Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers’ Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States

The 20th anniversary edition of this groundbreaking and bestselling volume offers powerful examples of the mathematics that can develop the thinking of elementary school children.

Studies of teachers in the U.S. often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. Yet, these studies give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by reforms in mathematics education. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics describes the nature and development of the knowledge that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such knowledge seems more common in China than in the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts.

Along with the original studies of U.S. and Chinese teachers’ mathematical understanding, this 20th anniversary edition includes a new preface and a 2013 journal article by Ma, A Critique of the Structure of U.S. Elementary School Mathematics that describe differences in U.S. and Chinese elementary mathematics. These are augmented by a new series editor’s introduction and two key journal articles that frame and contextualize this seminal work.