A CASE STUDY OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CHINESE KIND

Authors: Bi Ying Hu Sarah Quebec Fuentes Chun Yan Wang Feiwei Ye

Publish Date: 2013/07/16

Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Pages: 193-217

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Abstract

In 2001 the Chinese Ministry of Education issued Guidelines for Preschool Education GPE trial version to call on early childhood practitioners to use a childcentered and playbased approach to teaching and learning The guidelines also include mathematics within the science domain and described its standards in a way that significantly lessens the teacher’s role as knowledge disseminator Instead the guidelines encourage mathematics learning and teaching through play selfdiscovery and problem solving This qualitative case study examined one kindergarten teacher’s implementation of and associated challenges in delivering mathematics lessons from a newly developed integrated provincial curriculum PC and the quality of instruction as influenced by using a curriculum that is organized around thematic units The analysis of the curriculum ten videotaped lessons two teacher interviews and other supporting documents such as student work and teacher lesson plans indicated that the teacher encountered difficulties implementing the PC as intended due to a number of factors including inadequate curricular resources incoherency of the curriculum design and a mismatch between the mathematics standards and curriculum goals and the teacher’s instructional style and teaching philosophy As a result the quality of mathematics instruction was poor especially in the areas of 1 using effective teaching strategies 2 providing clear and accurate instruction with a positive attitude 3 engaging students in sustained interactions with mathematical ideas and 4 offering ongoing assessment and feedback To close recommendations for curriculum refinement and professional development are provided

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