TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of large-scale studies on mathematics education policy in Taiwan through the lens of societal and cultural characteristics
AU - Lin, Fou-Lai
AU - Wang, Ting Ying
AU - Chang, Yu Ping
N1 - Funding Information:
Based on the TIMSS 2003 findings indicating the substantial proportion of low-achieving Taiwanese students and the high percentage of students with low interest and confidence in learning mathematics, the Taiwanese government realized the severity of the problems in mathematics education and established a vision. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan conducted
Funding Information:
To address the unsolved problems in mathematics education, a second round of policies and pertinent actions was initiated. Regarding policy making, in 2014, the first author’s affiliated institution (i.e., Shi-Da Institute for Mathematics Education), with the support of the Ministry of Education, launched the project JUST DO MATH. Regarding action planned, JUST DO MATH involved two critical ideas based on Piaget’s constructivism (Piaget 1952). The first idea was to help students establish grounding prerequisite ideas before learning a mathematical concept in regular classes instead of helping them learn mathematics topic through remedial instruction after they had failed to learn that topic. This strategy aimed to bridge the gap between what students already knew and what they were expected to learn in the mathematics curriculum, thereby facilitating meaningful learning in regular classes (Ausubel 1961; Bennett and Desforges 1988).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, FIZ Karlsruhe.
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - This paper discusses the effects of large-scale studies, including international comparative studies and national studies using nationally representative samples, on policy making and practices pertinent to mathematics education in Taiwan, through the lens of Taiwanese societal and cultural characteristics. Taiwan has been through several successful and unsuccessful initiatives to apply the findings of large-scale studies to change or formulate policies with regard to mathematics curricula, assessment reform, approaches to teaching and learning mathematics for specific groups of students, and criteria for primary school teacher certification. Examination of these policy initiatives may reveal the mechanisms of success and failure when applying large-scale study results to education reform. These education reform insights may provide valuable information to other countries.
AB - This paper discusses the effects of large-scale studies, including international comparative studies and national studies using nationally representative samples, on policy making and practices pertinent to mathematics education in Taiwan, through the lens of Taiwanese societal and cultural characteristics. Taiwan has been through several successful and unsuccessful initiatives to apply the findings of large-scale studies to change or formulate policies with regard to mathematics curricula, assessment reform, approaches to teaching and learning mathematics for specific groups of students, and criteria for primary school teacher certification. Examination of these policy initiatives may reveal the mechanisms of success and failure when applying large-scale study results to education reform. These education reform insights may provide valuable information to other countries.
KW - Curriculum
KW - Large-scale study
KW - Policy making
KW - Societal and cultural characteristics
KW - Teacher certification
KW - Teaching and learning approaches
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U2 - 10.1007/s11858-018-0938-0
DO - 10.1007/s11858-018-0938-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049419860
SN - 1863-9690
VL - 50
SP - 587
EP - 600
JO - ZDM - Mathematics Education
JF - ZDM - Mathematics Education
IS - 4
ER -
