the process, the spirit of all fellow teachers encouraged me a lot. I wanted
to give up for so many times, but finally I did it. (Summer)

35
Given the multiple responsibilities teachers, and particularly female teachers with family responsibilities,
might have within and beyond their work, it was not unexpected that three of the teachers withdrew from
the project once they discovered that despite their initial enthusiasm, the realities of their daily activities
did not permit them the space to engage fully in the programme. Despite this, six of the nine who initially
applied to join the programme did not give up; they supported each other and managed to attend all group
and some individual mentoring sessions to the end, with five being able to complete their research and
prepare and give a public presentation. In addition to writing out a research report. Their mutual support
and resilience are captured in the following excerpt from Faye: ‘… many times I wanted to give up, especial-
ly [when] two teachers gave up and I wanted to give up, but Summer said to me, don't give up, and let's go
together.’ Daisy, for instance, also noted that she saw Rachel as her role model: ‘So during the research, I
really think [Rachel] impressed me a lot […] I know her passion in the class classroom. I think I should learn
from her.’ Some of their motivation to stay on the programme also came from their mentors, as suggested
by Summer: ‘During all the process Harry and Vincent helped me a lot and encouraged me a lot. And every
time I wanted to give up and you encouraged me a lot.’ This underlines the fact that the role of mentors in
teacher education has been shown to be of vital importance. An example of this comes from De Costa, Ojha
and Zang (2022) who demonstrated how mentors play an important role in helping teachers localise
materials and pedagogic practices, engage in reflexivity and work collaboratively in teams in China and
Nepal.

Besides time pressure and workload, there were other challenges the teachers had to overcome within the
project. Daisy, for example, noted that the biggest challenge for her was ‘to find a research focus and
developing research questions. I think that’ s a very a big challenge for me because my topic was a little bit
big’. She wanted to narrow down her area of focus but did not know how: ‘It really confused me for a long
time’. After communicating with the mentors and reading sources suggested by her mentor, Daisy man-
aged to reach a topic and research questions she felt satisfied with. She articulated how she achieved it :

As a primary school English teacher, we are busy in the whole daytime, so I did this research, during
off-work time in the evenings, so I read some references. I also searched [references] online. I think the
research questions do not just sit there and wait for you. I think you need to really, um, observe your
class, or think about your class, your students. I think that's important. (Daisy)

The teachers also acknowledged the crucial role of the continuous mentor support they had received at all
stages of the programme rather than just at the beginning of their research. This included support to
narrow the scope of, and refine, their research focus, identify research questions, as well as ongoing
opportunities to be challenged by their mentors to find different ways of interpreting the issues they were
dealing with in their research projects. Rachel noted that she was supported in the middle of her research
when she could not find colleagues to observe her class and at the final stage when she worried that she
had not yet done enough for her research and wanted to collect more data. She commented that mentor
support was ‘really helpful to make me think of what was realistic and still valuable for my research
process'.

Besides the support from mentors and their peers on the project, the teachers also received support and
help from their colleagues and family members, as Daisy noted: ‘I’ve also gained a lot of help and supervi-
sion from mentors, and also from my colleagues, our staff here [in her school]'. When asked whether she
received family support, Summer articulated her three-year-old daughter’s encouragement: ‘she said that,
Mommy, you are so great that you can speak English’. For Summer, participating in this project offered her
an opportunity to communicate with mentors and colleagues in English at home. This meant that she could
also impress her daughter, something she argued was a strong motivation.

36
5.7. Teacher suggestions for future CPD provision
Despite positive comments on the practicality of the research mentoring programme mentioned in section
5.1, participants pointed out that there were components of the programme, particularly the research
training sessions, that needed improvement. For example, the teachers noted that the webinar at the
beginning of the programme was not very practical and could have turned them off:

At the beginning, we just talked about the theory about exploratory action research, right? And we didn't
talk about what we actually did. So I think maybe, such kind of very academic webinar will scare some
teachers, so for me, I will doubt myself, can I do that? […] but at the end, I know it is very useful and
practical research, but I didn't know it at the beginning, so I think you can improve in the beginning.
(Cassie)

There were further suggestions on how to make the mentoring programme more practical from the very
beginning – to make theoretical input more relevant to their teaching and research practices, as illustrated
in the following excerpt:

Daisy: During this research we learned many ways or methods to collect data. It seems like the order is,
you learn how to do the research, and then you do the research, but I wonder if it is OK that we do a
research, and then from our research we summarise methods, or ways, and that's more suitable, or
focused to this research. I don't know how to say it more clearly. I'm not sure whether you get what I
mean.
Researcher: So when you've completed a part of your research, then we can start analysing your
research and identifying what went right, what you might improve. Is that what you mean?
Daisy: Yes, because some teachers are doing reading, or some teachers are doing writing problems, so
maybe, then, there are more focused methods to the different research problems.

While there was general agreement that the initial training session was theoretical, it could be argued that
the teachers’ expectations expressed in section 5.1 might have prevented them from engaging with the
content of the session, which was mainly developed around examples of classroom research from a variety
of contexts, including examples by Chinese teachers. It does seem that they came with the expectation to
learn about classroom teaching strategies but found that the session was not aligned with these expecta-
tions. Whatever the case, the excerpt above suggests significant consideration should be given to design-
ing the first research training webinars around teachers’ pragmatic attempts at investigating an aspect of
their practice.

37
Another suggestion for future research mentoring was captured in reflections on how they learn. During
the focus group interview, the teachers also articulated how they learned in the programme. Rachel
explained that learning happened when she started to ask questions and got answers from the mentors:

I have to say that I really started to learn in our project when I began to ask questions, and Harry began
to answer my questions. That was the first time I began to really learn something in this project, and I
really found out, oh, this project is precious. Because at first webinar, I took notes and I learned a lot, but
I think that was not me. That that was not so related to me […] I learned some knowledge, but not related
to my own self. But when I started to ask questions, oh, I started to learn, because you answered my
questions and pointed out my weakness, and then I began to learn. (Rachel)

The teachers also reported that they needed, and they learned better from, examples:
Faye: […] I saw a questionnaire [example] from WeChat [group of the programme], and then I know
what I should do.
Harry: All right, so some of those examples were good.
Faye: For doing the research, we need to see some examples of it, and then we will know how to do it.
After reading the questionnaire from WeChat, I know, [it’s] just a piece of cake. It's not that difficult.

One example might not be enough. Rachel, for instance, recalled her frustration when she tried but could
not access more examples: ‘When I prepared for the presentation, I wanted to get more from other teach-
ers from the file you sent us, but I couldn’t’. For Rachel and other teachers, they did not just need examples
such as samples of data collection tools, as Faye noted above, but also those from role models; that is to
say, examples of other teachers reporting on their research for them to follow:

And in fact, during the whole project, you showed us a lot of cases from other countries, especially the
African teachers, so for me I could feel the African teachers’ passion in teaching, and I could feel that,
yeah, everybody met some problems, so I’m not alone. (Rachel)

These reflections point to the importance of dialogic engagement with teachers as well as the need to
provide them with examples of other teachers from other contexts in addition to their own, providing
multiple examples of research experiences. Going forward, the research experiences of these teachers, as
recorded in their presentations online and their research report, might constitute a useful resource for
other teachers learning to research their classrooms in China.

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6. Conclusions and recommendations
In this section, key findings presented above are discussed, and implications and recommendations for
future work on online CPD in the Chinese context are drawn. To better align these with the goals of the
research component of the NODE project, a summary of key findings from both phases of the research is
first presented. This research project was guided by three research questions (see section 2), with the first
question focusing on teachers’ current engagement with digital CPD, the second on accessibility and
usability of digital CPD opportunities, and the third on their impact on the teachers’ classroom practices
and professional growth.

6.1. Key findings

In relation to the first research question, the findings showed that a vast majority of teachers surveyed
(76.5 per cent) were engaged in digital CPD. The findings presented in section 4.2 suggest that when
considering CPD activities, the medium (online or face-to-face) was not so much an issue for teachers as
were other motivating factors. The most important motives presented in the survey data were intrinsic,
including teachers’ need for professional excellence (improvement of professional knowledge, skills and
expertise – 51.5 per cent of CEAIE respondents and 44 per cent of S-Star respondents) and personal
growth (self-improvement – 29.3 per cent of CEAIE respondents and 31.9 per cent of S-Star respondents),
both of which represent their own personal interest and enthusiasm. A smaller proportion of the teachers
(16.2 per cent for CEAIE teachers and 18.7 per cent of S-Star teachers) expressed extrinsic factors (admin-
istrative requirements) as their motivation for attending online CPD. In sections 4.3 and 5.6, the research
team presented a range of challenges that teachers encounter during their engagement with digital CPD.
These challenges show that their engagement is influenced by factors other than just accessibility and
usability of digital platforms. In fact, teachers were familiar with a range of digital platforms (see section 4.4),
although the data showed that some were more preferred, or at least more used, than others. Although it is
possible that different platforms serve different purposes, and that teachers’ preference for one digital
platform over another might be influenced by how and why they use them, the number of respondents
choosing a particular digital platform cannot be ignored completely. In fact, the high mention of Tencent
Meeting and Ding Talk by the respondents suggests that many more teachers are familiar with these
platforms than others. Phase Two participants further claimed that
Tencent Meeting was convenient for them because they
were familiar with it in their schools, and they could
watch recordings repeatedly, something that is not
possible with face-to-face CPD. In this regard, online
CPD providers looking to support teachers in China
might want to consider using these platforms in
the first instance to avoid a situation where CPD
is affected by challenges in learning how to
use new platforms. This is even more the case
given that the data also reported language
proficiency challenges exacerbated by the
digital space being a barrier to their
engagement in digital CPD (see 4.3).

39
Logistical issues such as time pressure, heavy workload and multiple responsibilities, particularly for female
teachers (see 5.6) were also reported as challenges to engagement in digital CPD, as were more practical
issues such as the quality and practicality of digital training affecting teachers’ participation. Survey
responses suggest that teachers may ‘accept’ the passive transmission approach as manifested in CPD
lectures, but they still have their preferred ways that are more consistent with their personalities and
learning needs.

The need for CPD that provides teachers with realistic materials and activities, which are practical and
directly useable in teachers’ classrooms and which recognise varied contextual realities across China, has
been highlighted by Borg et al. (2022) The findings of this study provide even more evidence that beyond
the platform used for CPD, teachers engage better with training and CPD opportunities that help them
directly address their classroom conundrums. Further evidence of this was in the teachers’ perspectives on
their experiences in the classroom research training and mentoring programme. Practicality and relevance
to the teachers’ immediate classroom needs were noted as key features of the mentoring programme.
Teachers also valued the personalised digital mentoring, suggesting that it blurred the barriers of digital
space, making them feel as if it was a face-to-face encounter (Rachel, section 5.3).

Another key finding of this study was in relation to how access to digital professional development impacts
on teachers’ classroom practices (RQ3). Data from 1,582 (56 per cent) survey respondents shows that
through engagement with digital spaces, teachers found resources for their own language development and
for their classroom practice; they found opportunities to interact with like-minded and inspiring teachers
beyond their institutional contexts (see 4.5). Phase Two of this project provided us further insights into
teachers’ classroom practices through their exploratory research projects. As findings presented in section
5.4 show, in addition to learning research skills (5.4.1), teachers reported better rapport with and
understanding of learning processes from their students (5.4.2), improved classroom practice (5.4.3), as
well as their own self-realisation and a developing sense of agency (5.4.4). Their improved classroom
practices were further highlighted in their accounts of the changes made to their teaching as a result of
their engagement in research with their students (see https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/teach/JulyWebinar).

In reflecting on these changes, teachers showed how the evidence-base for their practices had been
developed, positioning themselves not just as reflective practitioners but also as generators of pedagogi -
cal knowledge in context. This is consistent with the argument that ‘localised mentoring practices and
contextualised teacher education … can enhance the potential of teachers and result in the development
of thought leadership, which is essential for sustainable teacher development’ (Kuchah & Salama, p213).

40
6.2. Recommendations
On the basis of the findings presented and discussed above, the following recommendations for reconfigur-
ing the way forward for sustainable digital teacher professional development in China are offered.

1. Digital platforms are no doubt an asset for teacher professional development in China, and there are
existing platforms with which teachers are already familiar. While it is understood that technology will
continue to evolve, it is important that digital CPD providers are aware of the platforms that teachers
are currently familiar with so that they can use these rather than introducing new platforms that might
add to the cognitive burden of teachers and impede their subject content and pedagogic knowledge
development. It is particularly important that foreign providers of OCPD are aware of local platforms,
as what is construed as a ‘global platform’, and the generic norms of online CPD prevalent in the
West, might not be applicable in China. For example, platforms such as Zoom are not often utilised
locally, and free accounts are not currently available in China. Besides, many foreign platforms often
do not provide language support in a way that local platforms developed with the Chinese English
language teacher in mind might do. It may, for example, be worth looking at the platforms that schools
currently use for teaching and learning and exploring these options for digital CPD offers and delivery
so that teachers’ digital learning spaces are consistent with their day-to-day digital teaching spaces.
2. Consider teachers’ real and emerging needs and involve them in decisions about the content and
delivery of programmes. Chinese teachers are less concerned about the medium of their CPD (digital
or face-to-face) as they are about the method and materials used. As shown in this study, teachers
need hands-on practical resources and activities that can directly inform their classroom practices,
rather than theoretical discussions that might not be immediately relevant for their job. Consideration
needs to be given to existing differences in teachers’ language proficiency levels, their pedagogic
knowledge and the levels (e.g. primary, secondary, etc.) in which they teach, in order to design more
focused and relevant CPD packages for more teachers.
3. Consider diversifying digital CPD provision with the view of supporting teachers to develop knowledge
and skills for the classroom, while at the same time harnessing their ability to generate their own
knowledge and critical understanding of language education in their context. Government digital
platforms, such as Smart Education of China, that provide free learning, teaching and CPD resources
can be very useful for novice teachers, but they may not be useful for developing teachers as thought
leaders and knowledge producers. In this study, a form of classroom research mentoring – exploratory
action research – is proposed as a possible alternative to top-down theory-led training. As the
evidence presented in section 5 shows, this can be a powerful way of developing student – teacher
collaboration, leading to improved classroom interaction, shared ownership of learning and teacher
agency. There is, however, the issue of how classroom research mentoring might be developed to
support large numbers of teachers at scale in a country like China. To support this, the research team
recommend a cascading model that initially supports a pool of local mentors through experiential

41
 online training and expert mentoring via a combination of synchronous and asynchronous modes.
The sustainability and eventual upscaling of classroom research mentoring could be enhanced by
collecting teachers’ research presentations and reports (such as those from the programme trialled
in this study) into an open access digital repository which teachers could be encouraged to explore.

4. In relation to (and as an extension of) recommendation 3, it is worth exploring a combination of group

and one-to-one school- or community of practice based mentoring that provides teachers with
step-by-step support, while respecting their agency. This can be through self-paced or self-directed
online programmes that recognise CPD as a lifelong process, rather than a collection of occasional
training episodes. This would require upscaling an improved version of the content processes of the
programme trialled in this study. Such a programme could include pre-prepared recordings of key
presentations with accompanying resources and embedded tasks for teachers to complete. These,
together with the repository of presentations and reports mentioned in recommendation 3, would
serve as digitally hosted artefacts for future reference. Resources included in the repository could
be either in teachers’ L1 or in English and could include subtitles so that they are accessible to
teachers with low language proficiency as well as those with certain disabilities or impairments. In
this upscaled CoP-based model, mentors would have both academic and pastoral roles in sustaining
teacher motivation. It is therefore important to develop, in the mentor training mentioned above,
a reciprocal approach to mentoring that provides space for reflexivity between mentor and mentee,
as this can potentially play a transformative role in teacher development (Kuchah & Salama, 2022).
Besides this, establishing a community of practitioners and working together on exploring aspects of
their practice can help them support, motivate and inspire each other (as shown in section 5.6) and
create long-term bonds that help sustain their professional learning.

5. Education authorities and employers at national and local levels need to consider making OCPD part
of a comprehensive formal offer of time and resource allocation for teachers to engage digitally.
Particular attention needs to be paid to the CPD of primary-level teachers in rural communities, given
that a high proportion of respondents who had not participated in OCPD in the previous two years
were primary school teachers (405 out of 590), and 63.5 per cent of them were from rural areas. It is
also important to bear in mind that while classroom research processes, such as exploratory action
research, can be embedded into teachers’ daily classroom practices, training to become a classroom
researcher requires time commitments that may be impractical for busy teachers struggling to
complete a syllabus and prepare students for high-stakes exams. Additionally, allocating dedicated
time for online CPD provision is challenging given that teachers’ time commitments to digital CPD may
not be as visible as they are for in-person CPD, which often requires teachers to be away from their
workplace. Consideration of how this could be arranged in each context is necessary. Authorities also
need to consider offering official accreditation (see also Borg et al., 2022) for engagement in and
completion of classroom research (assessed through a published report and resources in the repository),
whether through on- or offline means.

6. The research team also recommend that classroom research should be treated in a similar way to
existing teaching competitions that support competitive comparison across regions. This could include
a collaborative dimension, with teachers encouraged to work together on joint classroom research
projects as part of a community of practice. This is particularly important as an extrinsic form of
motivation that could strongly complement the existing intrinsic motives expressed in section 4.2.

42
7. Limitations
This study should be understood in the light of the following two limitations.

First, the sample sizes for both phases of this study are not only too small to warrant a generalisation of the
findings but also are based on data from participants accessed through convenient sampling via online
modes only. As reported earlier (section 3) the Phase One baseline survey responses were obtained from
teachers attending a British Council China NODE project, as well as through the broader British Council
China and the research team members’ networks in China. Collecting data through an online survey means
that the perspectives of teachers who do not regularly access digital spaces, as well as those who are not
readily accessible by the British Council, are not represented in the study. Furthermore, the open-ended
nature of the questionnaire allowed for responses that needed follow-up interviews to probe further into
respondents’ perspectives. Unfortunately, despite attempts to contact teachers after the initial analysis of
the survey data, none of the teachers contacted responded to our invitation to interview, despite initially
providing their contact details in their survey responses for this purpose. As a result, issues that the
research team would have wanted to pursue (e.g. gendered experiences and language proficiency chal-
lenges) are not fully explored in this report.

Second, the nature of the intervention in Phase Two of this study made it difficult to ensure complete
anonymity of the participants. They were made aware of the expectations of the programme (see Appendix
1), including the fact that they would be required to give an online presentation and write a research report
for publication before they consented to participate. Given the small number of teachers involved, the lack
of anonymity and the fact that participants were interviewed by their own mentors (which is recognised as
an ethical issue despite the collegiality and sense of community developed throughout the programme), it is
culturally unlikely that the teachers would be too critical of the research mentoring programme. Therefore,
it is likely that there were other challenges and suggestions beyond those presented in sections 5.6 and 5.7
respectively that were not raised by these teachers.

43
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Appendices

47
Appendix 1:
Mentoring programme invitation and application form
Elsewhere: National Online Digital Development of English Teachers (NODE)
Exploratory Action Research Mentoring Programme
27 March – 30 June 2023
中国英语教师专业能力建设项目(NODE)
探索性行动研究指导项目
2023年3月27日-- 6月30日

The British Council China is recruiting 12 Chinese primary and secondary English language teachers to
support their professional development by creating a classroom research project. You’ll be mentored by a
renowned group of international and Chinese teacher researchers.
If you are keen to solve a problem or a puzzle in your classroom, would like expert advice and can commit
10–11 weeks from March to May 2023 in conducting your own classroom research with your students
and/or colleagues, please sign up for this exciting project.
This does not need a high English proficiency level, but you will need to be able to understand and commu -
nicate with the international mentor in webinars and one-to-one mentoring. Your report could be written in
Chinese or English, as you prefer.
英国文化教育协会中国办公室现正在中国招募12名中小学英语教师，通过创建一个课堂教学研究项目来支持这些
教师的专业发展。作为项目参与者，您将得到由国内外知名教师研究员组成的专家小组的指导。
如果您急需解决自己课堂教学中的一个问题或难题、希望寻求专业知识的建议，并且能在2023年3至5月之间投
入10-11周的时间，对自己的真实课堂教学和学生（以及/或者联合其他教师同行）开展相关的研究，欢迎您报名
参加这一激动人心的项目。
参与者无需精通英文，但您需要具备相应水平，能在导师开展的在线研讨会以及一对一指导中充分交流。您可以
根据自己的喜好选择中文或英文撰写项目报告或论文。

48
Benefits and learning outcomes for the teachers
By the end of the project, you’ll have:
1) had the opportunity to work closely with a group of international and Chinese research mentors
2) had solid experience with exploratory action research, and better understanding of related research
methods.
3) become an expert in your classroom context, being able to identify a problem and find solutions without
being told by others
4) been able to embed the research approach in your classroom practice as part of your normal work
without designing extra lessons
5) a PowerPoint presentation of your research and be able to share the learning with your peers
6) an edited research paper of approximately 1,500–2,000 words that is publishable
7) a British Council certificate to recognise your research experience and achievement
8) had a chance to develop your experience and skills as a practitioner and researcher.

在这个项目结束时，您将
1) 有机会与国内外的研究员导师紧密合作；
2) 在探索性行动研究方面拥有扎实的经验，并提升对相关研究方法的认识了解；
3) 成为自己课堂教学的专家，无需他人提醒，能够自主发现问题并找到解决方案；
4) 能够将研究方法有机地与自己的课堂教学实践相结合，作为自己常规工作的一部分，而无需设计额外的教学课；
5) 拥有一份有关自己研究的Power Point演示文稿，并能与同伴分享其中的收获；
6) 拥有一份篇幅约1,500-2,000字、经过编辑并可以用于发表的研究论文；
7) 获得一份英国文化教育协会颁发的证书，作为对您本次研究经验和成就的认可；
8) 有机会拓展作为一线教学实践者和研究人员的经验和技能。

49
Timeline 时间安排

Application deadline: 申请截止日期：

17.00 Wednesday 22 March 2023 2023年3月22日星期三17:00

课堂教学研究的时间范围：
Classroom research timeframe: 2023年3月27日星期一至5月19日星期五（7周）
Monday 27 March – 19 May 2023 (7 weeks)
报告撰写和展示：
2023年6月30日星期五前完成（6周）
Report writing and presentation:
Complete by Friday 30 June 2023 (6 weeks)

Application form
Please submit your application to Elsie Shi at [email protected] by 17.00 Wednesday 22 March 2023.
Subject line of the application email: please write ‘NODE Action Research Mentoring Project – Application’

Name
Your role and the grade that you are teaching
(e.g. Teacher/Grade 5)
School
District/Township, City, Province
Gender
An initial problem or a puzzle that you hope to solve
Your signing of commitment of time from
27 March to 30 June (signature)
Your mobile phone
Your email address

申请表
请于2023年3月22日17.00前提交以下报名信息至Elsie Shi [email protected].
邮件主题，请注明：NODE Action Research Mentoring Project – Application

姓名
您的角色以及目前所教年级
（例如：教师 / 五年级）
您所在的学校
您所在的省、市、区/县、镇
您的性别
您希望解决的一个问题或难题
请签名确认3月27日-6月30日期间
将投入项目所需的时间（签名）
您的手机号码
您的电子邮箱

50
 Appendix 2:
Survey of digital learning and professional development
Dear Colleague
In order to understand how Chinese schoolteachers might be better supported, we are investigating the
relationship between digital training, professional development and classroom practices. The term ‘digital
training’ here refers to a range of online opportunities for professional development, including online
courses, webinars, conferences and other online resources related to teaching English.
Please fill in your responses to the questions below. We particularly encourage you to provide exten-
sive details to question 5. The information you provide in this survey will be used for research purposes
only and we shall ensure strict confidentiality and anonymity.
NODE Project Research Team

Please
Please tell
tell us us about
about yourself.
yourself.

Gender:
Gender: male male / female
/ female

YearsYears of teaching:
of teaching: 0–3 years
0-3 years / 4-9 /years
4–9 years / 10–15
/ 10-15 years /years
16-20/ 16–20
years /years / 21+ years
21+ years

Educational
Educational qualification:
qualification: Doctorate
Doctorate / Master’s
/ Master's degree
Degree / Bachelor’s
/ Bachelor's degree
Degree / Associate
/ Associate degree
Degree / Others
/ Others

WhatWhat
level level of students
of students do you
doteach: Primary
you teach? schoolschool
Primary / Junior high school
/ Junior / Senior
high school high school
/ Senior high school

Where
Where is your
is your school
school located?
located: Province:
Province:

City /City / Prefecture:

Prefecture: Where
Where
is your
is your
school
school
situated:
situated?
UrbanUrban
/ Rural
/ Rural

1. In the
1. Inlast
the2last
years,
twohave
years,
youhave
been
youinvolved
been involved
in any online
in anyprofessional
online professional
development
development
activities?
activities?

Yes /Yes
No / No

2. If yes,
2. If what
yes, what
are the
aretwo
thetop
tworeasons
top reasons
for your
for your
involvement
involvement
in online
in online
professional
professional
development?
development?

Reason
Reason
1. _____________________
1. _____________________ Reason
Reason
2. _____________________
2. _____________________

3. What
3. What
are the
aretwo
thetop
twochallenges
top challenges
in your
in your
online
online
learning/training?
learning/training?

Challenge
Challenge
1. _____________________
1. _____________________ Challenge
Challenge
2. _____________________
2. _____________________

4. Which
4. Which
digital
digital
platforms
platforms
do you
docurrently
you currently
use for
useyour
for your
professional
professional
development?
development?

ZoomZoom
/ Tencent
/ Tencent
Meeting
Meeting
/ Ding
/ Ding
Talk /Talk / Other
Other platforms:
platforms:

_________________________________________
_________________________________________

51
5. Please choose one or two of the platforms you have listed in 4 above. For each, give one example of
what you learned from the platform(s), and how this was useful in your practice and professional
development. Please write as much as possible.

We would like to continue this study with you through interviews and classroom observations at a later
stage. If you would be willing to take part in later parts of the study, please give your contact information
below:

Preferred Name: _____________________

Email address: ______________________

52
Appendix 3:
The open-ended questionnaire
(bilingual, CEAIE version)
数字化学习与专业发展调查
(Survey of digital learning and professional development)

尊敬的各位参训老师：
欢迎您参加中国英语教师专业能力建设(NODE)项目！作为项目监测评估的一部分，研究团
队将分阶段研究数字化培训和您的专业发展以及课堂实践之间的关系。数字化培训这里指的是各
类在线专业发展机会，包括网络课程、线上研讨、网络会议以及其他英语教学相关的在线资源。
请回答以下问卷问题。其中第5题尤其希望您能尽可能地详尽回答。
您在本问卷所提供的信息仅作研究用途，我们将严格遵循研究保密与匿名原则。

Dear Participants:
Welcome you taking part in the National Online Digital Development of English Teachers
(NODE) project. As part of the project monitoring and evaluation, the research team would
be investigating the relationship between digital training, your professional development
and your classroom practices through a number of research phases. The term ‘digital
training’ here refers to a range of online opportunities for professional development, includ-
ing online courses, webinars, conferences and other online resources related to teaching
English.
Please fill in your responses to the questions below. You are encouraged to provide extensive
details to question 5.
The information you provide in this survey will be used for research purposes only and we
shall ensure strict confidentiality and anonymity.

请告诉我们您的基本信息：
Please tell us about yourself:

性别 Gender: 男 male 女 female

教龄 Years of teaching: 0-3年 0-3 years 4-9年 4-9 years 10-15年 10-15 years
16-20年 16-20 years 21年以上 21+ years

最高学历(学位) Educational qualification:

博士研究生 Doctorate 硕士研究生 Master's Degree 本科学士 Bachelor's Degree
专科 Associate Degree 其他 others

所教学生层次 What level of students do you teach:

小学 Primary school 初中 Junior high school 高中 Senior high school

学校所在地 Where is your school located:

省份 Province: 地级市(州) City/Prefecture:

学校所在环境 Where is your school situated:

城区 Urban 乡镇 Rural

53
1. 在最近两年内，您是否有参加过在线专业发展活动？
1. 在最近两年内，您是否有参加过在线专业发展活动？
In theInlast
the2last
years, havehave
2 years, you been involved
you been in any
involved in online professional
any online development
professional development
activities?
activities?
有 Yes 有 Yes 无 No无 No

2. 如果有，您参加在线专业发展活动最主要的两个原因是什么？
2. 如果有，您参加在线专业发展活动最主要的两个原因是什么？
If yes,If what are the
yes, what aretwo
thetop
tworeasons for your
top reasons involvement
for your in online
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in online professional
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development?
Reason
原因1.原因1. 1. ______________________________________________________
Reason 1. ______________________________________________________
原因2. Reason
原因2. 2. ______________________________________________________
Reason 2. ______________________________________________________

3. 在参加在线学习或培训的过程中，您遇到的两个最大的挑战是什么？
3. 在参加在线学习或培训的过程中，您遇到的两个最大的挑战是什么？
WhatWhat
are the
aretwo
thetop
twochallenges in your
top challenges online
in your learning/training?
online learning/training?
Challenge
挑战1.挑战1. 1. ____________________________________________________
Challenge 1. ____________________________________________________
挑战2. Challenge
挑战2. 2. ____________________________________________________
Challenge 2. ____________________________________________________

4. 为了您的专业发展，您目前使用的数字平台有哪些？【多选题】
4. 为了您的专业发展，您目前使用的数字平台有哪些？【多选题】
Which digitaldigital
Which platforms do you
platforms do currently use for
you currently useyour professional
for your development?
professional development?
Zoom平台 Zoom
Zoom平台 Zoom
腾讯会议 腾讯会议 Tencent Meeting
Tencent Meeting
钉钉 钉钉 DingDing
Talk Talk
其他更多平台
其他更多平台 Other platforms:
Other __________________
platforms: __________________

5. 在您对问题4的回答中，选择一个或两个数字平台，一个平台举一个例子，说明您从该平台学
5. 在您对问题4的回答中，选择一个或两个数字平台，一个平台举一个例子，说明您从该平台学
到什么，该平台对您的教学实践和专业发展有何帮助。请尽可能详尽描述。
到什么，该平台对您的教学实践和专业发展有何帮助。请尽可能详尽描述。
Please choose
Please one or
choose onetwo
or of
twotheofplatforms you have
the platforms listedlisted
you have in 4 above. For each,
in 4 above. give give
For each, one one
example of what
example you learned
of what fromfrom
you learned the platform(s), and and
the platform(s), how how
this was useful
this was in your
useful practice
in your practice
and professional development.
and professional Please
development. writewrite
Please as much as possible.
as much as possible.

54
Appendix 4:
Focus group interview guide

Following are the four main questions discussed during the interview:
A. We have all participated in the NODE classroom research project, but in our own different
contexts. Could you very briefly describe your personal experience?
· Why did you participate?
· What did you expect to get out of the project?
· What did you gain from the project?
B. Did you meet with any difficulties or problems in the process? If yes, how did you manage
them?
· Why were there such difficulties or problems?
· What support did you get?
C. Compared with your past training experience, how different or how similar is the NODE
mentoring project?
· What previous training? What about? What involved?
· Online training? Online mentoring?
· Top reasons for online learning/training?
· Top challenges for online learning/training?
· What digital platforms used? What best? Any examples?
D. What suggestions do you have for organising teacher training programmes/projects so
that teachers can be better supported?
· Online or offline?
· What support? Whose support?
The focus group interview was video-recorded with the participants’ consent, and extracted
findings reported below.

55
Appendix 5:
Final reports by the five mentoring programme
participants
Appendix 5a: Participant report 1 (Cassie, primary school teacher)
Improving my vocabulary teaching for my 2nd Grade students
My teaching context
I work in a public primary school in Foshan City, Guangdong Province. I am a novice teacher teaching 2nd Grade
students. My students, they only have 3 English lessons a week, 40 minutes for each class. And they are about 7
or 8 years old. They are very young and active. It’s very hard for them to concentrate on the class. A few
students can not remember the words they learn in the last class. Before I got into this research, I noticed very
few students engaged in my classroom activities and respond to my exercise in my vocabulary class. So I want to
explore how to teach my vocabulary more effectively in my class.

What I did
In order to work better with my students in my vocabulary class, I chose these four questions to work with in my
action research:
01. What difficulties do my students face in the English class?
02. What can help my students learn new words in class?
03 How do my students feel in my class?
04. What strategies I can apply to help my students use new words in class?
To understand the challenge my students faced in my vocabulary class, I design an open-ended questionnaire
based on these four questions I am interested in. All my 35 students participate in the questionnaire anonymously.

What I learned
From the answer they wrote on the questionnaire, I learned three things. First, they mentioned they wants more
songs, games and body language in class. That is to say, they wants me to apply more songs, games and TPR
when I teach vocabulary. Here, TPR means a foreign language teaching method in when teacher asks students
do something in Foreign language and students must act with their body movements. Second, my students
agreed that making sentences can really help them to master and use new words. Actually, I did ask my students
to make sentences, they were unwilling to do that. So, I discussed with my mentor Harry. My mentor asked me to
reflect the way I asked my students to make sentences. Before I did this research , I just gave the pictures to ask
students to make sentences which is not fun enough. That’s the reason why they were unwilling to make sentenc-
es in my class. After discussion, I found I can apply my flashy performance to make my students feel interesting
to make sentences. More Chinese. My students said I speak too much English in class and they felt anxious to
listen so much English because it is hard for them to understand my English instruction.

What I tried and wanted to try

After data collection and discussion with my mentor. I decided to apply three things in my class: TPR, Chinese
instruction explanation and fun way to make sentences. What I just tried out is TPR. TPR can engage more
students to follow the teacher’s instruction and help them to understand and remember the words. Even though
students who easily distracted do action following the students around them. And body experience also
impressed students so that they would not easily forget the words. I also apply more Chinese instruction in my
class so that my student can understand me better. Nowadays many private schools and educational institutions
advocate all English class. It is good idea to students in English. However, it is unsuitable for my forty-students
class which is a large class in a public school especially for those young and active students. When I apply more
Chinese explanation and instruction my student would quickly understand me so that we can focus more on our
target language points. TPR and Chinese instruction are what I just tried out in my vocabulary class and I can
hear more laugh in my class and more students remember what they learned in the last class. I hope I can try
more fun way to make sentence in my future practice.

56
My reflections
First, children play to learn, touch to learn and feel to learn. I can give students more sensory experience. For
example, when I teach words about animals are not only show them the pictures of animals but also play the
animal sounds for my students. Different sensory experience can attract and help my students to remember the
words easily. When they have the same experience next time, these words would come to their mind.

Second, allow some Chinese in class. I should use more Chinese instruction to help young learners understand
the me better. When students cannot understand teacher they would lose their interests and confidence in
English class. That is very negative for English learning.

Third, suggestions from students are important. I can know more about the class from students’ view. Students’
idea can make me know the deficiency I can promote on my own teaching.

Appendix 5b:
Participant report 2 (Daisy, primary school teacher)
How can assessment help my students with their English learning?
Teaching context
I’m an English teacher from Primary School Attached to Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).
It is located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in the central part of China. The school is under the direct management of
the university. And I have been teaching English in this school for more than ten years since my graduation from
college.
I teach pupils of three classes from Grade Five to Grade Six, with each class of more than fifty pupils. They have
been learning English from Grade Three and now we have four English classes per week. Most of the parents are
the teaching staff of the university. Therefore, some of my students who have a short foreign study experience
can speak English very well. In my class I divide the children into several groups, with each group of four to six
members. They have basic awareness of cooperative learning and most group members work along well with
each other.

Research questions
In my English class, I often use 'Good job' or 'Wonderful' such colloquial words to encourage my students or to
evaluate their performance on the task. We mainly have two kinds of assessment methods, group points and
performance brochure. When students finish tasks, they can get points for their group. When they behave well in
groups, they can get a seal on the brochure as well. However, sometimes my students are too eager to get
points that they focus more on the group points ranking than doing the task itself. Therefore, these kinds of
assessment do not seem to really evaluate their learning effect in class.
In 2022, China’s Ministry of Education published the 'Compulsory English Curriculum Standards', which advo cates
'teaching-learning-assessment alignment'. My understanding is that teaching, learning and assessment should be
regarded as a whole. This sparked my thinking. In order to figure out how the three elements work in my class, I
developed the following questions:
1. How does current assessment help my students’ learning?
2. How do I improve the way of aligning my teaching to assessment?
3. Are there any strategies to design lessons so that teaching and learning can be aligned with the assessment?

57
My action
To answer my exploratory research questions, I tried to use different possible sources of information and data.
For the first question, I collected classroom observation of my students’ groupwork performance and their
responses to the questionnaire after class. To answer the second question, I wrote my own teaching reflections
after class. To answer the third question, I practice my own lesson plans as well.
First, I invited two of my colleagues to observe my class. One observes my students’ group work performance
with assessment standards. The other focuses on the numbers of my students raising hands and answering
questions. So that I can get a close insight of my students’ performance on tasks. It will also help me know how
my students behave under clear assessment standards.
After class, I asked 20 of my students (in different levels) to complete a questionnaire on their opinions of assess-
ment. Such as, 'I know what assessment is.' 'Teacher’s praise doesn’t work for me.' 'Assessment helps me learn
actively.' 'I’d like to do group tasks so that my group can get more points.' 'I also want to know what my class -
mates think of my performance.' 'Assessment standards help me know how to do clearly.' And I also asked them
to answer the same three questions like 'What is assessment in class?' 'Do you want to know what your teacher
and classmates think of your performance in class?' 'What kind of assessment in class do you prefer?' Their
responses help me understand what they have known about assessment and what they really think about it.
What’s more, I wrote my teaching reflections to review and reanalyze the assessment in my class and I also read
some references about assessment. I tried to write lesson plans and design assessment standards in a unit. For
example, in our textbook, there is a unit called 'I love reading'. In this unit, I designed several activities. One of the
tasks in Lesson 1 is a speech of talking about the fun things in a book. We have 3 standards to finish this task.
Level A is the top standard. That is, my students who can describe the fun things in a creative, reasonable and
logic way. In the speech, they are able to show their love for reading from different points of view. In Level B,
they only need to finish the task with complete sentences and describe the fun things they learn in the book. But
level C refers to my students who need help to finish the task.

What I found
I found something really useful and helpful from what I did. First, I found that assessment help my students learn
actively. They care about what I think of their performance and they really want to do it well. Second, my students
are willing to finish group tasks so that their group can get more points. And clear assessment standards help my
students participate more in group tasks. Third, most of my students want to get feedback from me and their
classmates. They want to know what their classmates or friends think about their performance in class because
they think peers’ feedback help them do better next time. Fourth, I also found that designing assessment activi-
ties in continuous lessons help my students’ better understanding of the whole unit. For instance, let’s still take a
look at the unit 'I love reading'. In lesson 1, the assessment activity is to do the speech of 'Fun in the book'. In
lesson 2, my students take part in a practice radio programme to guess the book title according to what they
described. In lesson 3, they introduce their favourite books. The assessment standards are different according to
different lessons but they have internal relations as a whole. It will help my students better understand the unit
content.
These findings indicate that teaching, learning and assessment cannot be separated. My students learn what I
want them to learn and my teaching ensures that they learn it well while assessments reveal how well they have
learned. In this way, the three elements align closely and they reinforce each other.

58
What I will do next
What I found gave me great encouragement and it leads me the way of next move. In my future
teaching, I think I’ll put my findings into teaching practice. I will provide my students with timely feed -
back and let assessment be the motivation of their English learning. Provide clearer assessment
standards to make sure my students know well how to do the task. Use different assessment methods,
such as mutual assessment in teamwork, not just feedback from me. Design continuous assessment
activities in a unit when writing lesson plans.

My reflections
In the process of doing the research, I’ve gained a lot from it. I do have some time to read and get a
deeper understanding of Compulsory English Curriculum Standards. Meanwhile, this project offered me
an opportunity to observe, to talk with my students, which helps me know more about what my
students think and want. And I also get a better understanding of doing classroom research. In this
project, I’ve learned what exploratory action research is, the ways to collect data, how to analyze the
data and how to interpret the findings.
Through the research, I’ve discovered that doing research is a scientific and systematic project which
requires continuous learning awareness and ability. It has offered me an opportunity to find problems
in the real class and reexamine my education and teaching process. These are all thanks to the
opportunity given to me by the British Council and the guidance of my mentors. It is of great signifi -
cance to me and I’m sure it will definitely influence my future teaching career.

59
Appendix 5c:
Participant report 3 (Faye, junior high school teacher)
How to motivate my students to be active in class?
I teach in the Affiliated Foreign Language Middle School of Xinzhou Teachers University. I teach two different
classes of the students in grade eight. There are about 50 students in each class. Each learning group consists
of 6 group members. We have 5 English classes per week.

Research questions
The students in my classes have the same contexts and work within the same educational system. However,
many students in one of my classes didn’t seem to actively participate in class and lacked motivation to put up
their hands and answer questions. And I wanted to know the reason why and how to motivate my students to be
active in class.

What I did
I chose three questions to my students to work with during the exploratory research process.
1. Why can’t you focus attention in English class?
2. How to be active in English class?
3. What can teachers do to help students increase their participation in English class?
From the questionnaires, we can see that forty students were afraid of making mistakes and being laughed by
others and seventeen of them couldn’t focus their attention in class because of their poor pronunciation. They
weren’t able to totally understand the teacher’s instructions or express themselves clearly. One of my students
said: 'I like to play games with my classmates and I can get into a relaxed mood. Working in groups helped me
a lot. Because we could find solutions together and someone could explain to us when we didn’t understand
something immediately.' They also told me that singing a song or playing games were the activities they liked
most. Working in groups also helped a lot. As for teachers, they proposed teachers should give them more
opportunities to express themselves.

What I found
Through questionnaires, one to one interview with my students and keeping a reflective teaching journal, I found
that game-based teaching and group work activities are effective for increasing my students’ participation and
confidence in class.

How my teaching changed

Based on the findings, I explored and chose the suitable teaching methods to help my students to be active in
class. I chose a passage from our textbook. It is a story about teamwork. I designed the class based on students’
needs and decided to start the class with a song We Will Rock You. Then students worked in groups of six to
read the article, got the meaning of the passage, wrote down main ideas of each paragraph, discussed the
questions and chose their favorite characters to role play the passage. Meanwhile, they could write down their
own lines to help them role play better. When they are ready, they could put up their hands and show themselves
to all the other students in turn. If students behaved well, they could get points for their group or I would give
them some small gifts for praise.

60
By the end of the class, I observed several changes. The first one was that my students actually did the activities
and I could observe many hands up to participate in the lesson. There is an old saying: 'Tell me and I will forget;
show me and I might remember; involve me and I will understand.' Group work is an activity that can involve
almost every student. In addition, the consistent group practice carried out in the class was useful in improving
their confidence. They could choose what they are interested in and show what they are really good at. Some
active group members could also affect the degree of others’ participation in the classroom interactions. At the
same time, I knew encouragement was effective in helping learning take place. Students’ confidence will be
increased through teachers’ praise. From the students’ smiling faces and standard pronunciation, I knew they felt
motivated and more successful. In terms of my teaching, I became more flexible and patient with the students
and provided them more support.

Reflection
Through this project, I have learned that doing classroom research can be helpful to improve my teaching
practice. This gave me the opportunity to know my students’ learning needs, which is something I had never
down before. Students are able to be active if we, as teachers, implement strategies according to their needs. I
am able to see a change which motivate me to continue working like this. Furthermore, this action research made
me aware that sharing problems with others can bring solutions. 'Sharing is caring' is what I believe in now, since
discussing my problems with others enriched my knowledge and I also found solutions. Small issues faced during
teaching on a daily basis can be resolved by working with my colleagues, as they understand the students and
the system. Through peer observation, we exchanged ideas and had long discussions on the topic of my
research. This helped me a lot and enlightened my insights.

61
Appendix 5d:
Participant report 4 (Summer, junior high school teacher)
How can I engage all my students in group work?
I teach in the Affiliated Foreign Language Middle School of Xinzhou Teachers University, which is located at the
foot of Mount Wutai. My students are aged from 12 to 15 and I teach 2 classes of students in Grade 8.

What problems I had

There are about 50 students in each class. Usually, they are divided into 8–12 groups with 4–6 in each, but these
students are in different levels in English learning. So sometimes some of them are reluctant to participate in
group work to cooperate with other group members to finish their group work tasks. As a result, my problem is
that how I can make all my students engage in group work.

What I did first

In order for me to understand better what was happening to my students, I decided to start by exploring the
reasons behind their lack of engagement in group work. First, I asked 3 questions to myself.
What is my understanding of group work?
Why do I think group work is useful?
How do I design groupwork?
Meanwhile, I made a questionnaire to 10 colleagues in different subjects in Chinese to ask them 20 questions to
know what their understanding of group work is, how they designed group work in class, what problems they
faced and how they dealt with these problems. Also, I made a questionnaire to a class with 46 students and
asked them 12 questions. The first 5 questions asked in what kind of activity they can contribute. The activities
consisted of the activity of reading, the activity of grammar, the activity of compositions and the activity of
listening, in which teachers use group work to organize teaching more frequently. The other 7 questions as
follows are the factors that influenced the participation.

Questions about factors that influence the participation agree indifferent disagree
6.Group-work helps me to be positive and improves my
learning initiative 41 4 1

7.The type of the group-work organization affect my degree

17 5 24
of participation
8.The topic affect the degree of my participation 22 3 21
9.Who are the group members affects the degree of my
19 3 25
participation
10.The difficulty level affects the degree of my participation 18 8 20
11.My own internal problems such as the physical condition,
characters, the mood that day etc. that affect the degree of 20 5 21
my participation
12.Previous knowledge affects the degree of my participation 38 2 6

62
What I found
According to the analysis of students’ and teachers’ responses to the questionnaires, I found that both teachers
and students are familiar with group work and like group work most among all the teaching organizational forms,
because they think if the group work is designed reasonably, it can help students to be more positive and also
improves their learning initiative. However, there is a common problem that sometimes students do have trouble
in engaging the discussion although they are really eager to engage in. Besides, I found that it is much more
difficult for students to engage themselves in the discussion about grammar. What’s more, not knowing well
about previous knowledge limits students’ participation.

What I did next

As a result, I designed a group work in which I guided students to cooperate with group members to summarize
some key aspects of Simple Past Tense and put it in use after reviewing that of Simple Present Tense.

First, I gave each group a sheet on which they could see the key aspects of Simple Present Tense and a short
passage My Day that put the tense in use.
Then, we together reviewed the meaning, structure and time of Simple Present Tense and appreciated the
passage to check whether the three aspects are put in use correctly.
Next, students worked in groups and summarized the key aspects of Simple Past Tense and showed what they
have found one by one.
After that, they finished a short passage My Day Yesterday individually to put the key aspects they summarized in
use.
Finally, they appreciated each of their work in groups. They took turns to charge the correct use of each aspect
of the tense when appreciating.
During the group work, I noticed every group member engaged in the discussion to cooperate to finish the task.
Each of them contributed something and managed the target knowledge in this class.

What I learned
From the experience, I learned how to help my students improve the ability to engage in group work. It means if
group work activities are suitable for students in different levels, they will be confident to express themselves and
to cooperate with others better. Also, as a teacher, I learned what I can do to help students cooperate with each
other efficiently. On the one hand, when creating a group work, I should list sub-tasks under the main topic for
students in different levels. On the other hand, I should make sure students managed enough previous knowl-
edge before the target group work.

My reflections
It is the first time for me to do research and presentation. Through the whole process, I become more confident
to do more research and share my ideas with other teachers. More importantly, I develop my ability to deal with
classroom challenges by working with students. In other words, when I meet problems in class in the future, I can
not only ask the experts for help, but also be able to find out the answers by myself.

63
Appendix 5e:
Participant report 5 (Rachel, junior high school teacher)
My story of working with disruptive students
My name is Qiu Liangjie, in my story of working with disruptive students, I’ll first give a brief introduction of the
context, then talk about the problem I faced, what I did for it, what I did next, what I will do in my future teaching
and what I gained from this project, and finally, I’ll give thanks to my dear mentors and colleagues in this project.

My English name is Rachel. I was born, am living and working here in Shaoguan, a beautiful mountainous city in
the northmost part of Guangdong Province in China. I am now an English teacher for the 7th graders in Guang-
dong Beijiang Experimental School, a private school with about 3000 students aged from 12 to 18.

My students are from different primary schools in Shaoguan. They are enrolled by computer allocation. Some of
them are good at English while some are very weak English learners. They are very active and energetic kids at
the age of 12 and 13. Their learning habits and classroom behavior need to be taught and regulated by the joint
effort of all teachers in our daily teaching and learning process.

I teach 10 classes in Grade 7 this term and there are 50 students in each class. I meet them once a week to have
Oral English lessons with them. In my opinion, oral English lessons are relaxing and interesting for students, and
students will like them and work well with the teachers. However, to my surprise and disappointment, I find that
students are really disruptive in class and I have to stop several times during the lesson to discipline them. But
then, they would be noisy again soon.

So I asked myself, 'Why are my students so disruptive in class? How can I make them less disruptive? How can I
work with these disruptive students?'

At first, I thought that was because my lessons were not interesting enough to engage all of the students or most
of the students. To solve this problem, I should work harder to improve my own teaching skills and look for more
ways to get students involved in class like adding more interesting elements like songs and games in my teach-
ing, so that students would be able to focus on the lesson and be less disruptive in it.

So in this project, I asked my mentor, 'My students are disruptive in class. How can I improve my teaching?' My
mentor stared at me online, looking quite puzzled. 'Rachel, is your puzzle why your students are disruptive or is
your puzzle how to improve teaching?' He asked. I thought they were effect and cause: If I can improve my
teaching, then, my students will be concentrated on the lesson and the disruptive problem will be solved. But
then I learned that they were not cause and effect, instead, they were two totally different questions! I put them
together as cause and effect just because of my own assumption! My puzzle is in fact: Why are my students
disruptive in class?

What were my students’ ideas about this puzzle? What problems were they facing? How could I help them? I’ve
got no idea! Then I chose one of the most disruptive classes, Class 12 to do research on. I walked into the
classroom and tried to listen to my students’ idea and work with them. I told them that they were disruptive in
class, this terribly affected our teaching and learning in class and I wanted to know why they were so disruptive in
class so that we could work together to solve this problem, create a better learning environment, communicate
better and help them learn better.

I wanted my students to help me to better understand them and this problem. I honestly and sincerely invited
them to write down their answers to these three questions: 1) Why are you disruptive in class? 2) Why do you
think your classmates are disruptive in class? 3) Give me some suggestions to solve this problem. I asked them to
honestly share their ideas with me, with no names on their notes.

64
I got 49 pieces of notes from the 50 students. Then I put their answers together and tried to analyse them. I
found they talked about 4 main reasons for the disruptive problem and gave suggestions to me and their class-
mates.

To my surprise, for the reasons, only one student mentioned that the teacher is not strict enough. Only 4
students mentioned that the lesson is boring. This was shocking for me because it was quite different from my
assumption!

Most students mentioned reasons about themselves, especially this one: they talked in class and made noise
because they wanted to solve some problems immediately, for example, when they were not sure about the
answers to the teacher’s questions.

As for the suggestions students gave me, I tried some of them in my class. For example, I named the students
who were disruptive in class, after class, I talked with the students that were disruptive in class and asked them to
write a review. For some students, it worked! But for some other students, it didn’t work very well. I also tried this
suggestion: When students are disruptive, teachers don’t talk, let students talk. It didn’t work well in my class
either because students could feel that I was angry at that time and stopped to let them talk. So they would stop
talking too. But then, when I went on teaching, they would be noisy again.

What do my students talk about in class? When do they often make noise? They make noise when there is
something funny in my PPT [PowerPoint]? Who are the noise makers? I wanted to know more about it, so I
invited my colleagues to help observe my class. It was a pity that they were so busy that nobody was able to
come to my class.

Then I invited the whole class to have our oral English lesson in the recording classroom in our school. It’s a
classroom with cameras all around and the whole class can be recorded. It’s usually used for Open Lessons. I
wanted to record the whole class so as to observe it by myself and see if I can find the answers to my questions.

I didn’t tell my students the reason why we were in the recording room to have a lesson that day, which I planned
to do after I got some data from it, because I would like them to behave as they normally did in their own class-
room and I was afraid that if I told them I wanted observe how they were disruptive in class, they would behave
differently. However, it seemed that my students had already known it was a special classroom and their behavior
and performance would be recorded. They behaved excellently during the whole lesson! Nobody was disruptive
in it. For some of the students who wanted to make noise, their classmates reminded them and stopped them at
once. Then the whole class went on so smoothly that I finally got a little disappointed because I couldn’t get
much data about the disruptive problem!

With the help and encouragement from my mentors, I became happy again! I felt happy for my students because
they could be quiet, really quiet in class! When they knew they are observed, they would behave much better.
This gives me new ideas about my future teaching: walk around the classroom more often, have eye-contact with
my students, making them realize that they are observed closely by the teacher in their normal classroom too,
distribute questions around the classroom, appoint students who might be distracted.

I have shared this whole story with my students too and listened to them for further reflection and action plans in
order to better improve the teaching and learning in our class. Even though my students are still disruptive, they
are quiet sometimes, and throughout the whole project, I have gained closer relationship with them and better
mutual understanding with them.

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Then, I got to know myself better through this project. Firstly and most shockingly, I learned that I had wrong
assumptions about my teaching! I had never realized that or thought about that! Usually, when I met a teaching
problem, I would think the reason should be like this, then I took actions to solve it. If it worked, it was okay. If it
didn’t work, I would think out another solution and jump into action again. I seldom stopped and thought about it,
asked myself questions, asked my students questions and listened to my students. As our mentors reminded us,
students are the learners, they are the most reliable people to answer our questions! And they learn best in their
own ways! So, ask questions, listen to our students and work with them! Understand the puzzle fully, then, look for
ways to help students. Be critical and reflective! During the project, I learned a lot from our webinars, lectures,
videos and files, at first, I was so ambitious that I wanted to try most of the ways to help solve my puzzle, for
example, colleagues’ observation of the class, students’ focus group, questionnaires, etc. However, I met a lot of
difficulties trying them out, then I realized I am limited and couldn’t do so many things at a time.

As for doing a research, it may not totally solve the problem we’re facing, but it definitely provides great opportu-
nities for us to know ourselves and our students better.

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the British Council and our dear
mentors Dr. Harry Kuchah and Dr. Ronggan Zhang. I have been deeply impressed by our mentors’ professional-
ism, their dedication to the whole project, their inspiring teaching and comments and their support to all of us.
Thank you, our dear mentors, thank you, our dear colleagues in this project!

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© British Council 2024

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