Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States (Studies in Mathematical Thinking and Learning Series) - Tapa blanda

Chinese students typically outperform U.S. students on international comparisons of mathematics competency. Paradoxically, Chinese teachers receive far less education than U.S. teachers--11 to 12 years of schooling versus 16 to 18 years of schooling.

Studies of U.S. teacher knowledge often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. But, they give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by recent reforms in mathematics education.
This book describes the nature and development of the "profound understanding of fundamental mathematics" that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such teaching knowledge is much more common in China than the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts.
The studies described in this book suggest that Chinese teachers begin their teaching careers with a better understanding of elementary mathematics than that of most U.S. elementary teachers. Their understanding of the mathematics they teach and--equally important--of the ways that elementary mathematics can be presented to students, continues to grow throughout their professional lives.
Teaching conditions in the United States, unlike those in China, militate against the development of elementary teachers' mathematical knowledge and its organization for teaching. The concluding chapter of the book suggests changes in teacher preparation, teacher support, and mathematics education research that might allow teachers in the United States to attain profound understanding of fundamental mathematics.

International studies of mathematics achievement find that students in some Asian countries, such as Japan and China, consistently outperform their counterparts in the United States. Researchers have described various factors that contribute to this "learning gap" (such as differences in cultural contexts, school organization, amount of time spent learning mathematics, content of mathematics curricula), but have not looked in much depth at the issue of teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge. Could there be a parallel gap in teacher knowledge? If so, how does this affect mathematics teaching and learning? Liping Ma reports in this book on her study of the differences between Chinese and US teachers' knowledge of mathematics for teaching. She explores how Chinese teachers' understanding of mathematics and its teaching contributes to their student's success, documents some of the factors that support the growth of Chinese teachers' mathematical knowledge, and proposes that it seems difficult, if not impossible, for elementary teachers in the United States to develop a deep understanding of the mathematics they teach. In a series of case studies of teachers' knowledge, Ma interviewed elementary mathematics teachers in the US and China about the way they would handle various mathematics topics. She found that US teachers may seem to "know" more about mathematics (they may have taken more courses, and have some understanding of more advanced concepts), but their understanding of the mathematics they teach is, in fact, much more shallow. On the other hand, Chinese teachers have a much deeper understanding of both the mathematics and the relevant pedagogy for teaching it. This, Ma's study suggests, is what lies at the core of the Chinese teachers' competence, and perhaps at the root of the Chinese students' superior performance on international comparison studies. Given the release of the Third International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS), this book speaks to the debates over issues raised by TIMSS. It illuminates cross-cultural comparisons - and may well shift the debate on "what counts" as good teaching.