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Cultural Studies of Science Education

, Volume 13, Issue 3, pp 671–686 | Cite as

A cross-cultural comparison of biology lessons between China and Germany: a video study

  • Ning Liu
  • Birgit Jana Neuhaus
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Given the globalization of science education and the different cultures between China and Germany, we tried to compare and explain the differences on teacher questions and real life instances in biology lessons between the two countries from a culture-related perspective. 22 biology teachers from China and 21 biology teachers from Germany participated in this study. Each teacher was videotaped for one lesson on the unit blood and circulatory system. Before the teaching unit, students’ prior knowledge was tested with a pretest. After the teaching unit, students’ content knowledge was tested with a posttest. The aim of the knowledge tests here was for the better selection of the four samples for qualitative comparison in the two countries. The quantitative analysis showed that more lower-order teacher questions and more real life instances that were introduced after learning relevant concepts were in Chinese lessons than in German lessons. There were no significant differences in the frequency of higher-order questions or real life instances that were introduced before learning concepts. Qualitative analysis showed that both German teachers guided students to analyze the reasoning process of Landsteiner experiment, but nor Chinese teachers did that. The findings reflected the subtle influence of culture on classroom teaching. Relatively, Chinese biology teachers focused more on learning content and the application of the content in real life; German biology teachers emphasized more on invoking students’ reasoning and divergent thinking.

Keywords

Cross-culture Biology lessons Video study 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by China Scholarship Council.

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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Biology EducationUniversity of MunichMunichGermany

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