The rapidly changing twenty-first-century educational environment is full of daunting challenges. Education is becoming ever more difficult as schools need to prepare their students for newly emerging challenges, new technologies and unpredictable problems. Many countries are seeking to establish effective learning cultures as a priority. However, teacher learning is generally more difficult to facilitate than student learning. This study examined the effectiveness of the open-class teaching approach in nurturing a new twenty-first-century learning culture among teachers. The framework of the open-class approach was adapted to the local pre-service teacher education programme in Macao. Two case studies of open-class mathematics teaching practices in Macao were conducted using reflective discussions of the lessons, videotapes of the open-classes, interviews with the respective teachers and the reflective journals of the pre-service teachers. The aim of the study was to identity the optimum open-class model to incorporate into Macao's teacher preparation programme and to address the central issue of the unity of theory and practice in pre-service teacher education, which represents a significant policy and research gap.