How Chinese teachers teach mathematics and pursue professional development: perspectives from contemporary international research

Fan, Lianghuo, Miao, Zhenzhen and Mok, Ida Ah Chee (2015) How Chinese teachers teach mathematics and pursue professional development: perspectives from contemporary international research. In, Fan, Lianghuo, Wong, Ngai-Ying, Cai, Jinfa and Li, Shiqi (eds.) How Chinese Teach Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders. Singapore, SG. World Scientific, pp. 43-70. (doi:10.1142/8542).

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide readers with a comprehensive review of related literature on how Chinese mathematics teachers pursue pre-service training and in-service professional development, and how they teach in classrooms. The results suggest that China (Mainland) has established a highly unique and unified pre-service mathematics teacher education system; pre-service teachers learned more advanced mathematics courses and showed better motivation toward their training as compared with other countries such as the UK and US. China has also established its unique and well-institutionalized teacher professional development system for in-service teachers, with Teaching Research Groups (TRG) at the school level and Teaching Research Office at different government levels playing a crucial role. About teaching, it was found that Chinese mathematics teachers planned their lessons carefully; they adopted more whole-class teaching strategies, emphasized two basics (basic knowledge and basic skills), teacher-student interaction and students’ engagement academically and the method of teaching with variation, and assigned homework daily for reinforcement as well as assessment of students’ learning. Some issues and suggestions on future research in these areas are raised at the end of the chapter

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