How Chinese Teachers Teach Mathematics and Pursue Professional Development: Perspectives from Contemporary International Research

Fan, Lianghuo; Miao, Zhenzhen; Mok, Ida Ah Chee

doi:10.1142/9789814415828_0002

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…4. Help students notice and use mathematical structures (NCTM, 2020) by organizing the tasks so there are visible patterns (Fan et al, 2015). Noticing how a previous problem is similar to another one can help to figure out the new one.…”

Section: Teaching Emphasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reasons for Rapid Growth in Addition Strategy Use in 1st Grade Students

Čakāne,

Cirulis,

France

2023

To Be or Not to Be a Great Educator

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Today’s quickly evolving world requires citizens to use the tools of mathematics to make informed decisions. This involves understanding the meaning and properties of mathematical operations and the ability to use them in an intuitive and flexible manner to solve problems. Working with mathematical operations begins in early primary school and establishes a basis for future work in mathematics. Choosing the best addition strategy to compute effectively and accurately and the ability to explain their work is often challenging for young children. They often rely on familiar and safe solutions without thinking about why they chose a certain method. The purpose of this research was to gain understanding of the factors that influence students’ fluency with addition, their ability to explain their work and along with that gain flexibility and confidence in mathematics. This is action research, that involves 16 first grade students, all of whom were struggling with math at the beginning of the school year, but some of them made great gains in their ability to solve mathematics problems involving addition. The students with high performance improved in their ability to explain their actions verbally and use multiple strategies and choose appropriate and effective strategies for each task. The aim of this research is to understand the reasons for the rapid improvement of the high performance subjects and compare it to the lower performing groups in order to help improve understanding of number operations for all students. The research involves observations and written work over a school year, and individual interviews with the students. Data about the home environment was collected from parents. The research shows that a tendency for rapid progress is due to active participation in guided class discussions and use of advanced strategies for routine tasks.

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Section: Teaching Emphasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reasons for Rapid Growth in Addition Strategy Use in 1st Grade Students

Čakāne,

Cirulis,

France

2023

To Be or Not to Be a Great Educator

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“…Concerning mathematics teachers' professional development, researchers have generally agreed that China has established a unique, hierarchal and institutionalized PD system for in-service teachers, in which Teaching Research Groups (TRGs) at the school level and Teaching Research Offices (TROs) within the government education bureaus at the county, district, city and provincial levels play a crucial role (e.g., Fan et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2017). The mathematics TRG is in a sense similar to the "Department of Mathematics" in many other countries, though the TRGs in China focus more on the classroom teaching, e.g., organizing teachers for activities such as preparing lessons together, observing each other's lessons, reflecting and commenting on observations collectively, whereas the TROs are responsible for guiding teaching research activities, overseeing teaching quality, and providing consultation and PD programs for teachers (e.g., Fan et al, 2015).…”

Section: Abstract Chinese Mathematics Education • Mathematics Teacher...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Teachers’ perceptions of less successfully organized professional development practices in mathematics: A study of nine secondary schools in Shanghai, China

Fan

Xie

Luo

et al. 2023

J Math Teacher Educ

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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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“…Спираючись на запропоновані методи, відповідно формуються і вимоги до сучасного уроку математики, які мають виконуватись, незалежно від обраного профілю навчання. До основних вимог можна віднести самостіи ну роботу, роль вчителя -це організатор, а не інформатор [2]. Так само важливою вимогою є рефлексія після кожного проведеного уроку, суть рефлексіı̈ полягає в тому, що учні повинні навчитися аналізувати свою діяльність чи діяльність своıх однокласників, природно з подальшими висновками.…”

Section: методичні особливості організації профільного навчання з мат...unclassified

Methodological features of the organization of professional training in mathematics in institutions of general secondary education

Zhernovnykova,

Nelin,

Shtonda

et al. 2022

The Scientific Notes of the Pedagogical Department

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Today, one of the most pressing socio-pedagogical problems is the preparation of senior schoolchildren for life and professional self-determination. At the same time, specialized training is of particular importance for high school students. One of the main subjects of specialized training is mathematics. The selection of optimal methods of its teaching is of particular importance in the study of mathematics at the profile level, since each of the profiles provided for in the profile education has its own substantive features. The problem is that the majority of educational institutions do not take into account the nuances of students’ learning of various profiles of mathematical material. The purpose of the article is to characterize methodological features in the organization of specialized training in mathematics in institutions of general secondary education. Materials and methods. Among the research methods used, the following were decisive: analysis and generalization of scientific and methodical sources for the theoretical justification of the highlighted problem, modeling, synthesis of the obtained data. Results of the research. Characterization of methodological features in the organization of specialized mathematics education in general secondary education institutions involves highlighting the following main points of the organization of mathematics education in classes of various profiles: teaching mathematics in classes with in-depth study of individual subjects should be based on a system-activity approach and meet the requirements of state educational standards; for students of the humanitarian profile when studying mathematics, visualization is of great importance, according to which it is necessary to use visual and graphic representations in lessons , as well as reference signals and various historical materials that allow students to be interested in mathematics. In addition, it is permissible for students of humanitarian profiles to use auxiliary materials when studying complex topics, since memorizing these materials by heart has no practical value for them, but is only an unnecessary waste of time. The main task of the teacher when compiling the content of the program for the humanitarian profile is to reduce unnecessary information for the students of this profile and free up time for a more thorough study of the information they But this reduction must be reasonable; in the classes of socio-economic and natural profiles, on the contrary, it is necessary to expand the curriculum by including a practical part on percentage calculations, progression, analysis of functions and elements of combinatorics. For these classes, a practical understanding of the importance of educational material is of great importance, which also involves project activities and the use of computer technologies in the study of mathematics. It is necessary to form an understanding of the universality of mathematical methods among students of the socio-economic profile, and the use of modeling among students of the natural profile, since this makes it possible to apply mathematical methods in the process of studying chemistry, physics, ; for technological profiles, the use of modeling is especially important, as it helps not only to study individual sections of mathematics, but also provides an opportunity to develop a creative beginning in the personality of The teaching of mathematics in classes of a technological profile must also be accompanied by the organization of project and research activities of students, since these projects, among other things, will allow students to have an idea of computer programs that are used in modern practice. In general, the content of work programs in mathematics at each level of primary school is based on the standard curriculum and the textbook corresponding to it. The content of this curriculum varies depending on the profile of the class. These changes relate to the amount of hours devoted to the study of one or another topic of the main sections of mathematics, which is manifested, in its turn, in providing students with a smaller or, on the contrary, a larger amount of information. According to the standards, mathematics is studied in classes of the humanitarian profile, in which a standard number of hours are allocated to this subject, and the subject is studied at a superficial level in order to meet the minimum requirements of the educational standard. In the classes of socio-economic and natural sciences, the curriculum is expanded: the number of hours increases and, accordingly, the content of the studied topics expands, which allows students to get the information they need according to their profile. Even more hours are devoted to the study of mathematics in classes of a technological profile, which involves obtaining knowledge of the specified educational subject at an even higher level. At the same time, the teaching of mathematics in classes of humanitarian and technological profiles is aimed at obtaining subject results directly related to mathematical knowledge and skills, while in classes of socio-economic and natural profiles these results are primarily related to the ability to work with information. It should be emphasized that the content of the textbook for classes of diﬀerent profiles does not change and the expansion of the information received by students is achieved by including additional didactic materials. Conclusions. On the basis of the specified features and gaps in the educational programs, methodological recommendations were made for teaching mathematics in the classes of the humanitarian profile, socio-economic and natural profiles, and technological profiles.

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How Chinese Teachers Teach Mathematics and Pursue Professional Development: Perspectives from Contemporary International Research

Cited by 10 publications

References 37 publications

Reasons for Rapid Growth in Addition Strategy Use in 1st Grade Students

Reasons for Rapid Growth in Addition Strategy Use in 1st Grade Students

Teachers’ perceptions of less successfully organized professional development practices in mathematics: A study of nine secondary schools in Shanghai, China

Methodological features of the organization of professional training in mathematics in institutions of general secondary education

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