Preferred teaching styles and modes of thinking among university students in mainland China

Abstract

The present study had three purposes. The first was to further explore the psychometric properties of the Preferred Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory [Zhang, L. F. (2003). The preferred thinking styles in teaching inventory. Unpublished test. The University of Hong Kong: Hong Kong]. The second was to test the hypothesis that the preferred teaching styles of mainland Chinese university students in the present investigation are similar to those of students in Hong Kong and the United States in previous studies. The final and most important purpose was to examine the incremental validity of modes of thinking beyond students' self-rated abilities in predicting students' preferred teaching styles. Two hundred and fifty-six (109 male and 147 female) university students from Beijing, the People's Republic of China, participated in the research. After the reliability and validity of the Preferred Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory were ascertained, the following findings were obtained. First, like university students in Hong Kong and the United States in previous studies, mainland Chinese students in the present study also expressed a strong like for teaching styles that are creativity-generating and that allow collaborative work. Similarly, they indicated a strong dislike for teaching styles that are norm-conforming, that require multi-tasking but without communicating a sense of priority, and that restrict students to working individually, without collaboration with others. Going beyond the previous studies, the present study found that an integrative mode of thinking positively contributed to students' preference for teaching styles that are creativity-generating and that encourage group work, but negatively contributed to students' preference for teaching styles that are norm-favoring and that discourage collaborative work. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to teaching that accommodates diverse thinking styles and teaching that generates creative thinking. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.