Which Teaching Modalities Are More Effective in Promoting Deep Learning among Junior Secondary School Students

Abstract

Deep learning is a learning approach that is highly advocated in China’s basic education curriculum reform. Based on a survey of 1,277 junior secondary school students from 12 schools in S City, Jiangsu Province, China, this study seeks to explore the effects of teaching modalities on deep learning of students at the junior secondary level. Analysis methods include OLS regression and random forest. The study’s results reveal that inquiry-based teaching has the most significant positive effect on student deep learning, though with gender differences; that differentiated instruction is the most frequently used teaching modality and positively affects student deep learning; that didactic teaching makes the smallest difference to student higher-order learning and integrative learning; and that cooperation-focused teaching positively affects student integrative learning, but its impact on student reflective learning is minimal.