Academically oriented teacher preparation, which prioritises subject matter knowledge for teaching, is still widely practised in Confucian societies. Few studies, however, have investigated the impact of this academic model on teaching practices in Confucian contexts. Drawing on interviews and classroom observations of six Chinese mathematics teachers, this study identifies the affordances and limitations of a typical academically oriented teacher preparation in today's China. Although this helped the sampled teachers establish their initial self-efficacy for teaching it limited the teachers' awareness of and their capacity for engaging "all" students to learn. The paper argues that academically oriented teacher preparation programmes in Confucian societies may need to reform their curricula so as to help their graduates advance both "excellence" and "equity" in education through their teaching.