Mathematics And Its Teaching In The Asia Pacific Region

This book provides the global mathematics education community with information on the recent and current status of the teaching of mathematics in a group of island nations in the Asia-Pacific region. Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and twelve nations in the South Pacific Ocean. It is the third volume in a series conceived by Dr Bruce Vogeli of Columbia University Teachers College and published by WSP, aimed at producing contemporary accounts of mathematics teaching in a world-wide group of nations. Previous volumes have covered Central and South American nations and a selection of Muslim nations respectively.

This anthology reviews the history, current states, and plans for the development of mathematics education in the Muslim States in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. There is an introduction by Ahmed Djebbar, the most prominent contemporary scholar of Muslim mathematics. The chapters are written by respective national experts in mathematics education.

Most education research is undertaken in western developed countries. While some research from developing countries does make it into research journals from time to time, but these articles only emphasize the rarity of research in developing countries. The proposed book is unique in that it will cover education in Papua New Guinea over the millennia. Papua New Guinea’s multicultural society with relatively recent contact with Europe and the Middle East provides a cameo of the development of education in a country with both a colonial history and a coup-less transition to independence. Discussion will focus on specific areas of mathematics education that have been impacted by policies, research, circumstances and other influences, with particular emphasis on pressures on education in the last one and half centuries. This volume will be one of the few records of this kind in the education research literature as an in-depth record and critique of how school mathematics has been grown in Papua New Guinea from the late 1800s, and should be a useful addition to graduate programs mathematics education courses, history of mathematics, as well as the interdisciplinary fields of cross cultural studies, scholarship focusing on globalization and post / decolonialism, linguistics, educational administration and policy, technology education, teacher education, and gender studies.

Classroom Innovations through Lesson Study is an APEC EDNET (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Education Network) project that aims to improve the quality of education in the area of mathematics. This book includes challenges of lesson study implementation from members of the APEC economies. Lesson study is one of the best ways to improve the quality of teaching. It is a model approach for improvement of teacher education across the globe. This book focuses on mathematics education, teacher education, and curriculum implementation and reforms. Contents:The Role of Lesson Study in Overcoming Challenges in Mathematics Education:Mathematics Education for the Knowledge-Based Society (Alan J Bishop)Mathematical Thinking for Classroom Decision Making (Kaye Stacey)Setting Lesson Study within a Long-Term Framework of Learning (David Tall)Lesson Study: An Essential Process for Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning (Akihiko Takahashi)Comparative Study of Mathematics Classrooms — What can be Learned from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study? (Frederick K S Leung)The Science of Lesson Study in the Problem Solving Approach (Masami Isoda)Preparing Ground for the Introduction of Lesson Study in Thailand (Maitree Inprasitha)Perspectives on Lesson Study and Professional Development:History of Lesson Study to Develop Good Practices in Japan (Shizumi Shimizu & Kimiho Chino)What have We Learned about Lesson Study Outside Japan? (Catherine Lewis)Enhancing Mathematics Teachers' Professional Development through Lesson Study ~ A Case Study in Singapore ~ (Ban-Har Yeap, Peggy Foo & Poh Suan Soh)Using Lesson Study to Develop an Approach to Problem Solving: Adding and Subtracting Fractions (Kazuyoshi Okubo & Hiroko Tsuji)Prospective Teacher Education in Mathematics through Lesson Study (Maitree Inprasitha)In-service Teacher Education in Mathematics through Lesson Study (Soledad A Ulep)Lesson Study for Illustrating Innovative Approaches in the Classroom:Transforming Education through Lesson Study: Thailand's Decade-Long Journey (Maitree Inprasitha)Mathematics Teachers Professional Development through Lesson Study in Indonesia (Marsigit)Lesson Study in Chile (Grecia Gálvez)Initiating Lesson Study to Promote Good Practices: A Malaysian Experience (Chap Sam Lim & Chin Mon Chiew)Using Lesson Study as a Means to Innovation for Teaching and Learning Mathematics in Vietnam: Research Lesson on the Property of the Three Medians in a Triangle (Tran Vui)Lesson Study in Singapore: A Case of Division with Remainder in a Third Grade Mathematics Classroom (Yanping Fang & Christine Kim Eng Lee)Enabling Teachers to Introduce Innovations in the Classroom through Lesson Study (Soledad A Ulep)What is a Good Lesson in Japan? An Analysis (Takeshi Miyakawa)Using Lesson Study to Connect Procedural Knowledge with Mathematical Thinking (Patsy Wang-Iverson & Marian Palumbo) Readership: Mathematics educators of teacher training colleges, mathematics teachers, prospective teachers (elementary and secondary school) and undergraduate students in mathematics. Key Features:Presents the world reform movement by top researchersIncludes the challenges of lesson study and videos of model lessons in the world (lesson videos will be available on the website: http://www.criced.tsukuba.ac.jp/math/apec)Includes the Japanese teaching methods called “problem-solving approaches”Keywords:Lesson Study;Mathematics;Mathematics Education;Elementary School;Secondary School;Open-Ended Approach;Problem Solving;Teacher Education;Pedagogical Content Knowledge;Action Research;Lesson Videos;Curriculum Standards

The international New Math developments between about 1950 through 1980, are regarded by many mathematics educators and education historians as the most historically important development in curricula of the twentieth century. It attracted the attention of local and international politicians, of teachers, and of parents, and influenced the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels—kindergarten to college graduate—in many nations. After garnering much initial support it began to attract criticism. But, as Bill Jacob and the late Jerry Becker show in Chapter 17, some of the effects became entrenched. This volume, edited by Professor Dirk De Bock, of Belgium, provides an outstanding overview of the New Math/modern mathematics movement. Chapter authors provide exceptionally high-quality analyses of the rise of the movement, and of subsequent developments, within a range of nations. The first few chapters show how the initial leadership came from mathematicians in European nations and in the United States of America. The background leaders in Europe were Caleb Gattegno and members of a mysterious group of mainly French pure mathematicians, who since the 1930s had published under the name of (a fictitious) “Nicolas Bourbaki.” In the United States, there emerged, during the 1950s various attempts to improve U.S. mathematics curricula and teaching, especially in secondary schools and colleges. This side of the story climaxed in 1957 when the Soviet Union succeeded in launching “Sputnik,” the first satellite. Undoubtedly, this is a landmark publication in education. The foreword was written by Professor Bob Moon, one of a few other scholars to have written on the New Math from an international perspective. The final “epilogue” chapter, by Professor Geert Vanpaemel, a historian, draws together the overall thrust of the volume, and makes links with the general history of curriculum development, especially in science education, including recent globalization trends.

'The presentations gathered in this book offer plenty of ideas and advice for anyone seeking to start a program or affiliate with an existing one. In general, the authors do not compare their programs to those described in other chapters, but readers of the whole volume will identify significant commonalties across the various audiences, processes, obstacles, and outcomes described.Summing up: Recommended. All readers.'CHOICEThis groundbreaking anthology is a collection of accounts from leaders in mathematical outreach initiatives. The experiences range from prison education programs to alternative urban and Indian reservation classrooms across the United States, traversing the planet from the Americas to Africa, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Their common theme is the need to share meaningful and beautiful mathematics with disenfranchised communities across the globe.Through these stories, the authors share their educational philosophy, personal experiences, and student outcomes. They incorporate anecdotal vignettes since research articles in mathematics education often exclude them. The inclusion of these stories is an element that adds immeasurable value to the larger narratives they tell.