Learning to be silent: examining Chinese elementary students’ stories about why they do not speak in class

Abstract

Prior research often attributed Chinese students’ classroom silence to their previous schooling experiences, yet rarely provides evidence of exactly how these experiences shaped students into silent learners. Through surveys and in-depth interviews with Chinese 6th graders, our study examined how students ‘learned to be silent’. Guided by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) framework, our analysis showed that students’ non-participating behaviours are driven by intentions consisting of behavioural, normative and control beliefs towards classroom participation, which are generated from their previous schooling experiences. Theoretically, we suggested that: (1) Chinese elementary students’ silence should be treated as a learnt behaviour rather than attributed to culture or habit; (2) similar previous experiences may trigger significantly different intentions in students; (3) different, even contradictory intentions can lead to students’ silence; (4) some significant factors identified in earlier research did not present in our data, suggesting reasons for classroom silence may change over time. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.