Master Mathematics Teachers in Chinese primary schools

Seminar given on 7 May 2024 at the Southampton Education School

1. Master mathematics teachers: What do Chinese primary schools look like? Southampton Education School 7 May 2024 Christian Bokhove https://go.soton.ac.uk/g0w

2. Background Interest in international comparison Caricatures of East Asian classrooms Prior work by Miao and Reynolds The first outline of the MasterMT project - 2018 https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/effectiveness-of-mathematics-teaching-the-truth-about-china-and-england

3. Prof Christian Bokhove Southampton Education School University of Southampton United Kingdom Dr Zhenzhen Miao Jiangxi Normal University China Prof David Reynolds Swansea University Hangzhou Normal University United Kingdom, China In our latest work Dr Charalambos Charalambous joined us.

4. I will present for around 50 minutes, leaving plenty of time for comments, questions and discussion. The project is incredibly rich, so I am going to cover many points, loosely following the structure of the book, but hope to wrap up with a focussed message.

5. Why this MasterMT project? Expert teachers are better at implementing curriculum and cultivating various learning outcomes than non-expert teachers, as indicated by research conducted in the US (Berliner, 2001; Bond, Smith, Baker, & Hattie, 2000; Leinhardt , 1989); For decades, master mathematics teachers have been playing a leading role in curricular reforms and in their peers' PD in China (Cravens & Wang, 2017; Fan et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2021); Existing studies on master mathematics teachers in China, albeit shedding meaningful light, have been of small scale and mostly qualitative in nature (see Miao, Bokhove, Reynolds, & Charalambous, 2022); It is largely unknown, at a large scale, how well master teachers teach, and their students learn in various domains of mathematics and what makes them master teachers in the first place.

6. Timetable for fifth graders in Ms Q’s class

7. Percentages whole-class and student work

8. The MasterMT project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hVYQHaxOE Green=student Yellow=teacher We try to look at the phenomenon from as many sides as possible.

9. Who were involved? 70 Master teachers and their pupils in cities or socioeconomically equivalent cities from five Chinese provinces/municipalities: Anhui, Beijing, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Tianjin. 3,178 pupils in Grades 2-6. Tianjin Beijing

10. Mathematics teaching Structured observation using three instruments, the OTL (Opportunity to Learn), the ISTOF (International System for Teacher Observation and Feedback) and the MQI (Mathematical Quality of Instruction) ; Student-perceived teaching engagement collected as part of the student questionnaire; Teacher self-comments on the observed lesson and maths teaching in general during the post-lesson interview; Teachers’ teaching beliefs collected through the teacher questionnaire; Teacher’s and colleagues’ comments on the lessons delivered during the teaching research meetings/conferences; Our unstructured observation of the lessons as researchers; In-depth case study of a master teacher’s teaching over 40 school days.

11. Observations

12. Learning #1 Affective learning outcomes as measured with the TIMSS 2015 items; TIMSS 2015 background questionnaire for Grade 4 ( IEA, 2014 ), with reuse permission approved by the IEA (#IEA-19–008). School belonging Engagement Attitudes towards mathematics Metacognitive learning outcomes as measured with the Jr MAI questionnaire; 18-items (Sperling et al., 2002) Two scales ‘knowledge of cognition’ (9 items) and ‘regulation of cognition’ (9 items).

13. Learning #2 Cognitive learning outcomes in mathematics as measured with the test; Rational number sense and proportional reasoning Decimals , Fractions and Ratio and Proportion tests Based on historical CSMS project in England (Hart et al., 1981; 1985) Multicategories of learning-in-action captured by our lesson observations.

14. Teaching-learning mechanisms Multilevel modelling of teaching effects on three types of learning outcomes; Multilevel structural equation modelling of the direct and indirect effects of teaching on learning; Teacher beliefs on what works and how teaching works on learning (interview); The interaction of teaching and learning during the teaching research sessions and teachers’ individual and collective interpretation of teaching and learning just observed; Our unstructured observation of interaction between teaching and learning. In addition, analyses of PD-trajectories and PD-in-action data

15. It would be impossible to report on all of these. So, we report on a few aspects and then formulate some overall conclusions.

16. Key features of masterly teaching #1 Key features of masterly teaching emerge in in-depth observations and interpretations of all lessons. These key features include, but are not limited to: Modelling the way for a shared discourse; Multiple representations for one mathematical fact;

17. Multiple representations of fraction addition created by students

18. Key features of masterly teaching #2 Key features of masterly teaching emerge in in-depth observations and interpretations of all lessons. These key features include, but are not limited to: Not moving on until the class have reasoned in-depth the very essence of the task/topic; Variation as scaffolds for fundamental understanding,

19. Variation Developing the concept of the height of a triangle through variation.

20. Key features of masterly teaching #3 Key features of masterly teaching emerge in in-depth observations and interpretations of all lessons. These key features include, but are not limited to: Lessons built on a variety of student contribution in an optimal sequence;

21. Student contributions

22. Key features of masterly teaching Key features of masterly teaching emerge in in-depth observations and interpretations of all lessons. These key features include, but are not limited to: Constant abstracting and generalising ; Key structure of mathematics as the core of each lesson; Teacher gradually unfolding the essence of knowledge on the board; and more…

23. Outcomes Affective outcomes: A general pattern is that the students from master mathematics teachers’ classrooms give quite high ratings about school belonging, teaching engagement and the enjoyment of mathematics learning. Metacognitive outcomes: Our findings indicate that in general the master mathematics teachers’ students demonstrate quite good performance in metacognition (MC), having good knowledge (KC) and regulation (RC) of their own cognition during the process of mathematics learning. Achievement outcomes: Grade 6 >> 5, generally better than English counterparts (although historical figures). Age, gender and SES significantly affect cognitive outcomes.

24. Master mind Eight common themes emerge amidst teachers’ reflections upon the specific lessons they just delivered and mathematics teaching and learning in a broader sense. The themes include: Teachers as living synthesised textbooks; Scaffolding the learning process; Demonstrating a connected open system of knowledge and knowledge about knowledge; Cultivating thorough understanding amongst students; Facilitating transition from hands-on to heads-on, from manipulation to mathematisation ; Aiming for deeper and higher-order thinking and reasoning; Teaching towards ‘learning to learn’ with good habits; Cultivating positive attitudes towards mathematics and peers.

25. Growing into master teachers #1 Professional development! Polishing lessons for public demonstrations and competitions Learning from and with peers in Teaching Research Group and Professional Development events Reading, reflecting, writing and publishing Learning from expert teachers and renowned master teachers

26. Teacher delivering a demonstration lesson on the stage with a class of unknown students

27. With the shared value comes the collective sense that together the profession will grow as every member of it is putting their best effort in teaching . It takes a strong team to polish a public or teaching research lesson. First, a team consisting of experienced teaching research officials and master teachers prepares a demonstration lesson carefully and revises it probably at least 10–20 times before reaching the final version. Then, the lessons by different teachers are sent to the reviewing committee who will select the best collection of lessons that will be shown to the public – by public they mean everyone in the maths teaching profession and education. The scope of public reach can be the wider society, since anyone who has access to the Internet can access and see the livestream or playback at a preferred location.

28. Growing into master teachers #2 Support from peers, school leaders and teaching research officials Studying the curriculum and textbooks in depth with great attention to lesson planning Researching as practitioners: a different kind of research Keep practising, keep changing Leading the way as a way of continuing learning and growing Master Teacher Studios: a cross-school professional learning community

29. Overall conclusions ‘Masterly mathematics teaching’ is a whole-class approach with interaction, modelling, and peer review. Master mathematics teachers have strong knowledge and beliefs. Master mathematics teachers pay attention to cognitive, metacognitive and affective learning outcomes in their students. They can be developed concurrently – false dilemma. Master mathematics teachers grow collectively and practice independently in their teaching – professional development. Master mathematics teachers develop professionally by seeing development as a shared value that teaching is a public activity – professional development. Master mathematics teachers keep reflecting, keep writing, keep improving.

30. https://mastermt.org/ This website will be expanded and include accessible summaries of the book.

31. Thank you Q & A Prof Christian Bokhove [email protected] Dr Zhenzhen Miao [email protected] Prof David Reynolds