Relations of Instructional Tasks to Teacher–Student Discourse in Mathematics Classrooms of Chinese Primary Schools

Relationship between pre-service mathematics teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and instructional practices in China

“…Such features were not only reflected in the textbooks published in 1952 and in the subsequent revised textbooks, but also significantly influenced the ways mathematics teaching and learning were conducted in Mainland China (Xu 2013). Against this background, even though the mathematics curriculum at primary and secondary school level in Mainland China later experienced several periods of change, a unique feature of Chinese mathematics education practice was gradually shaped, that is, 'two basics', namely, basic mathematics concepts and basic mathematics skills (Ni et al 2014;Zhang et al 2004). A main characteristic of this culture is the emphasis on the acquisition of foundational mathematics knowledge (e.g., mathematical definitions and principles), and problem solving skills other than the development of students' creative thinking (Leung 2001(Leung , 2017.…”

“…Instruction is very much teacher dominated and student involvement minimal" (Leung 2001, p. 35). In addition, students have few opportunities for group work or activities but do routine exercises individually and repeatedly in order to solve problems quickly later (Leung 2001;Ni et al 2014).…”

“…The emphasis on accurate and abstract mathematics in mathematics classrooms and the development of students' problem solving skills under the 'two basics' mathematics education culture on the one hand equipped Chinese students with a solid foundation in mathematics, which helped them perform quite well in international comparative studies. On the other hand, limitations of this culture, such as neglecting the processes of constructing and advancing mathematics knowledge, the connections between different forms of knowledge, and especially the connections between mathematics and students' real lives and its application in these contexts, and students' active role in the learning of mathematics, have been recognized and criticized (Ni et al 2014). Due to limitations of this sort, in 2001, the Chinese government started a new round of mathematics curriculum reform.…”

“…Therefore, under the influence of constructivism, fundamental changes were made to the selection and inclusion of mathematics content, mathematics teaching and learning methods and assessment systems (Ni et al 2014). Significant changes were also made to the description of mathematics itself in the reformed mathematics curriculum standards and its revised version.…”

Large-Scale Studies in Mathematics Education

“…2 , the China project examined the relationships of the cognitive features of instructional tasks (high cognitive demand, multiple representations, and multiple solution-strategies) to teacherstudent classroom discourse on the one hand (Ni, Zhou, Li, & Li, 2014 ) and to students' mathematics achievement gains on the other hand in the Chinese mathematics classrooms (Ni, Zhou, Li, & Li, 2012 ). The results showed that high cognitive demand tasks were associated with teachers' high-order questions, which in turn led…”