Procedure

The questionnaire consists of three parts：an introductory section asking the subjects to provide a certain amount of background information，such as nationality，field of specialization，approximate age，and period of living abroad；30 statements mainly borrowed from Hofstede（1986）in which the respondents are asked to indicate how well the statements apply to teacher-student relationships in China and Sweden，respectively，by using a five-graded scale，where a score 1 means“applies very badly”and a score 5 means“applies very well”；and the comments，one on the questionnaire items and another on teacher-student relationships in China and Sweden in general.

The English versions of the questionnaire with an introductory letter in Chinese in front were distributed to the Chinese students and the same versions with an introductory letter both in English and Chinese were distributed to the Swedish students so as to put the two sides on the equal footing since English is a foreign language to both sides.