Rethinking the Quiet Classroom: Student Silence as a Design Problem in Chinese University Lectures

Liu Boran1；Tan Lingzhi2；Dong Haiying3*

doi:10.64649/yh.eg.issn3078-4794.20260416

Rethinking the Quiet Classroom: Student Silence as a Design Problem in Chinese University Lectures

期刊: 《Educational Guide》 DOI:10.64649/yh.eg.issn3078-4794.20260416 全文阅读返回期刊

Liu Boran1；Tan Lingzhi2；Dong Haiying3*

1. School of Marxism, Taizhou University, Taizhou Zhejiang 318000, China.；2. Jiaojiang District Education Bureau, Taizhou Zhejiang 318000, China.；3. The Affiliated School of Taizhou University, Taizhou Zhejiang 318000, China.

摘要

Explanations of student silence in Chinese universities usually point to culture: Confucian habits of deference, concern for face, respect for teachers. These factors are real enough, but they have quietly absorbed a problem that belongs to teaching design. This conceptual paper shifts the question from why Chinese students are quiet to what happens in the room when a teacher invites them to speak. Drawing on recent classroom research, it describes three mechanisms that together set the price a student pays for speaking in public: the kind of question asked, the time left after it, and the reception given to the first wrong answer of the term. It then offers four inexpensive adjustments for large lectures, including a structured version of pair discussion built around reporting a neighbour’s answer rather than one’s own. These moves do not depend on heavy investment in platforms or data analytics; most of them begin with a pause the teacher is willing to hold.

关键词

student silence; classroom participation; wait time; questioning; large lectures; Chinese higher education

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