The effectiveness of mathematics teaching: a cross-national investigation in primary schools in England and China

Abstract

This study focuses on the effectiveness of mathematics teaching to children aged 9-10 years, applies a mixture of six methods to classroom-level data collected in England and China, correlates observable teacher behaviours with pupil mathematics performance and collects multiple perceptions that indirectly connect with the differences of teaching and learning cross-nationally. It has been found in the study that 9-to 10-year-olds (n = 343) from China outscored their English peers (n = 236) at the same age by over 20 per cent in each of two mathematics tests derived from TIMSS 2003. Structured analysis of lesson videos has revealed that Chinese mathematics teachers scored much higher than their English colleagues on an internationally validated observation instrument which focused on the quality of six dimensions of teacher behaviours. Furthermore, the quantity of teacher behaviours was also measured and the subsequent correlational analysis on pooled data indicated a positive effect of whole-class interactive teaching (r = 0.97, p < 0.01) and pupil time on task (r = 0.95, p < 0.01) and a negative impact of whole-class lecture (r = -0.91, p < 0.01), individual/group work (r=-0.81, p < 0.05) and classroom management (r = -0.77, p < 0.05) on pupils’ mathematics performance cross-nationally. Qualitative findings are connected with quantitative results to explain how teachers think, how this relates to the way they teach and how the differences of teaching result in the performance gap cross-nationally. The study replicated previous TER findings from the West across two geographically and culturally different countries, suggested possible directions for future enquiries, and recommended potential ways for practice and policy innovations.

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