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Professional development (PD) for mathematics teachers in China, especially in Shanghai, has received growing international attention. However, most of available research concerning Chinese PD has focused on successful practices, and far too little attention has been paid to less successfully organized PD practices, particularly for mathematics teachers in Shanghai. This study aims to examine key aspects and underlying reasons for less successfully organized PD practices in Shanghai from teachers' perspectives. The data were collected from 132 mathematics teachers in 9 randomly selected secondary schools in Shanghai through a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. The results show that Shanghai mathematics teachers perceived "time, duration and frequency", "assessment and management" and "objective" as the three most unsatisfactory aspects in less successfully organized PD they attended, and they considered that organized PD practices were less successful mainly due to lack of assessment for the PD organizers and of necessary coordination between PD organizers at different levels. In addition, there were statistically significant differences in teachers' perceptions of various specific problems in different aspects about less successfully organized PD between teachers with different demographic features, such as length of teaching experience and gender. Implications of the findings of the study to Chinese educational settings and beyond are discussed at the end of the paper.

Studying the sources of teachers' knowledge and the importance of different sources is of great significance to promote the development of teachers' knowledge. This paper systematically analyzes 27 empirical studies on the sources of teachers' knowledge in China and abroad in the past two decades or so in terms of methods and findings. The results show that the in-service experience of teachers contains more important sources than the preservice education and primary and secondary education. Teacher's experience and reflection, and exchanges with colleagues are the most important sources of teachers' knowledge development. Educational internships and practicums are the most important sources of teachers' knowledge during their preservice education, while other sources have no significant effect. The usefulness of teachers' knowledge sources is affected by variables such as knowledge category, subject, education stage and shows a certain degree of individual differences. The above results confirm the importance of teachers' practice, reflection, collaboration and exchange and indicate the necessity of improving preservice education. In terms of methods, it merits recommendation for future researchers in this area to use single-category-focused and topic-focused knowledge frameworks, more specific knowledge source frameworks, multiple ways of data collection, random selection of research subjects, and inferential statistical analysis. In addition, further studies should also look into the psychological and social-cultural mechanisms of teachers' knowledge development as well as the sources of teachers' knowledge.

This study aimed to examine mathematics teachers' integration of Mathematics Analysis Software (MAS) in the teaching of mathematics at upper secondary school classrooms. It employed a qualitative approach with classroom observations and interviews for the data collection. The study was carried out in Indonesia, and the participants were ten mathematics teachers from ten secondary schools. The finding suggested that the participants failed to take advantage of pedagogical opportunities to digital technology in facilitating students' knowledge construction. In addition, this study revealed that the instructional practices with technology at classroom and subject levels were closely related to the type of tasks they set in their lessons. Moreover, the findings indicate that it is important for mathematics teachers to set technology-rich mathematics tasks for students to fully capitalized pedagogical opportunities of Mathematics Analysis Software.

Indonesia, like many other countries, see Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a potential tool for enhancing the quality of education. However, there is a lack of research examining Indonesian secondary mathematics teachers' knowledge in the integration of ICT. In this study, we aimed to investigate Indonesian secondary teachers' knowledge in the use of ICT in secondary mathematics classrooms. The study employed a quantitative method with a cross-sectional survey approach. It was conducted in one of Indonesia's provinces where the data were collected from 341 secondary mathematics teachers through a questionnaire survey. The findings suggest that, to a large extent, Indonesian secondary mathematics teachers have a largely inadequate knowledge of ICT and knowledge of ICT use in teaching. Based on the findings, we argue that it is crucial to improve Indonesian teachers' knowledge of both aspects, and more training courses for teachers' knowledge development are needed.

Due to rapid social and economic development in China over the last three decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly available in Chinese classrooms and families. However, there is a lack of research regarding Chinese students' use of ICTs in mathematics learning. In this study, we examined how Chinese students access, use, and perceive ICTs in learning mathematics. To this end, a conceptual framework for ICTs and the role of ICTs in students' learning of mathematics was established. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from 223 students in four randomly selected secondary schools in Shanghai through a questionnaire survey, followed by classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers. The results revealed that various ICTs are widely accessible in Shanghai classrooms and students overall have a positive view about the role of ICTs in their mathematics learning, especially in problem solving and in learning geometry. When learning mathematics at home, students used handheld technological devices more frequently than non-portable devices. Furthermore, there were significant differences between different students in terms of school performance levels, grade levels, and genders in their use of ICTs in learning mathematics. In particular, students from high-performing schools had more access to various ICTs but used them less frequently than their peers from ordinary schools. Suggestions and implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the paper.

In this survey paper we aim to provide an overview of research on mathematics textbooks and, more broadly, curriculum resources as instruments for change related to mathematical content, instructional goals and practices, and student learning of mathematics. In particular, we elaborate on the following themes: (1) The role of curriculum resources as instruments for change from a theoretical perspective; (2) The design of curriculum resources to mediate the implementation of reform ideas and innovative practice; (3) Teachers' influence on the implementation of change through curriculum resources; (4) Students' influence on the implementation of change through curriculum resources; and (5) Evidence of curriculum resources yielding changes in student-related factors or variables. We claim that, whilst textbooks and curriculum resources are influential, they alone cannot change teachers' teaching nor students' learning practices in times of curricular change. Moreover, more knowledge is needed about features of curriculum resources that support the implementation of change. We contend that curriculum innovations are likely to be successful, if teachers and students are supported to co- and re-design the relevant curriculum trajectories and materials in line with the reform efforts and their own individual needs.

In this paper we report on a survey study of teachers' perceptions of how mathematics textbooks, including broadly student books, teacher manuals, and exercise books, facilitate or hinder teachers' teaching in Shanghai educational settings. For the study we established a conceptual framework about teachers' teaching, partly drawing on Shulman's model of pedagogical reasoning and action of teachers. The data were collected from a stratified random sample of 133 mathematics teachers in 13 secondary schools through a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews with 24 of them. The results revealed the following: the textbooks were highly regarded and used by the Shanghai mathematics teachers as facilitators rather than barriers for their teaching and instructional change, and the facilitation was most evident in the process of transformation and comprehension, and least evident in evaluation in teachers' pedagogical reasoning and action; compared with student books and exercise books, teacher manuals played a larger facilitating role in teachers' teaching; and finally, compared with teacher characteristics, school characteristics had a greater influence on the extent to which textbooks played a role of facilitation or hindrance for teachers' instructional practice. Implications and suggestions are given at the end of the paper.

This article reports an empirical study aiming to investigate students' use of mathematics textbooks in Shanghai and England, with a comparative perspective. The study used mixed methods to collect the data through student questionnaire, student focus group interview and classroom observation. 161 Shanghai seventh- and eighth-grade students and 206 England year-seven and -eight students participated in the study. The results indicated that there existed considerable differences between Shanghai and England with respect to the roles that textbooks as curriculum resources play in students' learning of mathematics. While Shanghai students relied heavily on textbooks and used them in various situations, had a strong sense of self-regulation behind the use, and thought highly of textbooks in their learning of mathematics, English students seldom incorporated textbooks in their learning of mathematics, used them mainly depending on teachers' instructions, and held a relatively critical view of textbooks. The article also offered explanations and discussed the implications of the results concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics.

The paper departs from research published in an earlier thematic issue published by ZDM Mathematics Education in 2013 on mathematics textbook research and development by presenting a review of the literature in other languages and including books. Overall, the paper provides a brief overview of the more recent development of research in this area since then. The paper argues that mathematics textbooks as a theme of research have continued to receive rapidly growing attention internationally by opening to new developments such as electronic resources, historical reflections and international comparisons.

Focusing on issues about the development of mathematics textbooks from a cultural perspective, this study examined a widely-used curriculum resource series, "One Lesson One Exercise," published in China, and its adapted English series, published in the UK, to explore how cultural influence is manifested in the two series of resource books. For the study we established a conceptual framework classifying culture into six types in relation to people's beliefs, values and ways of interacting about them, for data collection and analysis. The results indicate that there exist considerable differences between the Chinese and the English series that are related to cultural factors. It appears that, to a large extent, culture plays an essential role in the development of mathematics textbooks. Concerning the different types of culture, the results show that "most" adaptations between the Chinese series and the English series are related to 'ways of behaving and customs' and 'artifacts, flora and fauna,' followed by 'identities' and 'geography,' and the "least" are related to 'organisations' and 'history.' Based on the study, we argue that the relevance and importance of culture to the development of mathematics textbooks must not be underestimated, and more research in this direction is needed.

We conducted an intervention-based study in secondary classrooms to explore whether the use of geometric transformations can help improve students' ability in constructing auxiliary lines to solve geometric proof problems, especially high-level cognitive problems. A pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design was employed. The participants were 130 eighth-grade students in two classes with a comparable background that were taught by the same teacher. A two-week intervention was implemented in the experimental class aiming to help students learn how to use geometric transformations to draw auxiliary lines in solving geometric problems. The data were collected from a teacher interview, video-recordings of the intervention, and pre- and post-tests. The results revealed that there was a positive impact of using geometric transformations on the experimental students' ability in solving high-level cognitive problems by adding auxiliary lines, though the impact on the students' ability in solving general geometric problems as measured using the overall average scores was not statistically significant. Recommendations for future research are provided at the end of the article.

This study examined how selected school mathematics textbooks in China, Singapore, and USA at the lower secondary grade level represent problem-solving procedures. The analysis of problem-solving procedures was carried out in two layers--general strategies, which adopted Polya's four-stage problem-solving model, and specific strategies, which consisted of 17 different problem-solving heuristics such as "acting it out," "looking for a pattern," "working backwards," etc. Both similarities and differences in the representation of problem-solving procedures in the textbooks across the three countries were revealed and compared. The possible reasons for the similarities and especially for the differences were explored. Suggestions about how to improve the representation of problem-solving in mathematics textbooks were provided at the end of the study.

This study compared how selected mathematics textbooks from Mainland China and the United States at the lower secondary grade level represent various types of problems for classroom teaching and learning. The examination of problems was carried out based on the classifications of problem types established in the study, including routine problems versus non-routine problems, open-ended problems versus close-ended problems, traditional problems versus non-traditional problems, and application problems versus non-application problems, among others. Both the similarities and differences in the representation of problems in the selected textbooks were analyzed. The results were used to explore the possible influences of those textbooks on students' different performances in mathematics, as revealed in cross-national comparisons. Discussions about how to improve the representation of problems in mathematics textbooks were provided at the end of the study.

A study investigating the influence of textbooks on teaching strategies in 13 schools compared teaching strategies of 14 secondary teachers using University of Chicago School Mathematics Project secondary mathematics textbooks to those of 14 teachers using other textbooks. Results indicate that textbooks convey pedagogical messages and provide curricular environments conducive to particular teaching strategies. (Contains 19 references.) (TD)