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13 - Creativity in Mathematics Teaching: A Chinese Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Weihua Niu  and
Zheng Zhou
Edited by
Ronald A. Beghetto  and
James C. Kaufman
Weihua Niu
Affiliation:
Pace University, USA
Zheng Zhou
Affiliation:
St. John's University, USA
Ronald A. Beghetto
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
California State University, San Bernardino
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Summary

A few years ago, the second author attended a parent-teacher conference in an elementary school located in Manhattan's Upper Westside. She noticed an interesting survey posted outside the classroom of a first-grade class about the students' preferences with regard to the subjects they learn in school. All the students were blind-folded as they raised their hands and responded to the question, “How many people like mathematics/science/reading/social studies/gym?” The survey results charted on the poster indicated that most first-graders liked mathematics. Coincidentally, two years later, when the author made another visit to the same school, she noticed a similar survey and discovered that mathematics had dropped to the third most favored subject among the third-graders.

Mathematics in China, on the other hand, is consistently regarded as an enjoyable subject to learn by many students from elementary school to high school. It is viewed by most Chinese students as a subject that “makes them smart” (Zhang, 2007). A popular belief in China is that learning mathematics well helps people earn a good living. In a survey of 3,371 students of all grades in ten Chinese provinces, Sun, Zheng, and Kang ([1999] 2001) found that more students consistently rated mathematics as “their most favorite subject” in elementary and middle schools than any other subjects. In high school, mathematics was rated as the second most favorite subject, only topped by foreign languages.

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Chapter
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Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom , pp. 270 - 288
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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