NEWSLETTER

Book Reviews
to represent number in primary school and exemplary
lessons under the curriculum reform.
It is impossible to review all the chapters, hence information
will only be given about one of the chapters:
Achieving Coherence in the Mathematics Classroom:
Toward a Framework for Examining Instructional Coherence
(by Wang Tao, Cai Jinfa and Hwang Stephen).
The chapter has three Chinese authors who live in the
West. Hence, they combine the knowledge of Chinese
culture and Western traditions of educational research.
The abstract reads:
Coherence has been identified as an important factor
in fostering students’ learning of mathematics. In this
chapter, by applying classroom discourse theories,
we propose a framework for examining instructional
coherence through a fine-grained analysis of a video-taped
lesson from China. The lesson was chosen
because it has been recognized as a model lesson for
instructional coherence. Based on a careful analysis
of instructional coherence on multiple levels of classroom
discourse, we explored discourse strategies the
teacher used to achieve instructional coherence in the
classroom, as well as the features of classroom instruction
in China. (p. 111)
The lesson is about circles in the 6th grade. One can imagine
that this lesson is the outcome of a cycle of “preparing,
observing, reflecting and commenting” within a
mathematics teaching research group (see above). Actually,
coherence is a typical feature of a mathematics
lesson in China. Having observed several cases of lessons
in China, I have noticed that nothing happens by
chance and that a careful design has been prepared. The
chapter reports carefully about the global coherence of
the overall narrative of the lesson, the episodic coherence
of small episodes and the local coherence, about
individual sentences or utterances and the sense given
by the participants. The structure of a mathematics lesson
in China is fixed: reviewing, teaching new content,
student practice and assigning homework. Although
Western observers may by critical about this fixed structure
which may leave no space for improvisation (and
creativity), it cannot be doubted that Chinese students
perform better than Western students in international
comparisons (e.g. PISA or TIMSS).
The third and last part of the volume focuses on
Chinese mathematics teachers, teacher education and
teacher professional development. In this part, some
studies are reported about teachers’ beliefs and professional
development.
As above, the offering is very rich and it is not possible
to review all the chapters. In this case, the selection
is: What Makes a Master Teacher? A Study of Thirty-One
Mathematics Master Teachers in Chinese Mainland (by
Fan Linghuo, Zhu Yuan and Tang Caibin). A master
teacher is typical of the Chinese instruction system (and
of other Far East systems like in Japan and Singapore).
‘Master teacher’ as an honorary title has been used
to recognize teachers’ outstanding performance in the
Chinese mainland since 1978 when the system was initiated.
This title does not belong to the official career
rank system for teachers, which was not established
until the mid-1980s. (p. 493)
Now, three levels characterise the official career rank
system: “second grade” (or junior grade), “first grade”
(or middle grade) and “senior grade” (or higher grade).
Master teachers are regarded as models for other teachers.
They are believed to have a systematic understanding
of mathematics, know how to integrate mathematics
education theories and psychology into classroom
teaching, pay attention to mathematics as a culture and
be able to analyse textbooks with deep understanding.
The figure of master teacher is important in the Chinese
school, as the number of studies (in Chinese) mentioned
in this chapter shows. The main study reported
in this chapter aims to investigate the reasons behind
the success of mathematics master teachers in their acclaimed
teaching career on the Chinese mainland. The
study investigates the master teachers’ beliefs in analysing
their own professional success. From the interview
of 31 mathematics master teachers (mostly from
primary school), dedication to education, inner quality
and true professional care toward students appear to be
the three most important factors. Reflection (like that
carried out in the open classes mentioned above) was
considered the most important pathway for teachers to
seek professional development, while various formal
training and short-term training was considered to be
less effective. This result is consistent with the second
chapter reviewed above.
Finally, in the epilogue of the volume: ‘Why the Interest
in the Chinese Learner?’, the volume editors summarise
the motives for publishing the two twin books How
Chinese Learn Mathematics and How Chinese Teach
Mathematics? to meet the public’s interest in the big
success of Chinese mathematics education in international
assessments. In their opinion, these books serve
at least the following purposes:
(1) Letting the researchers on Chinese mathematics
education discuss their own views, experiences
and interested issues in mathematics education.
(2) Telling the world the ‘Chinese story’ and responding
to their queries.
(3) Having Chinese and non-Chinese, who also have
interest and passion in Chinese mathematics education,
join hands to discuss issues in mathematics
education worldwide. (p. 706)
I belong to the last group as a non-Chinese scholar with
an interest and passion in Chinese mathematics education.
My personal interaction with Chinese mathematics
education, either in personal visits or in reading reports
like the ones of this volume, has convinced me that I
have better understood my system by looking at the different
choices made in the Chinese system. Following
Jullien, a famous French philosopher and Sinologue, we
EMS Newsletter December 2015 69