The last decade has witnessed increasing interest in the study of teacher noticing in mathematics education research; however, little is known about the growth of teacher noticing and how it is influenced by teaching practice. Departing from the expert-novice-paradigm, in this paper we address this research gap by a cross-sectional study that…

In China, the "2001 Kindergarten Education Guidelines (Trial)", or "New Outline", delineates what constitutes high-quality, developmentally appropriate practices in all early childhood education curriculum domains, including mathematics. The "New Outline" is known for advocating a child-centered, play-based approach…

Previous research has verified the benefits obtained when learners trace out worked examples with the index finger. Our study conducted two experiments to explore the reasons for this phenomenon and its generalizability. Experiment 1 compared the learning effects among tracing, non-tracing, and cueing methods. The cueing method was included to…

Research on teacher noticing in the field of mathematics education research has increased in the last decade; however, only a few studies have investigated the social and cultural impact on teachers' noticing. This paper describes results of an international comparative study on (in-service) mathematics teachers' professional noticing in China and…

In order to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics teaching expertise, in this study we use the Documentational Approach to Didactics to explore the resource systems of three Chinese mathematics "expert" teachers. Exploiting the Western and Eastern literature we examine the notion of "mathematics teaching expertise", as…

We often hear about how well other countries are performing in international tests such as PISA. In this article, Stephen Norton and Qinqiong Zhang describe a classroom and a tutor session from a Chinese setting. They describe the amount of time spent in class and out of class working on mathematics. Also they explain how learning is highly valued…

This article presents initial findings from an empirical study of the effectiveness of mathematics teaching (EMT). The article explores the teaching of mathematics in two very different contexts: England and China. Within each country, the target cohort of pupils were those aged 9-10 and overall, 19 teachers, 10 from England and nine from China,…

Over the past decade it has been frequently reported that East Asian students are outperforming their Western counterparts in international tests of mathematics at middle-school level. This paper probes classroom discourse in an attempt to shed some light on this phenomenon. Data were collected from a sample of Chinese Year 8 students in a normal…

Using classroom observation and video recording methods, we performed a comparative study on the forms and content of dialogues in the classrooms between expert and novice teachers. Of the 55 lessons surveyed, it was found that expert teachers tend to use analytical and comparative questions more frequently to detect students' mathematical…

This study investigated variation in students' behavioral engagement across mathematics classes in China and the United States. Student behavioral engagement was examined along with two aspects of the classroom (group size and teacher instructions given about classroom behavior). Video observational data were collected and coded over 1051 time…

China and other East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) have consistently outperformed the United States and other Western countries in mathematics achievement. As part of a Fulbright-sponsored trip to China in the Summer of 2002, a New York City public school teacher and a trainer of school psychologists offer their impressions of some…