Seven years of learning across borders: how Chinese and Canadian math teachers transformed each other‘s teaching

International educational exchanges often aimed to introduce new ideas and improve teaching practices. Yet when teachers from different countries work together, sharing methods is only part of the process. A study by Shu Xie, Jiaxin Huang, Yunpeng Ma, Douglas McDougall, and Sijia Zhu, from Northeast Normal University and the University of Toronto, published on May 29, 2026, in ECNU Review of Education (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20965311261424886) examines how teachers can learn with and from one another through a mathematics education partnership between China and Canada that ran for seven years. The study offers insights into how sustained collaboration can shape teachers' professional learning.

The partnership was part of the larger Canada–China Reciprocal Learning Project, which brought together universities and schools in both countries. Within the mathematics education initiative, partner schools in Changchun, China, and Toronto, Canada, connected teachers interested in improving their mathematics teaching. The study followed four primary school mathematics teachers involved in two reciprocal partnerships, exploring how their professional learning developed through sustained interaction.

The researchers adopted a qualitative approach, drawing on email exchanges, online meetings, classroom video sharing, school visits, and collaborative discussions over seven years. Their analysis centered on teacher noticing: what teachers pay attention to in classroom situations, how they interpret what they observe, and how those interpretations inform their teaching decisions. 

The findings reveal three stages in the teachers' reciprocal learning journey.

In the first stage, getting to know each other, teachers familiarized themselves with one another's education systems. They discussed school schedules, curriculum structures, classroom management, assessment, and everyday mathematics teaching. Much of the exchange involved sharing information and building a basic understanding of how education worked in each country.

As the partnership developed, the teachers moved into a second stage: critically examining practices through comparison. Sharing classroom videos and gave them a closer look at how mathematics lessons were designed and taught, how students participated, and which instructional strategies teachers used. Rather than discussing education in general terms, they began questioning specific practices and comparing them with their own experiences. Although these comparisons sometimes promoted criticism, they also encouraged teachers to reflect more closely on their assumptions and approaches.

The study found differences in what Chinese and Canadian teachers noticed when observing each other's lessons. Chinese teachers tended to focus on lesson structure, mathematical precision, teaching efficiency, and whether instructional objectives had been achieved. Canadian teachers paid more attention to student engagement, classroom atmosphere, differentiated learning, and opportunities for students to think aloud and discuss their ideas.

The third stage, learning through deeper understanding, emerged as teachers visited each other's schools and experienced their partners' educational environments firsthand. These visits helped them see classroom practices in their broader cultural and institutional contexts. Approaches that had initially seemed unfamiliar or questionable became easier to understand once teachers had a clearer picture of the conditions in which their colleagues worked. Greater contextual understanding helped reduce misunderstandings and foster respect for different approaches to teaching and learning.

Over time, the exchange also began to influence classroom practice. Chinese teachers explored interdisciplinary approaches and incorporated richer real-world contexts into mathematics lessons. Canadian teachers drew on mathematical representations and teaching models they had encountered in Chinese classrooms. Rather than simply borrowing techniques, teachers began adapting ideas to their own settings.

The shift, from observing and comparing to understanding and adapting, lies at the heart of the study's proposed model of cross-cultural reciprocal learning. The researchers describe professional growth as a processes of continually re-examining and reconstructing knowledge. Through repeated interaction, teachers developed a broader understanding of mathematics education across cultures while refining their own teaching practices.

The findings also underscore the importance of treating cultural differences as a resource for professional learning, rather than as obstacles to overcome. Teachers inevitably interpret classroom events through their own experiences and assumptions. Reciprocal learning creates opportunities to make those assumptions visible, question initial judgments, and develop a more nuanced understanding of how teaching and learning take shape in different contexts.

The authors conclude that meaningful international professional development requires more than occasional exchanges or the transfer of teaching methods. It depends on long-term relationships, mutual respect, direct engagement with different educational settings, and opportunities to reflect together. The seven-year partnership shows how sustained collaboration can help teachers move from learning about one another to developing new ideas and practices together.

For international teacher development initiatives, the findings point to the value of building partnerships that allow trust and understanding to grow over time. When teachers have opportunities not only to share what they know but also to question, interpret, and adapt what they learn from one another, cross-cultural exchange can become a process of shared professional growth.