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Previous studies have emphasised that play can promote children's learning of mathematics. However, little research has been directed towards understanding how collective imaginary play motivates children's mathematical learning. Informed by the cultural-historical conception of play and motives, this paper examines how Conceptual PlayWorld (CPW) creates conditions for Chinese children's meaningful mathematical learning using the concept of repeating patterns as an example. Video observations of teachers interacting with children (4–5 years) during the CPW implementation (8.54 h), as well as children's interviews (5.75 h), were gathered and analysed. Following the focus child Zeng's motives and intentions but all children's experiences in the CPW, the findings show CPW appears to create mathematical conditions that promote thinking, imagining and play. Zeng's motives for mathematical learning are stimulated by his play motives which are amplified through his active participation and problem-solving in a CPW, and this creates conditions for his personally meaningful learning of mathematics in the Chinese kindergarten context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study looks into how students' perceived teacher support is linked to achievement emotions in mathematics via academic control and value. The data was gathered from 602 secondary students (13-16-year-olds) in 16 mathematics classrooms from three public schools in Jiangsu province, China. Participants were asked to respond to the paper-pencil questionnaire assessing students' perceived teacher support, cognitive appraisals, and achievement emotions in mathematics. Findings showed that cognitive appraisals played complete mediation roles in teacher support and achievement emotions. Intrinsic value and mathematics self-concept were shown to serve a positive role in teacher support and achievement emotions, whereas extrinsic value was found to play a negative one. Besides, teacher support showed the greatest indirect effect on achievement emotions through mathematics self-concept. Lastly, findings indicated the great relevance of teacher support to students' anger, boredom, enjoyment and relaxation in mathematics classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presented in the paper has the following goals. The first is to review and compare teacher competence frameworks developed in Eastern (Chinese) and Western (German) contexts, exemplified for the domain of mathematics. Major similarities of the two contexts could be reconstructed in the conceptualization of teacher competence as a multidimensional construct comprising knowledge, teaching-related skills and beliefs. Distinct differences could be identified as well, with the Chinese frameworks including a wider range of teacher-competence facets and emphasizing more teaching-related competencies than the Western (German) frameworks. The second purpose is to adapt and validate a German framework of the measurement of mathematics teacher competence in a Chinese context. This adaptation and validation uses exemplarily mathematics teacher, in detail follow-up-studies of the international Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics (TEDS-M). With the integration of a qualitative approach (e.g. elemental validity) and a quantitative approach (e.g. construct validity) to validate the framework, the results of both approaches suggest a satisfactory validity for the adaptation. Overall, the results point out that the examined teacher competence framework and its instruments can be used for comparative analyses in Germany and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates differences in the process of mastering the four basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) between Flemish and Chinese children from Grade 3 till Grade 6 (i.e. from 8 to 11 years old). The results showed, firstly, that Chinese students outperformed Flemish students in each grade but that difference in addition, subtraction and division skills between the groups decreased as grade increased. Secondly, the levels of mastery of the four skills varied between Chinese and Flemish students. Multiplication was relatively easier for Chinese students than for their Flemish peers as compared to the other skills (that is, the gap was larger). Third, low achievers experienced comparable learning difficulties in both countries, and higher achievers demonstrated their greater ability early on. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Macao, the VIP gaming revenue accounts for over two thirds of the total gaming revenue. Since the VIP gaming market is highly competitive, several incentives such as rebates are used to attract the VIP players. There are two commonly used rebate systems in the VIP gaming market: rebate on buy-in and rebate on actual loss. The analysis of rebate on buy-in is relatively easy. However, the analysis of rebate on actual loss is more complicated, which involves the Unit Normal Linear Loss Integral. Using empirical data, MacDonald derived a simple approximation formula for computing the rebate rate on actual loss. In this paper, we use mathematical analysis to derive more accurate approximation formulas for computing the rebate rate on actual loss. Some practical examples are given to compare the accuracies of these formulas. We also discuss how these two rebate systems affect the fluctuations of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a biography of Wei Lin. Wei Lin was born on September 7, 1934 in Chao Yong County, Guangdong province, China. He entered the Department of Mathematics at Zhongshan University in 1956. He became an associate professor at Zhongshan University in 1978. He visited the University of Delaware in 1982. He has also authored a number of books and papers related to mathematics.

We report on an action research study conducted by two mathematics teacher educators in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The project consisted of three phases, the first two taking place in our respective teacher education courses and a final phase in which prospective mathematics teachers from both locations engaged in dialogue through a speculative fiction task. Our aim was to explore how our prospective mathematics teachers can be supported in becoming mathematics teachers for sustainable futures by innovating our own mathematics teacher education curricula. This study suggests that generative methods which support teachers in speculating on paths to potential futures as teachers of mathematics, can provide access to how prospective teachers negotiate issues in relation to the climate crisis and ways in which they conceive of related changes in their practices. By identifying the aspects of mathematics teaching that are viewed by the prospective teachers as contingent, and through offering tasks that support an expansion of this view, teacher educators are better placed to support the development of teaching practices needed for sustainable futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planned instruction is an important teaching form in early childhood mathematics education, but some educators are concerned about its developmental appropriateness. The present study was undertaken to address this issue. One hundred and seven American preschool teachers participated in the study: They watched a video-taped math lesson that was conducted in a 4-year-olds' classroom in China and answered video-cued questions in a questionnaire. A mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was used in analyzing the data. Research Findings: Results show that on average, participants rated the quality and developmental appropriateness of the lesson as high. They acknowledged children's active learning, teacher's careful preparation, and use of different learning methods. But, they also identified inadequate elements such as lack of peer interactions and lesson differentiation. Practice or Policy: A relief of American preschool teachers' current beliefs regarding the developmental appropriateness of math lessons provides critical reference for professional preparation/development programs. American preschool teachers' high value of children's active learning in a planned math lesson and their appreciation of teacher's skillful guidance imply an imperative need to promote American preschool teachers' pedagogical knowledge and skills in teaching mathematics to young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between three cognitive features of mathematical instruction tasks (high cognitive demand, multiple representations, and multiple solution methods) and student learning outcomes among 1,779 students from 30 Chinese fifth-grade classrooms using a new mathematics curriculum. Measures of mathematics learning outcomes at two data points over 16 months were analyzed. These included cognitive (calculation, routine problem solving, and complex problem solving) as well as affective outcomes (expressed interest in learning mathematics, classroom participation, views of mathematics, and views of learning mathematics). The student post-assessment was administered 13 months after the assessment of teaching quality on the three task variables. The results indicated that the frequency of mathematical tasks involving multiple representations positively predicted students' improvement in solving complex questions. The frequency of mathematical tasks of high cognitive demand did not predict any of the three cognitive learning outcomes. However, it did positively predict students' indicated interest in learning mathematics, indicated classroom participation, and a dynamic view of learning mathematics. The results highlight the significance of the cognitive demand of instructional tasks—connecting procedural and conceptual aspects of mathematics—in facilitating students' positive relationships with mathematics and mathematics classrooms. The findings provide much-needed normative data of a systematic description that links the three cognitive features of instructional tasks to the specific student learning outcomes in a cultural setting, which is a unique addition to the literature of pedagogy on mathematics instructional tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the impact of cognitive strategy instruction (CSI) on mathematical word problem solving of students with mathematics disabilities. A sample of fourth-grade students in a Chinese primary school was divided into a treatment group (75 students) and a comparison group (75 students). The sample consisted of students with mathematics disabilities only, students with both mathematics and reading disabilities, as well as average- and high-achieving students. Results showed that students at all ability levels (except high-achieving students) in the treatment group outperformed significantly their counterparts in the comparison group; the intervention effect was stronger for students with mathematics disabilities only than for those with both mathematics and reading disabilities. The present study indicates that CSI is a contextually and pedagogically appropriate model that has a strong potential to improve mathematical word problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing interest in and hence a growing number of research studies on content and language integrated learning (CLIL) over the past two decades. One of the on-going debates in CLIL is on bilingualism versus monolingualism, or the role of the first language (L1) in subject teaching. So far, very few research projects have been carried out in Asian L2-medium classrooms where there are significant differences in the learners' L1 and L2. Adopting an exemplary case study approach, this study investigates a bilingual teacher's strategy use in a mathematics L2-medium classroom in Hong Kong. Through analysing classroom observation data, teacher and student semi-structured interviews and artefacts, it was noted that the teacher made strategic use of L1 to mediate her students' gradual adaptation to the shift in medium of instruction. Methods that the teacher used included ones that resemble what L2 teachers would employ in language teaching: noticing, syllabification, morphological cues, think-pair-share, vocabulary-building strategies, questioning techniques, immediate correction and others. Results of the current investigation support as well as extend the findings of previous studies and have important reference value for bilingual teachers, teacher educators, policy-makers and CLIL researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the mediating role of homework in the daily practice of a middle-school mathematics teacher and her colleagues in Shanghai. It aims to explore how a system of homework activities mediates and engenders a cultural pedagogy characterized by transforming errors into resources for teaching and learning. The transformation itself embodies teacher learning processes tied up with making sense of errors and providing feedback and pedagogical support to help as many students as possible to 'get it right'. The findings of the study raise important questions about what teaching entails, and how to organize teachers' work so that teacher learning occurs in the process of fostering student learning. This requires a reconceptualization of homework to capitalize on its pedagogical potentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential gender performance in standardized mathematics assessment has long been a heated topic. Gender gaps of varied magnitude have been identified on large-scale assessments in the United States. To continue the investigation, this study examined male and female performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003 mathematics along four in-depth dimensions (strand, content topics, competency cluster, and item format). Furthermore, to identify the shared and unique patterns of gender differences, students from Hong Kong were brought into the comparison. Males in both counties demonstrated superior performance, particularly on complex multiple choice items. Females scored higher on probability, algebra, and reproduction items. Hong Kong students showed a larger gender gap than U.S. students. However, the within-country gender differences were considered small compared with the significant between-country performance differences. (Some PISA participants are not countries, but education systems representative of countries (e.g., Hong Kong). However, for purpose of simplicity, instead of using “countries/systems” every time, the generic term “countries” was used to refer to countries or systems.) Hong Kong students predominantly outperformed U.S. students, including items that measure complex mathematical reasoning, an area well documented to favor U.S. students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an in-depth investigation and research on the issue of schoolwork of left-behind children in rural primary schools of China. Left-behind children refers to children age fourteen or below whose parents have left the children behind at the place of household registration. The study focuses on the issue of students' schoolwork based on five fields of academic conditions: mathematics academic performance, Chinese language academic performance, confidence in learning, interest in learning, and learning ability.

The article presents the curriculum vitae of Wei Lin. Wei Lin was born on September 7, 1934 in Guangdong province, China. He is a professor of mathematics at Zhongshan (Sun Yatsen) University in China and he also studied at Zhongshan university. He is a member of the editorial committee of the Chinese Journal of Engineering Mathematics. He has also authored a number of books related to mathematics.