Many previous studies have indicated that teachers often hold a blend of conceptions of teaching, combining both teacher-oriented and student-oriented perspectives. This research extends the existing literature by investigating whether these mixed conceptions lead to dissonant combinations, and by examining how teachers perceive and manage these diverse teaching perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a group of Chinese teacher educators at a university. Based on data from 93 participants, the study identified nine strategies employed by participants to integrate teacher-oriented and student-oriented perspectives at both individual component and cross-component levels. It was also found that the use of these strategies enabled participants to construct four distinct combinations of conceptions of teaching, each corresponding to a specific approach to instruction. The research reminds education researchers to exercise caution when adopting a dichotomous perspective for categorising teaching approaches. The findings contribute to instructional design and teacher education by providing a deeper understanding of the relationships between distinct teaching conceptions, and encouraging teachers and teacher educators to explore more effective ways of integrating various teaching perspectives and methods to enhance instructional effectiveness.