PISA results: affirming for mathematics learning in the Hong Kong early childhood setting?

1. PISA results: affirming formathematics learning in the Hong Kong early childhood setting? Dr Wong Kwok Shing, Richard Dept. of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong-China

2. Aims of this presentation • What do Hong Kong (HKG) early childhood practitionersteach and what types of activities do they employ in the classroom? • Do HKG teachers help young children build a solid foundation for future maths learning?

3. Background • Past century: Asia has looked to the West （超英趕美, literally ‘surpass Britain, catch up with the US’） • The latest PISA results in Mathematics: the top three economies/ countries are all in Asia.

4. Data Interpretation • Looks reaffirming • But greater variation across students in the top-performing economies or countries • Equity issue: • A higher proportion of students scoring at level 5 or above in the top-performing economies/ countries • What does this imply?

5. Issues for exploration • Past studies: • Greater intellectual capacity ofAsian students? • Superior mathematics education in Asia? (see Leung, 2000) • More demanding parents in Asia (See Chen & Stevenson, 1995; Kwok & Lytton, 1996; Leung, 1999) • Learners hold high standards for themselves (See Chen & Stevenson, 1995; Kwok & Lytton, 1996) • What is left to be explored...???

6. What I want to investigate… • What applies to the primary school setting may not apply to the kindergarten setting • How do HKG preschool teachers help to lay a solid foundation for young children to learn mathematics? • What methods do they use in teaching maths? • Do they teach the skills that are critical for children’s future mathsabilities? • What is the content covered at different age levels? • How much do they believe in nurture in contributing to a child’s mathsability?

7. 92 Participants * Years of teaching experience: 4.41 years (SD = 4.6)

8. Tool: A self-developed questionnaire • Demographic information • 17 itemsfocusing on three types of activities: child-centered, teacher-centered, activities favoured by psychologists • 36 items: specific mathscontent • Other items: teachers’ motivation in learning maths, teachers’ beliefs, etc.

9. Results Drilling? ‘Traditional’ approach Emphasis of teacher educators Emphasis of dev. psychologists

10. Between-group differences • Factorial analysis of variance (p < .05) • No main effect for group except for group exploration • No main effect for age of the children except for homework, backward counting, statistics, patterns and missing number • No interaction between group and age of the children

11. MathsContent: Number (%)

12. Mathscontent: Sets (%)

13. Mathscontent: addition and subtraction (%)

14. Mathscontent: location, shape and others (%)

15. Other results Note 1: No differences across groups (F-test, p < 0.05) Note 2: Significant difference between the scores for nurture and nature (t-test, p < 0.01)

16. Discussion • Relatively inexperienced teachers… • Not so motivated in learning maths themselves… • Not much time spentteaching maths… (18 minutes on average) • Certainly NOT experts • But believing in hard work!! • Bad news for teacher educators but good news for developmental psychologists! • PISA results: really affirming???

17. Further issue for exploration • What is the role of tutorial centres (colloquial term: 雞精班, literally ‘class serving chicken extract’)in Asia? • A case study: school versus tutorial centre

18. At School

19. What does the same child learn in the tutorial centre? Same concepts but in English! • Addend turn around: 5 + 6 = 11 and 6 + 5 = 11 • Addition and subtraction: up to 24 • 3 addends • Pattern: sequence, complete a pattern • Match patterns: visual skills • Right & left • Mental rotation • Combine figures • 3-D shape

20. Contribution of tutorial centres • Concepts that are learnt at school are re-introduced through a foreign language • A lot of practice: many practice items • Memorization (automacy): no need to compute the answers • Visual skill training • Logical reasoning

21. Hidden cost: pressure • The mother said, ‘If you’re a failure, better not live in Asia because you will be trampled on. The system here only helps the “winners”. If you have problems, study abroad or just go abroad-the system there is more protective and caring.’

22. Asian parents?

23. Conclusion • System is geared towards examination success but to the detriment of play • Do children have a happy childhood? Or is their childhood being cut short? (Further research) • My own experience…

25. Appendix A: What do scholars recommend? • Short-term predictors (beginning to the end of kindergarten): counting, quantity discrimination, and number naming (Jordan, 2010) • Long-term predictors (beginning of kindergarten to the end of grade three): foundational number sense supports computation and applied problem solving (Jordan et al., 2010)

26. Underlying Pathways (LeFevre et al.) • Quantitative pathway • Linguistic pathway • Spatial pathway => A learner excels in one area of mathematics but not in another area