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Rebuilding the Concept of Teacher: Error-Sharing Teachers
ZHOU Zhifa, ZHAO Hui, JIN Ling, DAI Weifen
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DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2025.12.001
Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China； Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
Integrating the Confucian perspective on error with the modern scientific “trial-and-error” approach, this study proposes the concept of “Error-sharing Teachers”. This framework encourages teachers to systematically identify domain-specific misconceptions and intentionally share their own pedagogical trial-and-error experiences, thereby transforming private failures into dynamic curricular resources. Consequently, a teacher’s professional authority no longer rests on infallibility, but on an expert understanding of the epistemic pathways of error and the demonstrated ability to guide learners through error-tolerant inquiry. The study redefines the pedagogical relationship, presenting education as a guided, collaborative trial-and-error process built on mutual empowerment, thereby facilitating a meaningful epistemic integration of traditional cultural insights with contemporary educational paradigms.
Confucian, trial and error, sharing errors teacher, Chinese pedagogy
ZHOU Zhifa, ZHAO Hui, JIN Ling, DAI Weifen. (2025). Rebuilding the Concept of Teacher: Error-Sharing Teachers. US-China Education Review A, December 2025, Vol. 15, No. 12, 821-829.
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