Due to rapid social and economic development in China over the last three decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly available in Chinese classrooms and families. However, there is a lack of research regarding Chinese students’ use of ICTs in mathematics learning. In this study, we examined how Chinese students access, use, and perceive ICTs in learning mathematics. To this end, a conceptual framework for ICTs and the role of ICTs in students’ learning of mathematics was established. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from 223 students in four randomly selected secondary schools in Shanghai through a questionnaire survey, followed by classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers. The results revealed that various ICTs are widely accessible in Shanghai classrooms and students overall have a positive view about the role of ICTs in their mathematics learning, especially in problem solving and in learning geometry. When learning mathematics at home, students used handheld technological devices more frequently than non-portable devices. Furthermore, there were significant differences between different students in terms of school performance levels, grade levels, and genders in their use of ICTs in learning mathematics. In particular, students from high-performing schools had more access to various ICTs but used them less frequently than their peers from ordinary schools. Suggestions and implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the paper.

In this paper we report on a survey study of teachers’ perceptions of how mathematics textbooks, including broadly student books, teacher manuals, and exercise books, facilitate or hinder teachers’ teaching in Shanghai educational settings. For the study we established a conceptual framework about teachers’ teaching, partly drawing on Shulman’s model of pedagogical reasoning and action of teachers. The data were collected from a stratified random sample of 133 mathematics teachers in 13 secondary schools through a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews with 24 of them. The results revealed the following: the textbooks were highly regarded and used by the Shanghai mathematics teachers as facilitators rather than barriers for their teaching and instructional change, and the facilitation was most evident in the process of transformation and comprehension, and least evident in evaluation in teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and action; compared with student books and exercise books, teacher manuals played a larger facilitating role in teachers’ teaching; and finally, compared with teacher characteristics, school characteristics had a greater influence on the extent to which textbooks played a role of facilitation or hindrance for teachers’ instructional practice. Implications and suggestions are given at the end of the paper. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11858-021-01306-6.

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Professional development (PD) for mathematics teachers in China, especially in Shanghai, has received growing international attention. However, most of available research concerning Chinese PD has focused on successful practices, and far too little attention has been paid to less successfully organized PD practices, particularly for mathematics teachers in Shanghai. This study aims to examine key aspects and underlying reasons for less successfully organized PD practices in Shanghai from teachers’ perspectives. The data were collected from 132 mathematics teachers in 9 randomly selected secondary schools in Shanghai through a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. The results show that Shanghai mathematics teachers perceived “time, duration and frequency”, “assessment and management” and “objective” as the three most unsatisfactory aspects in less successfully organized PD they attended, and they considered that organized PD practices were less successful mainly due to lack of assessment for the PD organizers and of necessary coordination between PD organizers at different levels. In addition, there were statistically significant differences in teachers’ perceptions of various specific problems in different aspects about less successfully organized PD between teachers with different demographic features, such as length of teaching experience and gender. Implications of the findings of the study to Chinese educational settings and beyond are discussed at the end of the paper.

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