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The 21st Century Mathematics Education in China pp 3–26Cite as

Mathematics Education of Chinese Communities from the Perspective of International Studies of Mathematics Achievement

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Part of the book series: New Frontiers of Educational Research ((NFER))

Abstract

International studies of mathematics achievement have been gaining importance in the past decades in the mathematics education community and have drawn much attention from policy makers around the world. In this chapter, results of some international studies in terms of mathematics achievements, student attitudes and classroom teaching are reviewed in order to gain a better understanding of mathematics education in the Chinese communities. It was found that Chinese students did very well in mathematics as measured by these international studies, however they did not do correspondingly well in terms of the affective outcomes of mathematics education. Superficially, mathematics teaching in the Chinese systems looked very traditional and backward, but a more fine-grained analysis of the data in these international studies of classroom teaching showed that the quality of teaching was high. It is argued that the underlying cultural values of these Chinese communities may be a plausible explanation of these findings. Chinese communities should be proud of their students’ achievement, but there is certainly no scope for complacency.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The full name for China is the People’s Republic of China. There are other Chinese communities or systems outside the Chinese mainland, and they include Hong Kong and Macao (which are Special Administrative Regions of China), and Taiwan (referred to as “Chinese Taipei” in these international studies). In this Chapter, when the Chinese mainland is referred to in contrast to these systems, the term “mainland China” is used. When mainland China and these systems are referred to collectively, the term “Chinese communities” is used. International studies sometimes use the term “countries” to refer to these different communities beyond mainland China, but we know they are referring to these political entities rather than “countries”.

  2. 2.

    Note that Pearson used results of international studies as one substantial indicator of the quality of an education system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Frederick K. S. Leung

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  1. Frederick K. S. Leung
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Correspondence to Frederick K. S. Leung .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Yiming Cao

  2. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Frederick K.S. Leung

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Leung, F.K.S. (2018). Mathematics Education of Chinese Communities from the Perspective of International Studies of Mathematics Achievement. In: Cao, Y., Leung, F. (eds) The 21st Century Mathematics Education in China. New Frontiers of Educational Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55781-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55781-5_1

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