Betty Lau, Chang, Tang / PISMP SN Jan 2011 / MTE 3109 ISL M6 (Book reviewed by Roger Howe)

Ma, L. P. (1999). Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Ch. 1 4

Present the results of interviews from US (23) & China (72) teachers: 1. How would you teach subtraction of 2 digit no when borrowing or regrouping is needed? 2. In a multiplication problem such as 123 X 456, how would you explain what is wrong to a student who performs the calculation as follow? 3. Compute 1 / . Then make up a story problem which models this computation provides the answer. 4. Suppose you have been studying perimeter and area and a student comes to you excited by a new theory: area increases with perimeter. As justif ication, the student provides the example of a 4 X 4 square changing to a 4 X 8 rectangle, perimeter increases from 16 to 24, while area increases from 16 to 32. How would you respond to this student? Analysis of Results: - For 1 and 2. all teachers could perform the calculation and explain how to do them. - For 1, <20% US teachers had a conceptual grasp of the regrouping process, while 86% China teachers understand and can explain this procedure. -For 2, >90% China teachers showed a firm grasp of the place value consideration that prescribe the alignment procedure, compare to US teacher (40%). -For 3, all China teachers did all the calculation correctly compare to US teachers (over half), and 90% of them could make up a correct story problem compare to US teachers (1/23). - For 4, most US teachers could state the formulae for area and perimeter of rectangles, but cannot analyze the mathematics. For China teachers, 70% arrives at correct understanding. Rough conclusion about the analysis of results: 1. The Chinese teachers responded more or less as one would hope that a mathematics teachers would, while the US teachers revealed disturbing deficiencies. 2. Chinese teachers were comfortable with the algebra that is implicitly involve in performing arithmetic with standard decimal notation, while no such awareness of the algebraic backbone of arithmetic was shown by the US teachers. 3. Chinese teachers have a much better grasp of the mathematics they teach than do US teachers. 4. Ma judging her group of US teachers to be above average. 5. There is no serious conflict between procedural knowledge and conceptual knowledge: Chinese teachers seem to be able to develop both to their students.

Ch. 5 6

PUFM (Profound Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics): - The combination of training, recruitment, and job conditions that prevails in China helps produce a level of teaching excellence called PUFM. - Education involves 2 fundamental ingredients: subject matters and students. PUFM involves subject matter expertise and how to communicate that subject matter to students. - A teacher with PUFM is aware of the simple but powerful basic ideas of mathematics and tends to revisits and reinforce them. He or she has a fundamental understanding of the whole elementary mathematics curriculum, thus is ready to exploit an opportunity to review concepts that students have previously studies or to lay the groundwork for a concept to be studied later (P. 124).

Continue to page 2

Betty Lau, Chang, Tang / PISMP SN Jan 2011 / MTE 3109 ISL M6 (Book reviewed by Roger Howe)
Continue from page 1

Ch. 7

Educational policies in the US might promote the development of a teaching corps in which PUFM were: 1. The manpower considerations which favor mathematicians specialists beginning in the early grades are much strong in the US than in China. 2. The difference in technological level also makes the need for coherent mathematics education greater in the US than in China. 3. Having time for study and collegial interaction is an important factor in developing PUFM. 4. New professional development programs, both pre-service and in-service, that focus sharply on fostering deep understanding of elementary mathematics in the teaching context need to be created on a large scale. Teachers in elementary level, middle level, & secondary should not be neglected in the new professional multilayer in scope development programs. 5. The intervention programs should also work to create materials which will help teachers both learn and transmit a coherent view of mathematics.

In summary, KTEM is much deeper, more profound, than almost everyone has thought it to be. It is not superficial at all, and anyone who teaches it has to study it hard in order to understand it in a comprehensive way. Educational policymakers, legislators, departments of education, and school boards need to understand the potential value in creating a corps of elementary grade mathematics specialists who have scheduled time for study and collegial interaction.