IN-PERSON New Schools of Thought

Abstract

Students’ learning varies and is unpredictable, posing challenges for teachers. Adaptive teaching is essential for addressing these issues. It involves teachers having deep knowledge of content, pedagogy, and students, and using this knowledge flexibly to meet different student needs. Adaptive teaching is considered vital for effective teaching and enhances students’ academic and non-academic achievement. However, unresolved issues remain. Most research focuses on teachers’ adaptive behaviours, neglecting how students’ performance stimulates this adaptability. The emphasis has been largely on behaviour dimension, with less attention to the cognitive and emotional dimensions. Additionally, reliance on self-reporting methods has limitations. This study used the adaptability tripartite model and a bottom-up approach, with a multiple-case research design to explore how students’ performance stimulates adaptive teaching, and how teachers adapt behaviour, cognition, and emotion during teaching. Thirteen secondary school teachers working in mainland China were involved in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations, and documents, and analysed using thematic and nexus analysis. The findings showed that changes in students’ academic and psychological states challenged teachers’ competencies, beliefs, workload, and emotional states, stimulating adaptive teaching. Behavioural adaptability included student-centred, examination-centred, and teacher-centred types; cognitive adaptability involved copy, expansion, and innovation types; emotional adaptability included cognitive reappraisal, situation focused, and mixed types. This study enriches the theoretical understanding of adaptive teaching by identifying the stimuli and clarifying its three dimensions. It also offers practical insights for policymakers and educational stakeholders to better support adaptive teaching.