Liping Ma
Already popular with math educators, according to the Los Angeles Times, the new book, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics offers insight into the background that all mathematics teachers need to succeed. The author demonstrates the necessary "profound understanding of mathematics" through an in-depth analysis of Chinese and American elementary school teachers and their classroom teaching practices. The described differences and their implications tell an eye-opening story.
The heart of the book analyzes a study that asked Chinese and American elementary mathematics teachers how they would handle a variety of exercises. Extreme differences in the results dramatize the Chinese versus the American learning environments and signal the need for reforms in teaching training. The book explores how Chinese teachers' deep understanding of basic mathematics contributes to their students' success, and it proposes that teachers in the U.S. have difficulty developing such understanding. The central message is that the quality of knowledge gained, for both teachers and students, is more important than its quantity.
This book may be of particular interest to teacher trainers and college faculty who teach mathematics to future teachers and future parents, according to its foreword by Lee Shulman, head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics offers an intriguing view of teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge.
ISBN: 0-8058-2909-1