Chinese Teachers’ Perceptions on Perceived Teacher Support and Student Engagement

Abstract

Chinese Teachers’ Perceptions on Perceived Teacher Support and Student Engagement

                          Shu Zhan¹, Kannamah Mottan¹, Chen Haowei¹, Pang Yao²

Abstract

In recent years, with the increasing demand for technically skilled personnel in China, the government has introduced numerous policies to propel higher vocational education towards high-quality development. Student engagement is widely regarded as one of the core indicators for assessing educational quality. Within the student learning environment, teacher support is a key external factor whose influence on student engagement has been extensively studied. A significant body of research has confirmed a positive correlation between perceived teacher support and student engagement. Thus, improving students' perception of teacher support and engagement levels is an effective strategy to promote improving educational quality in higher vocational education. Although existing studies have explored the positive influence of perceived teacher support on student engagement from the perspective of the Chinese educational environment, these studies have primarily relied on quantitative data collection from the students' viewpoint, and qualitative research focusing on teachers in higher vocational colleges remains relatively limited. This study explores teachers' perceptions in Chinese higher vocational colleges on improving student engagement and perceived teacher support. The subjects included four teachers from different disciplines at a public higher vocational college in Zhengzhou, China. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted via Tencent Meeting, and the interview data were analyzed thematically. The findings indicate that most teachers recognize the positive influence of perceived teacher support on student engagement and improve students' perception of teacher support through various means, such as establishing good teacher-student relationships, optimizing classroom teaching, and providing effective feedback. Based on their teaching experiences and the characteristics of vocational education, the teachers proposed a series of measures to promote student engagement. Overall, the teachers strive to provide various forms of student-centered support and offer many suggestions for improving student engagement from diverse perspectives. These findings are significant for improving the engagement levels of higher vocational students, particularly for advancing research on the quality of higher vocational education. However, this study has limitations due to the small sample size and the data collection method. Future research should expand the sample size and utilize diverse data collection methods to further validate these findings.

Keywords: Perceived Teacher Support; Student Engagement; Higher Vocational College Teachers