A Study of Mathematics Classroom Teaching in China: Looking at Lesson Structure, Teaching and Learning Behavior

Abstract

The community, family, and teachers all expected students to get high marks on public ex- aminations. This becomes a powerful external motivating force driving Chinese students to learn with a sharp focus on examination achievement. Additionally, Chinese culture attributes success to effort and failure to lack of effort (Lee, 1996). Students have been influenced by role models of diligent ancient Chinese learners since their early age. These stories do not ad- vocate the talent of those great scholars, but their diligence, which implies that everyone may succeed if they all use every ounce of energy. Within such a cultural atmosphere, Chinese stu- dents can be expected to work hard. BiggsThis chapter reports a video-based analysis that examined lesson structure, teaching behavior, and learning behavior in Chinese mathematics classrooms. In particular, mathematics lesson structure refers to classroom activities and the sequences and procedures by which teachers and students complete them. To analyze teaching behavior, two typical teacher actions were selected: teachers’ heuristic explanations and teacher questioning. Learning behavior included students’ participation, their questioning, and their presentation.