Understanding Teachers’ Experiences of Participation in an Institution-Led Teaching and Learning Change Programme in a Chinese Private University

This research addresses the development of strategies to enable institution-wide pedagogical change in the Chinese private higher education sector. Conducted at a private university in a major Chinese city, this research explored teachers’ experiences of participation in an institution-led teaching and learning change programme aimed at enhancing its undergraduate education by encouraging teachers’ uptake of a university-guided innovation. The research employed a qualitative-dominant mixed methods design and Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) theory was used as its theoretical lens. The initial qualitative strand involved semi-structured interviews with 11 participants. Existing data from teachers’ reflective commentaries, carried out as part of their programme participation, was also reviewed. Key findings from this strand revealed that career progression, monetary reward and surrounding environment are critical drivers to teachers’ decisions to adopt the university-guided innovation. In addition, the teachers’ implementation process underwent three developmental stages: initial exploration, critical reflection and continuous adoption. In the follow-up quantitative strand, a questionnaire grounded in the perspectives of programme participants was developed and distributed to all participants to survey their experiences of participation on a larger scale. A total of 120 participants completed the questionnaire. A synthesis of the qualitative and quantitative strands revealed that teachers assigned more weight to career progression and monetary reward than other extrinsic influences in their decisions to adopt the guided innovation. In addition, the provision of monetary reward and teachers’ vision of rank promotion mitigated the barriers in their implementation process and encouraged them to continue the adoption of the guided innovation. Moreover, a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation inspired participants to adapt the guided innovation to enhance student learning. This research concludes that a reward and recognition career pathway is the critical catalyst for jump-starting academics’ uptake of pedagogical innovations and fuelling their continuous adoption and refinement of these innovations. The research contributes to the practice of institution-wide pedagogical change by offering three key insights. Firstly, sustainable rewards from institutions are critical to enable institutional change in teaching and learning over time. Secondly, extrinsic rewards for teaching activities should be linked to performance to prevent undermining academics’ intrinsic motivation. Lastly, a balanced approach between institutional oversight and academic autonomy is necessary to support the effective implementation of university-guided innovations. This mixed methods research adds to the work on the diffusion of pedagogical innovations and its findings could be used to guide institution-led teaching and learning initiatives in the Chinese private higher education sector.