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Learning from the Eastern and the Western Debate—The Case of Mathematics Teacher Education

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International Perspectives on Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs and Opportunities to Learn

Part of the book series: Advances in Mathematics Education ((AME))

Abstract

Comparative studies have gained significant influence in the last decades, and school systems of many countries have been revised referring to better results of other countries in international large-scale assessments. Authors of such studies commonly link their interpretations of the results to distinctions between “Eastern” and “Western” cultures, in particular with respect to the consistent and continuing outstanding performance of East Asian learners compared with their Western counterparts. One question is whether the same achievement pattern holds for future teachers and whether similar cultural difference may cause it. IEA’s “Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics” (TEDS-M) was the first comparative study that focused on the outcomes of teacher education with standardised testing. In this paper—based on the TEDS-M results—commonalities and differences in the achievement of future teachers from Eastern and Western countries are explored and related to a cultural perspective. Cultural differences between Eastern and Western approaches concerning mathematics, mathematics education and mathematics teachers are analysed with respect to the achievement pattern. The paper closes with reflections on possible consequences concerning the development of teachers’ knowledge and teachers’ expertise in mathematics education.

Reprinted version of a paper published in ZDM—The International Journal of Mathematics Education, 2013, 45(1), 7–19.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Gabriele Kaiser

  2. Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Sigrid Blömeke

Authors
  1. Gabriele Kaiser
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  2. Sigrid Blömeke
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Correspondence to Gabriele Kaiser .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Syst. Didaktik & Unterrichtsforschung, Berlin, Germany

    Sigrid Blömeke

  2. National Taiwan Normal University Department of Mathematics, Taipei, T´ai-pei, Taiwan

    Feng-Jui Hsieh

  3. Inst. Didaktik der Mathematik, Universität Hamburg FB Erziehungswissenschaft, Hamburg, Germany

    Gabriele Kaiser

  4. Michigan State University College of Education, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    William H. Schmidt

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Kaiser, G., Blömeke, S. (2014). Learning from the Eastern and the Western Debate—The Case of Mathematics Teacher Education. In: Blömeke, S., Hsieh, FJ., Kaiser, G., Schmidt, W. (eds) International Perspectives on Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs and Opportunities to Learn. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6437-8_24

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