TEACHER EDUCATION AROUND THE WORLD

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM FOR PRESERVICE ELEMENTARYTEACHERS: THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA?

Wei Sun

OVERVIEW

The Chinese education system has experienced dramatic changes, partic-ularly since 1986 when the Law of Nine-Year Compulsory Educationcame into effect. Political, economic, and educational changes have placednew demands on teacher education programs and increased the needfor more teacher training. According to China’s Ministry of Education(cf. Communist Party of China, 1985), the number of teachers must beincreased from 2.2 million in 1985 to 3.1 million by the year 2000 in orderto meet the requirements of providing 9 years of education to all children.Educational reforms have taken place at all levels since 1980. In the lastdecade, student achievement has gradually improved, due to the improvedtraining preservice teachers have received in teachers colleges and normalschools and through ongoing professional development efforts.

In China, formal education includes elementary, secondary, and highereducation. Public schooling preceding higher education consists of 6years of elementary education and 6 years of secondary education, whichinvolves 3 years of junior high and 3 years of senior high school education.As of 1996, China had 645,983 elementary schools enrolling 136,150,000students, 66,092 junior high schools enrolling 49,700,000 students, and13,875 senior high schools enrolling 7,692,500 students (State Educa-tion Commission, 1997). Furthermore, there were 1,534 vocational juniorhigh schools and 8,515 vocational senior high schools with enrollmentsof 775,200 and 3,957,500 students, respectively. With such a large studentpopulation, the demand for teachers is tremendous.

Currently, the responsibility for the preparation of most school teachersis handled by four types of schools: teacher training schools of higher? Data for the study were collected during visits in China in Summer 1997 and January

1999. The study was supported by the Spencer Foundation and by Towson University.

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education3: 191–199, 2000.© 2000Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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education (normal universities and colleges); teacher training schools(normal schools); provincial and regional colleges of education; andcounty schools of education (see Figure 1).

Among these different kinds of institutions, normal universities andcolleges are in charge of preparing preservice secondary teachers, andnormal schools are responsible for preparing preservice elementaryteachers. Provincial and regional colleges of education and county schoolsof education provide additional training for inservice secondary andelementary teachers, respectively. As of 1996, there were 236 normaluniversities and colleges, 893 normal schools, 242 educational colleges,and 2,031 inservice teacher training schools, with enrollments of 582,900;848,000; 213,700; and 516,300; respectively (State Education Commis-sion, 1997).

Because elementary students make up about 69% of the total studentpopulation (State Education Commission, 1997), the provision of enoughqualified elementary school teachers has become one of the most importanttasks in the nation. Normal schools play a major role in producing qualifiedteachers to meet this demand.

EDUCATION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS INNORMAL SCHOOLS

China has a national curriculum for normal education which is standard-ized for normal schools but somewhat flexible for normal universities andcolleges. Because the Ministry of Education strictly controls all elementaryteacher education programs, all normal schools offer essentially the sameprograms of study.

Role of Normal Schools

The normal schools operate under two different schooling systems: three-year and five-year systems. The three-year system is the standard schoolingfor normal school students, whereas five-year schooling is still exper-imental. It is expected that all normal schools will eventually becomefive-year schools. In 1995, the then State Education Commission issueda “Curriculum Plan for Three-Year Normal Schools” and a “CurriculumPlan for Five-Year Normal Schools.” These plans regulate what studentsstudy in normal schools and how the content hours are distributed. Oneresult of the new curricula was that foreign language became a mandatorysubject in five-year normal schools.

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Figure 1. Teacher education system in the Republic of China.

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In general, students enter normal schools after graduating from juniorhigh school (9th grade). Students who apply for admission to normalschools are required to take the high school entrance examination, whichis prepared by the individual province, and to undergo a face-to-face inter-view with teacher educators. Normal schools are given priority over otherthree-year colleges in the selection of students from among the junior highschool graduates. The government provides students who enter a normalschool with full tuition waivers and monthly stipends during their schoolyears, benefits not given to students entering other institutions. Comparedto attendance at other educational institutions, for which students need topay all tuition and expenses, this policy is very attractive. As a result, theacademic quality of newly admitted students has greatly improved sincethe early 1990s.

Curricula for Normal Schools

The curricula of normal schools, which are at the heart of the teachereducation programs in China, require the preservice teachers to complete80–82 credits during a three-year program or 138 credits during five-yearprogram. The curricula have four components: required courses; electivecourses; special seminars; and pedagogical training and practice. Althoughthe two different systems offer essentially the same curricula, the five-yearsystem covers more content with greater depth (see Tables I and II fordetails).

In Chinese elementary schools, teachers receive their teaching assign-ment in any one of the following areas: mathematics, Chinese language,foreign language, science, social studies, physical education, arts, andmusic. In preparation for this teaching assignment, the normal studentsusually choose a concentration area during the course of their normaleducation. By taking more elective courses in the selected area, studentsare able to acquire more content knowledge with greater depth in thesubject they choose to teach.

Mathematics is required for all normal school students. The currentmathematics teaching syllabus issued by the Ministry of Education deter-mines both what and how much students learn in the mathematics class.The national mathematics teaching syllabus, published in 1995 by theState Education Commission, emphasized the following principles indeveloping the mathematics curriculum:

1. Purpose of teaching mathematics in normal schools.The purpose of teaching mathematics in normal schools is to helppreservice teachers master the necessary mathematical knowledgeand pedagogical skills that elementary school teachers must possess;

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TABLE I

Curricula for three-year normal schools (State Education Commission, 1995a)

Subjects No. of credits Total hours

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 of teaching

Political Education 2 2 2 210

Chinese Language, 5 5 3 455

teaching methods 2 70

Mathematics, 5 3 2 350

teaching methods 3 105

Physics 2 2 140

Chemistry 2 2/1 115

Biology 2 – 115

History 2 1 105

Geography 1 2 105

Psychology 2 1/0 85

General Education 2 2/1 115

Speech 2 70

Educational Technology 1 35

Physical Education 2 2 2 210

Music 2 2 1 175

Art 2 2 1 175

Labor 1 1 1 105

Foundations in Computer 2 70

Applications

Total 27 28/27 27/26 2810

develop students’ ability in computation, logical thinking, spatialvisualization, and problem solving; cultivate students’ ability in theteaching of mathematics in elementary schools; and, based on thecharacteristics of mathematical science, help students develop apositive attitude toward ideology and science.

2. Principles in the selection of mathematical content.The selection of mathematical content in normal education is deter-mined by the purpose of teaching mathematics in normal schools. Themathematical content must reflect the purpose of normal education andthe needs of elementary education. The mathematical content includesthe fundamental knowledge that elementary teachers must possess andthat is needed in the modern society.

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TABLE II

Curricula for five-year normal schools (State Education Commission, 1995b)

Subjects Number of credits Total hours

Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 of teaching

Required courses Political Education 2 2 2 2 2 330

Chinese Language 4 4 4 2 2 540

Teaching of Chinese Language 2 70

Mathematics 3 3 2 2 2 430

Teaching of Mathematics 2 70

Foreign Language 2 2 2 2 2 330

Physics 2 2 2 210

Chemistry 2 2 140

Biology 2 2 140

History 2 2 140

Geography 2 2 140

Psychology 2 2 140

Educational Theory 2 2 2 170

Foundations in Computer Science 2 70

Speech 3 110

Labor 2 2 140

Educational Technology 1 1 70

Physical Education 2 2 1 1 1 230

Music 2 2 1 1 1 230

Art 2 2 1 1 1 230

Major concentrations Chinese Language, Mathematics, 10 12 616

Foreign Language, Music, Art,

Physical Education, Natural

Science, Social Science

Total credit hours 29 29 29 26 25 4546

In selecting the mathematical content, the following points weretaken into consideration:

a) Characteristics of normal education. Consideration was given tothe relationship between fundamental mathematical knowledge andteachers’ professional needs. Information related to the elementaryteaching materials should be provided so students can build a solidfoundation for studying the teaching methodology.

b) The mathematics content for normal schools must be unified withsome flexibility. It should provide unified requirements and at thesame time consider the specific situation in the teaching of mathe-matics. It should include content that every normal student must

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study and also provide appropriate elective courses for students withdifferent interests and schools with different facilities.

c) The content must be carefully selected. It should reflect currentviews about mathematics and about how to do mathematics. Thecontent taught should reflect a broad selection of mathematicaltopics, and the difficulty level should be appropriate for elementaryteachers.

d) In the selection of the mathematical content, the mathematicstaught in secondary school needs to be considered. The math-ematics learned in elementary schools is the foundation forstudents who continue at the secondary level; therefore, connectionsmust be made. The mathematics teaching syllabus for Nine-YearCompulsory Education should also be taken into consideration.

3. Teaching Requirements and Teaching Content. In designing thecontent, Chinese curriculum developers paid close attention to thesystematic structure of mathematics, as well as the connectionsbetween mathematics and other subject areas.

Mathematics Curriculum

All normal students must take required courses in mathematics whichinclude Algebra and Functions, Geometry, and Teaching Mathematics inElementary Schools (see Table III). A large amount of time is devotedto mathematical content, with 198 hours for Algebra and Functions, 132hours for Geometry, and 90 hours for Teaching Mathematics in ElementarySchools. Traditional mathematical topics make up the majority of thecontent coverage. For example, the main content covered in Algebraand Functions includes inequalities, complex numbers, permutations andcombinations; the content covered in Geometry includes logic, lines andplanes, curves, and parametric equations and polar coordinates. During thelast decade, probability and statistics have been added to the curriculum.

Elective courses are important components in the mathematicscurriculum for preservice teachers. Elective courses are offered as eitherregular courses or special seminars. Students who plan to teach math-ematics have the option of taking the additional courses IntroductoryCalculus, Introductory Number Theory, Outside Classroom Activitieswith Mathematics, Introduction to Computer Applications, and seminarson Mathematics Applications, Elementary Mathematics Textbooks, andStrategies of Teaching Mathematics.

The overall mathematics curricula for preservice elementary teachers inChina have focused on the understanding of basic mathematical concepts,

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TABLE III

Teaching schedule of the required mathematics courses

Academic year Subject Total weeks Hours/week Total hours

First year Algebra and Functions I 34 3 102

Geometry I 34 2 68

Second year Algebra and Functions II 32 3 96

Geometry II 32 2 64

Third year Teaching Mathematics in 17 3 51

Elementary School I

Teaching Mathematics in 13 3 39

Elementary School II

the mastery of a variety of computational skills, and the teaching ofmathematical concepts with limited resources. Many Chinese mathe-matics teachers believe that the use of calculators should not be allowedbefore the students have understood well the mathematical conceptsand have mastered the computational skills. Therefore, although the useof technology, such as calculators and computers, has gained attentionfrom authorities and educators in the last several years, the teaching ofmathematics still relies on traditional instruction.

Field Experiences

Opportunities for students to observe mathematics lessons in elementaryschool and to practice teaching comprise other major areas of the mathe-matics curriculum. To become qualified teachers, normal students needto master not only the mathematics that they will teach but also effectiveteaching strategies and techniques. To this end, the national curriculumrequires all students to participate in practice teaching during theirschool years. Practice teaching consists of visiting elementary schools,performing educational investigations, observing model lessons, andstudent teaching. In each of the academic years, students visit elementaryschools and observe model lessons. Educational investigations, whichrequire students to conduct research on education related issues, areusually carried out during the summer. Student teaching usually takes placein the third year of study. During student teaching, each student is assigneda mentor teacher who is responsible for providing guidance in everydayschool activities and analysis of the student’s teaching performance. Theexperiences students gain from student teaching are considered one of the

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most valuable aspects of their normal education, for this is when studentscombine their knowledge learned in the classroom with practice.

CONCLUDING THOUGHT

The Chinese normal education system differs from that of other coun-tries, particularly in the uniqueness of its curriculum design, its admissionprocess for normal students, and its training of students during theirnormal education. In our attempts to determine what influences students’learning of mathematics, it is important that we learn how different coun-tries address the same issue. It is the hope of the author that this reportwill provide some useful information for mathematics educators aroundthe world and, consequently, help improve mathematics education in theworld.

REFERENCES

Communist Party of China (1985).Reform of China’s educational structure. Beijing:Foreign Language Press.

State Education Commission (1995a).Mathematics teaching syllabus for three-yearnormal school. Beijing: People’s Education Press.

State Education Commission (1995b).Mathematics teaching syllabus for five-year normalschool. Beijing: People’s Education Press.

State Education Commission (1997).Educational statistics yearbook of China – 1996.Beijing: People’s Education Press.

Mathematics DepartmentTowson University8000 York RoadTowson, MD 21252USAE-mail: wsun@towson.edu