Project details: Cross-national Study of the Generation of Geometrical Knowledge in Lower Secondary School Mathematics
Research Team
1. Mr Keith Jones
2. Liping Ding
3. Taro Fujita
4. Susumu Kunimune
5. Shinya Yamamoto
Funding Body
Duration
January 2002 - December 2007
Grant
£27,000
Description
The project is supported by a University of Southampton School of Education Scholarship and ORS award 2005037007.
This focus for this project is analysing the approaches to the teaching of geometrical ideas in secondary mathematics and is currently examining teaching approaches in China, Japan and the UK.
School geometry is commonly regarded as a key topic in which to develop students' deductive reasoning and creative thinking. Yet while deductive reasoning is central to making progress in mathematics, it remains the case that pupils at the secondary school level have great difficulty in making the transition to this form of reasoning. This study focuses on analysing the teaching approaches employed in different socio-cultural contexts, China, England and Japan, selected because they have long established, but contrasting, pedagogic traditions. The study aims to make a significant contribution to the development of pedagogic theory in the area of the teaching of geometry. The intention is to test and, where appropriate, develop, the van Hiele model of geometry learning through analysing current geometry curricula at the secondary school level in the selected countries. Teaching approaches to geometry are being examined through sampling teaching material, questionnaires to teachers, and classroom observation. The outcomes are intended to inform the development of school geometry curricula to take account of new teaching methods and new technology.
Outcomes
Peer Reviewed Papers
Ding, L and Jones, Keith (2006) "Teaching geometry in lower secondary
school in Shanghai, China." Proceedings of the British Society for Research
into Learning Mathematics, 26, (1), 41-45.
Fujita, T. and Jones, K. (2002) "Opportunities for the development of geometrical reasoning in current textbooks in the UK and Japan." Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 22, (3), 79-84.. ISSN: 1463-6840
Selection of International Conference Papers
Ding, L. & Jones, K. (2006), "Students’ Geometrical Thinking Development at Grade 8 in Shanghai", In Novotná, J., Moraová, H., Krátká, M. & Stehlíková, N. (Eds.), Proceedings 30th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME30),Prague, Czech Republic, PME, p.382.
Jones, K., Fujita, T. & Ding, L. (2006), "Informing the pedagogy for geometry: learning from teaching approaches in China and Japan", Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 26(2),
Jones, K., Fujita, T. and Ding, L. (2005) "Teaching geometrical reasoning:
learning from expert teachers from China and Japan". Proceedings of the
British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics , 25 , 89-96.
Jones, Keith, Fujita, Taro and Ding, Liping (2005) Developing geometrical reasoning in the classroom: learning from expert teachers from China and Japan. In, 4th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME4), Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, 17-21 February 2005. , 10pp.
Fujita, T. and Jones, K. (2003) "Critical review of geometry in current textbooks in lower secondary schools in Japan and the UK." In, Pateman, N. A., Dougherty, B. J. and Zilliox, J. (eds.) Proceedings 27th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA, PME, p.220.
Fujita, Taro and Jones, Keith (2003) "Interpretations of national curricula: the case of geometry in Japan and the UK." In, British Educational Research Association annual conference 2003 (BERA2003), Edinburgh, Scotland, 11-13 September 2003. , 10pp.
