A Comparison Study Of Mathematics Teachers’ High Quality Class Question Between China And America

With China mathematics education gradually attracted the eyes of the world, internationalcomparative study has become a trend. This research aims to find out the similarities anddifferences between the most significant representatives Western education country, America,and China in Middle school mathematics classroom. The topic is,A comparison study ofmathematics teachers’ high quality class question between China and America. Whatsimilarities and differences do China and America mathematics teachers have when askingquestions? This study choosing5high quality classes from both MIST and MIST China videolibrary, using two national high quality teaching standards and then using Nvivo to codingthem by IRF, which is little changed according to the real classroom in this study. Foundingthat:1.Some of the codes appeared almost every class: supplement, checking, clarification,seeking confirmation, cueing, explanation, elaboration or justification, repeat, product orresult, strategy or procedure. The most common code is product or result and repeat.2.review,information, example take part of the longest time among all the codes, but few codingreference point. That is, when asking not specific problems, it often need more time.3. Thebiggest gap both for time and the actual reference point is review and students questions.4.China mathematics teachers spend more time on review than American.5. America studentswere significantly asking more questions than Chinese students.6.For China and America, thecommon initiation question is product/result, understanding checking and explanation. Thecommon follow-up question is repeat, cueing, supplement and seeking confirmation.7.Forcheck, information and repeat, America has more percentage of coverage, but Chinese hasmore code points. That is to say, these three types of questioning strategies last longer time inAmerican class.8.The proportion of initiation question and follow-up question between Chinaand America are almost the same. The follow-up question is a little bit more that the initiation question.9. The different of code points number is not big, but America teachers in averagespend1/3more time in the whole teacher-students dialogue than China.