Abstract:
This study examined and compared the intended mathematics curricula according to topic coverage, focus, coherence, and learning progression in grades 1 – 12 within China and the province of Ontario, Canada. The findings show that the overall topics in the two curricula are similar: Chinese curriculum covers 78 topics out of 79 while the Ontario curriculum covers 76. The two curricula also share a similar general sequence such as topics for transfer stages from numbers to functions by starting with constant mathematics, then variable mathematics, and finally functions. However, the detailed topic design of the 2 curricula differs markedly. The Chinese curriculum includes few topics in each year, a short duration or span of each topic, and a fast-paced topic progression. The Ontario curriculum, in contrast, includes more topics each year, longer duration of many topics, and a small pace of topic progression in grades 1 – 8 and a fast pace of topic progression in grades 9 – 12. Because of different curriculum designs in grades 1 – 12, the intended curriculum may influence students’ cognitive structures of mathematics, learning behavior and thinking, learning efficiency and achievement, and teachers’ professional development. This calls for more refined and advanced research on the defined list of topics, topic organization, and terms to study curriculum in order to increase student learning opportunities.
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-018-9915-x
To cite this article:
McDougall, D., & Wang, Z. (2016). Curriculum matters: What we teach and what students gain. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 17, 1129-1149. doi: 10.1007/s10763-018-9915-x
Abstract:
In all societies and civilizations, schools are set up primarily to offer and promote socially valued knowledge, experiences, skills, and attitudes geared toward the sustenance and further enrichment of societal norms and goals. Since schools are charged with this weighty responsibility, harnessed and purposeful school development is essential for the achievement of cherished societal goals. Several intertwining factors such as culture, equity, diversity and multiculturalism, etc., contribute to meaningful school development in every society. In the order of hierarchical importance amongst these factors, culture ranks topmost in the list because it (culture) plays a deep and pervasive role in school learning, and by extension, in societal development and harmony. But what is culture? Hollins (1996, p. 18) succinctly defines culture as "the body of learned beliefs, traditions, and guides for behaviour that are shared among members of any human society". In the realm of mathematics education, the learner's culture has been identified as one of the factors that strongly influence and shape learning and performance. In pursuit of one of the set goals (cultural perspectives) of the Mathematics Research Team of the Canada-China Reciprocal Learning Project, this paper delves into the interactions of culture, the environment, and development/implementation of the mathematics curriculum in the East-West learning environments.
To link to this article: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cie-eci/vol45/iss1/6
To cite this article:
Ezeife, A. N. (2016). Mathematics as a cultural role player in school development: Perspectives from the East and West. Comparative and International Education, 45(1), Article 6. Available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cie-eci/vol45/iss1/6
Abstract:
This article is part of a narrative study of Chinese beginning teacher induction through cross-cultural teacher development, which has been developed and contextualized in the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program between the University of Windsor (UW), Canada and Southwest University (SWU), China. This program is part of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Grant Project, Reciprocal Learning in Teacher Education and School Education between Canada and China. The partnership builds on the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program, and the Shanghai-Toronto-Beijing Sister School Network. In this article, the authors conducted narrative inquiry with two of the SWU participants in the Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program to explore their experience from their cross-cultural learning in Canada to beginning teachers in West China. The findings of the research suggest the need to develop a global and cross-cultural dimension in teacher education and development in West China. It is evident that the cross-cultural experiences in Canada have influenced beginning teachers’ curriculum views, relationship to students, and beliefs about teaching. Their “lived stories” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 6) also indicate that the personal, pedagogical, and social influences of cross-cultural experiences play important roles in beginning teachers’ teaching careers.
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03397080
To cite this article:
Huang, J., & Xu, S. (2015). A narrative inquiry into Chinese teacher induction in West China through cross-cultural teacher development. Frontiers of Education in China, 10(3), 470-492. doi: 10.1007/BF03397080
Abstract:
This chapter focuses on pedagogies of working with diversity centers on West-East reciprocal learning through a Reciprocal Learning Program in preservice teacher education between a Canadian university and a Chinese university. By presenting our initial analysis of fieldwork with our Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program participants through excerpts from newsletters, surveys, and interviews, we explore how participants from both China and Canada made sense of their learning from the other cultural and educational system through the Reciprocal Learning Program within broad educational, social, and cultural contexts. We argue that both global and multicultural dimensions are cultivated in reciprocal learning that infused the lived experiences of both Canadian and Chinese preservice teacher candidates. We discuss the pedagogic implications for working with diversity and believe that reciprocal learning can take place while working with people from different cultures with an attitude of mutual respect and appreciation and an appetite for learning in our increasingly interconnected world.
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-368720150000025006
To cite this document:
Chen, S., Huang, J., & Xu, S. (2015). Pedagogies of working with diversity: West-East reciprocal learning in preservice teacher education. In International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies, Part B, 137-160. doi: 10.1108/S1479-368720150000025006
Abstract:
Narrative inquiry is a rapidly developing social sciences and humanities research methodology. In this paper we provide a brief history of this development, indicate some of the distinguishing features of different lines of narrative inquiry, and describe a practical line of work which explicitly addresses school-based research.
Link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.20.2.06xu
To cite this article:
Connelly, F. M., & Xu, S. (2010). Narrative inquiry for school-based research. Narrative Inquiry. 20, 349-370. doi: 10.1075/ni.20.2.06xu
Abstract:
Teacher education and development takes place within an encompassing local system of education and ongoing forms of school improvement. Critical to successful teacher development when Western ideas are being adopted in other cultures is narratively linking development programmes to this local education system, such as in China, and to its culturally established ways of knowing and being. This paper presents a narrative inquiry approach to teacher development that builds on the existing educational system, ongoing school reforms, and culturally established ways of knowing and being. The paper concludes with the potential of teacher development to shape global values that may be shared among cultures.
Link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.10.006
To cite this article:
Connelly, F. M., & Xu, S. (2009). Narrative inquiry for teacher education and development: Focus on English as a foreign language in China. Teaching and Teacher Education. 25. 219-227. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2008.10.006
Although narrative inquiry has a long intellectual history both in and out of education, it is increasingly used in studies of educational experience. One theory in educational research holds that humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives. Thus, the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world. This general concept is refined into the view that education and educational research is the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories; learners, teachers, and researchers are storytellers and characters in their own and other's stories. In this paper we briefly survey forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies and outline certain criteria, methods, and writing forms, which we describe in terms of beginning the story, living the story, and selecting stories to construct and reconstruct narrative plots. Certain risks, dangers, and abuses possible in narrative studies are discussed. We conclude by describing a two-part research agenda for curriculum and teacher studies flowing from stories of experience and narrative inquiry.
Although narrative inquiry has a long intellectual history both in and out of education, it is increasingly used in studies of educational experience. One theory in educational research holds that humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives. Thus, the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world. This general concept is refined into the view that education and educational research is the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories; learners, teachers, and researchers are storytellers and characters in their own and other's stories. In this paper we briefly survey forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies and outline certain criteria, methods, and writing forms, which we describe in terms of beginning the story, living the story, and selecting stories to construct and reconstruct narrative plots. Certain risks, dangers, and abuses possible in narrative studies are discussed. We conclude by describing a two-part research agenda for curriculum and teacher studies flowing from stories of experience and narrative inquiry.