ABSTRACT
Reform in China has some qualities in common with “reform” in other countries, in that it aims to move teachers from a mainly transmission approach requiring learners to acquire knowledge and skills towards a combined approach to content, teaching and assessment which includes application, problem-solving, independent thinking, and creativity. The curriculum and teaching methods should relate more closely to students’ interests and their ways of thinking, and exploration and practical activities should be used to give students some direct experiences. Change was initiated nationally with new standards and materials in 2001 and the nature of examination questions has also undergone change as the proportion of objective, procedural questions has fallen while the proportion of exploratory, subjective questions has risen. However, local examinations and accountability systems still depend to a great extent on pencil-and-paper traditional tests. In some countries, reform in mathematics teaching has followed shifts towards student-centred values, the broadening of the educational aims of school mathematics, and moves towards dialogic student-teacher relations. In China, by contrast, it has been said that curriculum reform is intended to lead changes of values, curriculum breadth, and classroom relations (Liu and Li, 2010). Nevertheless, as a European educator, I see many parallels. It can be both comforting and frustrating to read about the problems associated with curriculum and pedagogic change in various countries—comforting because similar issues about adaptation emerge everywhere, frustrating because one hopes for new insights about familiar issues. These four chapters taken together as a group offer some fresh perspectives, and I believe these to be perspectives that transcend the particular cultural context.
