Can we learn from “outside”? A dialogue with a Chinese teacher: the “two basics” as a meaningful approach to mathematics teaching

Abstract

Since many years Confucian heritage students (Chinese ones in particular), acquire leading positions in numerous international scientific programmes and display excellent performance in international assessments as PISA or TIMMS (OECD, 2013). To understand the “reasons” of this excellence we tried to explore some aspects of the cultural background of teaching practices and classroom life in those countries. With this aim a Chinese teacher was interviewed; we asked him about principles, values and beliefs and their impact on teaching/learning Math in classroom. The paper discusses what emerged from this dialogue and in particular from the idea of the “Two Basics” mathematics teaching approach, typical for the Chinese educational context. Furthermore, this work tries to underline (in a implicit or explicit way) similarities and differences between East and West didactical approaches and to define a sort of integration of these in order to improve a better mathematics education for all students.