Impact of curriculum reform: Evidence of change in classroom practice in mainland China

The study examined the impact of curriculum reform on teaching practice in primary mathematics in mainland China. The participants included 58 fifth grade mathematics teachers from 20 schools. Thirty-two of the classrooms had utilized a reform curriculum for 5 years prior to conducting the study, and the remaining 26 had been using the conventional curriculum. Each of the 58 teachers was videotaped for 3 of his/her classes during a 3-day period and the videotaped class sessions provided the data source for the study. The focus of the study was on the instructional tasks that were implemented in the classrooms and on the teacher and student interaction. Results indicated that a greater proportion of high cognitive level tasks were implemented in the reform classrooms when compared to those in the non-reform classrooms. Numerical symbolic representation as well as single-solution strategies were dominant in the instructional tasks for both groups. However, in the reform classes a higher proportion of instructional tasks were used that involved visual illustrations and hands-on manipulation and multiple-solution strategies. An analysis of classroom discourse showed that most of the teacher questions were related to memorizing exercises and explanations of answers. However, the teachers from the reform classrooms were more likely to ask students to describe the procedure that led to an answer and to inquire further into students’ responses. The results indicated positive changes in classroom practice resulting from implementation of the new curriculum. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The present study addressed the apparent lack of empirical evidence on whether or not the recent curriculum reform in China has influenced classroom practice as intended by this reform. The study focused on two aspects of evidence for changes in classroom instruction: (1) whether or not teachers implemented high-cognitive demand tasks and (2) whether or not teachers fostered productive discussion and provided encouragement for students to share and communicate their ideas. We begin by providing a sketch of the background and conceptualization of the study, then we report the results of the study. Finally, we discuss our interpretations of the results and provide suggestions for future research. * Corresponding author at: Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Ni). 1 The reform curriculum was implemented in People’s Republic of China. Thus, in this special issue, all instances of the word ‘China’ refer to the People’s