Southampton Education School were pleased to welcome visitors from China on Tuesday 6th October 2015. Professor Shiqi Li from East China Normal University gave a seminar on “The Shanghai maths approach: An analysis based on a geometry lesson”. The seminar proved popular, with a good number of local teachers and research students attending. Professor Li illustrated his talk with some stills from a video of a geometry lesson and was able to share some interesting points from his first hand experience of secondary school teaching in China. Questions at the end of the seminar drew out some of the key differences in both school practice and culture between China and England. Professor Li was clear about the importance of careful, deliberately designed practice through variation provided using contexts and hierarchy. He helpfully suggested that instead of “practices makes perfect” we should be using “fluency makes skilled” and that “creativity is based on well-mastered foundations” because “foundations without creativity is blind” and “creativity without foundation is empty”. The “sink or swim” analogy he shared ( credited to Professor Lynn Paine) where American students are taken to the sea and pushed in whereas Chinese stents are taken to the pool and carefully guided, also provided those present with food for thought. One centre member created the following storify:
https://storify.com/cbokhove/mshe-seminar-on-shanghai-maths