Private tutors, as key actors in the rapidly expanding global shadow education sector, construct diverse and dynamic professional identities shaped by cultural, economic, political, and institutional environments. A new review by researchers at Hong Kong Baptist University provides the first systematic synthesis of private tutor identities across diverse cultural contexts.

While the classroom has long been described as the “black box” of education, classroom analysis aims to reveal what truly happens inside it. A new study led by East China Normal University identifies ten key questions at the frontiers of classroom analysis, offering a guideline for future research and practice. This study suggests that defining guiding values, constructing high-quality analytical frameworks, leveraging multimodal data, and ensuring ethical standards are essential to advance classroom research globally.

In an era where student-centered instruction and competency-based learning are gaining traction globally, enhancing teacher capacity remains a pivotal challenge. Recognizing this, a team of Chinese education researchers has turned to framing theory to better understand how collaborative professional development models—particularly lesson study—can drive meaningful shifts in teachers’ instructional practice.

Effective teacher noticing supports teacher learning by enabling reflection of what was noticed, or missed, during teaching. A new study examined two primary school mathematics teachers from China to understand their professional noticing in everyday classroom contexts. The researchers investigated what teachers noticed about students' mathematics learning and how this noticing translated into instructional decisions.