How Chinese Teach Mathematics and Improve Teaching builds upon existing studies to examine mathematics classroom instruction in China. It combines contributions from Chinese scholars with commentary from key Western scholars to offer a truly systematic examination of some important and distinctive features of mathematics classroom instruction. Viewing classroom instruction as part of teachers' instructional practices, this book goes beyond teachers' in-classroom instructional practice by also examining Chinese teachers' approaches and practices in developing and improving teaching. Through this unique approach, How Chinese Teach Mathematics and Improve Teaching expands and unpacks the otherwise fragmented knowledge about Chinese practices in developing and carrying out mathematics classroom instruction.
While the importance of knowledge for effective instruction has long been acknowledged, and the concept and structure of mathematics knowledge for teaching are far from being new, the process of such knowledge acquisition and improvement remains underexplored empirically and theoretically. The difficulty can well associate with the fact that different education systems embody different values for what mathematics teachers need to learn and how they can be assisted to develop their knowledge. To improve this situation with needed consideration about a system context and policies, How Chinese Acquire and Improve Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching takes a unique approach to present new research that views knowledge acquisition and improvement as part of teachers’ life-long professional learning process in China. The book includes such chapters that can help readers to make possible connections of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching in China with educational policies and program structures for mathematics teacher education in that system context. How Chinese Acquire and Improve Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching brings invaluable inspirations and insights to mathematics educators and teacher educators who wish to help teachers improve their knowledge, and to researchers who study this important topic beyond a static knowledge conception.
The book has been written by an international group of very activeresearchers and scholars who have a passion for the study of Chinesemathematics education. It aims to provide readers with a comprehensiveand updated picture of the teaching and learning of mathematicsinvolving Chinese students from various perspectives, including theways in which Chinese students learn mathematics in classrooms, schools and homes, the influence of the cultural and socialenvironment on Chinese students'' mathematics learning, and thestrengths and weaknesses of the ways in which Chinese learnmathematics
This unique book represents another concerted research effort concerning Chinese mathematics education, with contributions from the world's leading scholars and most active researchers. The book presents the latest original research work with a particular focus on the 'teaching' side of Chinese mathematics education to a wide international audience. There are mainly three sections in the book. The first section introduces readers to a historical and contemporary perspective, respectively, on traditional mathematical teaching in ancient China and on how modern Chinese mathematics teachers teach and pursue their pre-service training and in-service professional development. The second section presents studies investigating a wide range of issues at both the macro- and micro-levels on how Chinese mathematics teachers teach mathematics. The third section focuses on Chinese mathematics teachers, investigating issues about their knowledge, belief, teacher training and professional development. Like its predecessor, How Chinese Learn Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders, this book is a must for educational researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers who are interested in knowing more about mathematics teaching, teachers, teacher education and professional development concerning Chinese teachers and learners.
Studies of teachers in the U.S. often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. Yet, these studies give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by recent reforms in mathematics education. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics describes the nature and development of the knowledge that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such knowledge seems more common in China than in the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts. The anniversary edition of this bestselling volume includes the original studies that compare U.S and Chinese elementary school teachers’ mathematical understanding and offers a powerful framework for grasping the mathematical content necessary to understand and develop the thinking of school children. Highlighting notable changes in the field and the author’s work, this new edition includes an updated preface, introduction, and key journal articles that frame and contextualize this seminal work.
China’s rise, an increasing emphasis on international education benchmarking, and a global recognition of East Asian countries’ success in this regard have brought the issue of Chinese education to the forefront of public consciousness. In particular, the concept of a “Chinese education model” is one that has sparked debate and quickly become a major focus of education research around the world, especially in light of regional achievements vis-à-vis university rankings, bibliometric indices, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and other such benchmarks. Chinese Education Models in a Global Age tackles this controversial issue head on by synthesizing a diversity of analyses from a world-class team of twenty-seven authors. It reveals that Chinese education models, which are present in many different geographic and institutional contexts, have an important influence on social and institutional norms as well as individual belief systems and behaviors in China and beyond. The first of its kind, this edited volume establishes a foundation for future research while providing a nuanced and tightly integrated compilation of differing perspectives on the role and impact of Chinese education models worldwide. It is essential reading for all scholars, policymakers, students, parents, and educators interested in the rising demographic and economic influence of people of Chinese descent on education around the world.
This book reflects on the continuing development of teacher noticing through an exploration of the latest research. The authors and editors seek to clarify the construct of teacher noticing and its related branches and respond to challenges brought forth in earlier research. The authors also investigate teacher noticing in multiple contexts and frameworks, including mathematics, science, international venues, and various age groups.
This book brings together and builds on the current research efforts on adaptation, conceptualization, and theorization of Lesson Study (LS). It synthesizes and illustrates major perspectives for theorizing LS and enriches the conceptualization of LS by interpreting the activity as it is used in Japan and China from historical and cultural perspectives. Presenting the practices and theories of LS with practicing teachers and prospective teachers in more than 10 countries, it enables the reader to take a comparative perspective. Finally, the book presents and discusses studies on key aspects of LS such as lesson planning, post-lesson discussion, guiding theories, connection between research and practice, and upscaling. Lesson Study, which has originated in Asia as a powerful effective professional development model, has spread globally. Although the positive effects of lesson study on teacher learning, student learning, and curriculum reforms have been widely documented, conceptualization of and research on LS have just begun to emerge. This book, including 38 chapters contributed by 90 scholars from 21 countries, presents a truly international collaboration on research on and adaptation of LS, and significantly advances the development of knowledge about this process. Chapter 15: "How Variance and Invariance Can Inform Teachers’ Enactment of Mathematics Lessons" of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com Theory and Practice of Lesson Study in Mathematics: An International Perspective shows that the power of Lesson Study to transform the role of teachers in classroom research cannot be explained by a simple replication model. Here we see Lesson Study being successful internationally when its key principles and practices are taken seriously and are adapted to meet local issues and challenges. (Max Stephens, Senior research fellow at The University of Melbourne) It works. Instruction improves, learning improves. Wide scale? Enduring? Deep impact? Lesson study has it. When something works as well as lesson study does, while alternative systems for improving instruction fail, or only succeed on small scale or evaporate as quickly as they show promise, it is time to understand how and why lesson study works. This volume brings the research on lesson study together from around the world. Here is what we already know and here is the way forward for research and practice informed by research. It is time to wake up and pay attention to what has worked so well, on wide scale for so long. (Phil Dara, A leading author of the Common Core State Standards of Mathematics in the U.S.)
This second edition of the International Handbook of Mathematics Teacher Education builds on and extends the topics/ideas in the first edition while maintaining the themes for each of the volumes. Collectively, the authors looked back beyond and within the last 10 years to establish the state-of-the-art and continuing and new trends in mathematics teacher and mathematics teacher educator education, and looked forward regarding possible avenues for teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and policy makers to consider to enhance and/or further investigate mathematics teacher and teacher educator learning and practice, in particular. The volume editors provide introductions to each volume that highlight the subthemes used to group related chapters, which offer meaningful lenses to see important connections within and across chapters. Readers can also use these subthemes to make connections across the four volumes, which, although presented separately, include topics that have relevance across them since they are all situated in the common focus regarding mathematics teachers. Volume 1, Knowledge, Beliefs, and Identity in Mathematics Teaching and Teaching Development, edited by Despina Potari and Olive Chapman, examines teacher knowledge, beliefs, identity, practice and relationships among them. These important aspects of mathematics teacher education continue to be the focus of extensive research and policy debate globally. Thus, as the first volume in the series, it appropriately addresses central topics/issues that provide an excellent beginning to engage in the field of mathematics education through the handbook. Contributors are: Jill Adler, Mike Askew, Maria Bartolini Bussi, Anne Bennison, Kim Beswick, Olive Chapman, Charalambos Charalambus, Helen Chick, Marta Civil, Sandra Crespo, Sean Delaney, Silvia Funghi, Merrilyn Goos, Roberta Hunter, Barbara Jaworski, Kim Koh, Esther S. Levenson, Yeping Li, Niamh O’ Meara, JoengSuk Pang, Randolph Phillipp, Despina Potari, Craig Pournara, Stephen Quirke, Alessandro Ramploud, Tim Rowland, John (Zig) Siegfried, Naiqing Song, Konstantinos Stouraitis, Eva Thanheiser, Collen Vale, Hamsa Venkat, and Huirong Zhang.
Research in mathematics teacher education as a distinctive field of inquiry has grown substantially over the past 10-15 years. Within this field there is emerging interest in how mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) themselves learn and develop. Until recently there were few published studies on this topic, and the processes by which mathematics teacher educators learn, and the forms of knowledge they require for effective practice, had not been systematically investigated. However, researchers in mathematics education are now beginning to investigate the development of MTE expertise and associated issues. This volume draws on the latest research and thinking in this area is therefore timely to stimulate future development and directions. It will survey the emerging field of inquiry in mathematics education, combining the work of established scholars with perspectives of newcomers to the field, with the aim of influencing development of the field, invite cross-cultural comparisons in becoming a mathematics teacher educator by highlighting issues in the development of MTEs in different countries, and examine the roles of both mathematics educators and mathematicians in preparing future teachers of mathematics. The primary audience will be university-based mathematics teacher educators and MTE researchers, and postgraduate research students who are seeking academic careers as MTEs. Additional interest may come from teacher educators in disciplines other than mathematics, and education policy makers responsible for accreditation and quality control of initial teacher education programs.
