Abstract
The purpose of this cross-national study is to understand teachers’ views about the meaning of instructional coherence and the ways to achieve instructional coherence. With respect to the meaning of instructional coherence, whereas the majority of U.S. teachers paid attention to connections between teaching activities, lessons, or topics, the majority of Chinese teachers emphasized the interconnected nature of mathematical knowledge beyond the teaching flow. U.S. teachers expressed their views about ways to achieve instructional coherence through managing a complete lesson structure. In contrast, Chinese teachers emphasized pre-design of teaching sequences, transitional language and questioning based on the study of textbooks and students beforehand. Moreover, they emphasized addressing student thinking and dealing with emerging events in order to achieve “real” coherence. The findings of the study contribute to our understanding about the meaning of instructional coherence and ways to achieve instructional coherence in different cultural contexts.
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Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was supported by grants from the Spencer Foundation. Any opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Spencer Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge the valuable assistance of Taffy McAneny for collecting U.S. data and Jian Liu for collecting Chinese data. Special thanks go to Luis Radford, Stephen Hwang, Wee Tiong Seah, and several anonymous reviewers who made valuable suggestions concerning an earlier version of this manuscript, thereby contributing to its improvement. Of course, any errors remain solely the authors’ responsibility.
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Cai, J., Ding, M. & Wang, T. How do exemplary Chinese and U.S. mathematics teachers view instructional coherence?. Educ Stud Math 85, 265–280 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9513-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9513-3