What students value in effective mathematics learning: a ‘Third Wave Project’ research study

Riding the Third Wave: Negotiating Teacher and Students’ Value Preferences Relating to Effective Mathematics Lesson

“…The Third Wave Project was a multinational research project coordinated by Seah Wee Tiong from Monash University, Australia (see Seah and Wong 2012 for more details). The project was conducted by 12 research teams in 11 economies.…”

“…These 11 economies included Australia, the Chinese mainland (2 teams from 2 different provinces), Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and USA. Conducted over the years 2009-2011, the project aimed "to investigate the harnessing of relevant values to optimize school mathematics teaching and learning" (Seah and Wong 2012, online first version, no page number). Considering the cognitive dimension as the first wave and the affective dimension as the second wave, the project adopted the value perspective as the third wave dimension for examining effective mathematics teaching and learning.…”

“…Therefore, unpacking what each culture values and considered as important will help to identify the characteristics of effective mathematics teaching that are really suited to that particular cultural context. Second, recognizing that values play a central role in any culture, values (in mathematics education) is thus regarded not as an affective factor, but more a sociocultural product, drawing their form and meaning from discourses, practices and norms of participants and the interaction among themselves (Seah and Wong 2012). Consequently, mathematics classroom is considered an important venue where teachers and students negotiate their values, and where complex interaction and discourse exchanges are being carried out.…”

Good Mathematics Teaching From Mexican High School Students’ Perspective

“…The fact that a limited number of students indicated that not being bored was based on a positive attitude on their part showed us that, for students, the idea that mathematics classes are boring is part of their nature and can only be overcome with a good mathematics teacher's ability to attract their attention. Due to the recent increased interest in investigating values related to mathematics education (Bishop, 2012), to relevant values to optimize school mathematics teaching and learning (Seah & Wong, 2012), and to the nature of mathematics through an individual's experience, it is important that in studies such as this one, which focus on the social representations of good things in the classroom, such as a good student, a good text book, a good explanation, and good learning, such representations may be further researched to ascertain the values that students and teachers have of these representations in the context of the classroom.…”

“…Research that has focused on finding out the views of students and teachers in relation to mathematics classes includes research into how students define "good teaching", a "good teacher", a "good class", a "model class", or "effective teaching" (Kaur, 2008(Kaur, , 2009Li, 2011;Ngai-Ying, 2007;Pang, 2009;Seah & Wong, 2012;Shimizu, 2006Shimizu, , 2009Wilson, Cooney & Stinson, 2005;Perry, 2007;Cai & Wang, 2010;Cai, Kaiser, Perry & Wong, 2009). These research papers have reported differences and similarities in the thoughts of teachers and students from different school levels and countries.…”