US and Chinese Teachers Conceptions and Constru

Authors: Jinfa Cai Tao Wang

Publish Date: 2005/12/28

Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 145-186

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Abstract

This study examines US and Chinese teachers constructing knowing and evaluating representations to teach the concept of ratio All Chinese lesson plans are very similar with details in teaching contents and procedure The US lesson plans are extremely varied although they all adopted the ‘outline and worksheet’ format Both the Chinese and the US teachers relied on concrete representations in introducing the concept of ratio but they have very different thinking in selecting and presenting the concrete representations as well as in the functions of the representations The US teachers are much more likely than Chinese teachers to predict drawing and guessandcheck strategies Chinese teachers are much more likely than US teachers to predict algebraic approaches For the responses using conventional strategies both the US and Chinese teachers gave them high and almost identical scores If a response involved a drawing or an estimate of an answer the Chinese teachers usually gave a relatively lower score than US teachers This study contributes to our understanding about US and Chinese teachers beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning

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