Jinglei YANG’s research while affiliated with Changshu Institute of Technology and other places

To study the implementation of new mathematics curriculum in primary schools, we focused on how teachers use letter to represent number, an important content in algebra. Three experienced teachers were selected from three primary schools in China (mainland). Four lessons of each teacher were observed, and interviews with teachers and students were recorded after each lesson. Based on the objectives of curriculum standards, classroom teaching was examined in four strands (knowledge and skills, mathematical thinking, solving problem, and affect and attitude). It was found that these teachers' teaching showed great similarities in the four strands. They intended to enhance students' abilities of using letter to represent quantitative relation in realistic situations, and improve students' deductive reasoning, and encourage them to explore and explain different ways in solving problem. However, some aspects in the four strands were overlooked in their classroom practice.

The study selected the topic of translation of quadratic functions. In order to explore some effective instructional strategies to help students understand this topic, an experienced teacher was chosen for a case study. Based on lesson observation and semi-structure interviews, this study found that the teacher employed various strategies to facilitate students understanding of translations of quadratic functions.