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Focusing on the case of mathematics, this paper reviews debates on China's new Basic Education Curriculum Reform program, including the status of knowledge within the reformed curriculum, the arrangement of the curriculum system, and the push toward real-life applicability and hands-on participation. It discusses the related challenges that teachers face in the implementation of the new curriculum reform. Lastly, this paper reviews how to promote the further development of this new reform.

The present study examined the influence of curriculum reform on teachers' perceived instructional practices. There were 584 elementary mathematic teachers surveyed, including 390 teachers who implemented the reform-based curriculum and 194 teachers who applied the conventional curriculum. The results showed that the teachers who used the reform-based curriculum were more likely to report using group discussions, providing students with manipulative strategies, and employing different types of assessments. The teachers who used the conventional curriculum were more inclined to report assigning exercises, providing nonroutine learning tasks, and relying primarily on short-answer tests. In addition, teachers' reported instructional practices varied depending on years of implementing the reformed curriculum, perceived support collaboration, and professional mathematics development. (Contains 8 tables and 1 note.)