IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v7y2019i3p297-d216755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evolution of Mathematical Thinking in Chinese Mathematics Education

Author

Listed:
  • Na Li

    (School of Mathematics and Statistics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China)

  • Ida Ah Chee Mok

    (Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

  • Yiming Cao

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    International Center for Research in Mathematics Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

Mathematical thinking (MT) has been one of the most important goals for mathematics education as it can support sustainable mathematics learning. Its role in school mathematics has recently been explicitly identified as one of “Four Basics” in the latest national curriculum standard for compulsory education, which is seen as one of the prominent features of Chinese mathematics education. This paper reviewed definitions, descriptions, and explanations from a historical perspective and aimed to provide a comprehensive and contemporary conceptualization for MT in a Chinese context, which can be applied as a comparison to MT in English works. To achieve this, document analysis was applied in this study. Major official documents, papers, and books were reviewed to see the process of MT conceptualization given by the policy makers and researchers. Results indicated that MT places more emphasis on the process of mathematical methods application in problem solving, such as the method of combination of symbolic and graphic mathematics. Mathematical thought is also recommended by Chinese researchers to help students think like mathematicians. Another major characteristic is that the classification of major types of MT is usually focused on that which can make the concept more understandable.

Suggested Citation

  • Na Li & Ida Ah Chee Mok & Yiming Cao, 2019. "The Evolution of Mathematical Thinking in Chinese Mathematics Education," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:7:y:2019:i:3:p:297-:d:216755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/7/3/297/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/7/3/297/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:7:y:2019:i:3:p:297-:d:216755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.