Briefly
Shanghai mathematics lessons are based around 5 key aspects
- Teaching for mastery
- Calculation practice
- Lesson design
- Effective use of textbooks
- Assessment and feedback
Lessons are concerned with ‘teaching with variation’, so a Shanghai lesson will have conceptual variation and procedural variation. Conceptual variation is concerned with different ways of presenting the information (what the pupils see and use – images, ITPs, die, Dienes apparatus), whereas Procedural variation is concerned with what the pupils do – (say it, write it, order it).
Mathematics lessons in Shanghai are taught in the morning and are 35 minutes long; teachers have time to assess pupils’ work so that intervention can take place at lunchtime for those pupils deemed to need further support.
Reports
- Information about the visit of Shanghai teachers can be found at: http://bit.ly/shanghaimaths.
- There is a five page report about the first visit of Shanghai teachers (http://bit.ly/shanghairep1); and you can watch two five minute videos where teachers talk about their experience of this.
- The end of the first year report is found at: http://bit.ly/shanghairep2015 (9 pages with 2 more outlining future plans).
- The Central Maths Hub based in Birmingham have produced their report at: http://bit.ly/shanghaicentralreport.
This page will contain the resources used in lessons for years 1, 2, 4 and 5 that were taught by two Shanghai primary teachers in February and March 2015. These should be here by the end of November 2015.
A BBC2 programme, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, broadcast in September 2015 looked at a school which implemented an immersive Chinese (rather than Shanghai) approach to teaching year 9 pupils. At present the programme is not available on iPlayer. The Guardian reviewed the programme.
- Maths Hubs: England – China: http://www.mathshubs.org.uk/what-maths-hubs-are-doing/england-china/
- Developing mastery in mathematics: http://bit.ly/ncetmmathsmastery
- Teaching with procedural variation (19 page article): http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/journal/lai.pdf
- Inquiry and Mastery (similar or different approaches?) from Andrew Blair’s excellent Inquiry Maths site: http://bit.ly/inquirymastery
- Barbara Jaworski suggests that the government should look closer to home.
- Explicit and Implicit Pedagogy: variation theory as a case study by John Mason at http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/IPs/ip31-3/BSRLM-IP-31-3-19.pdf.
- The Saber-tooted curriculum articles offer a parable about curriculum development.
Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, Liping Ma:
