According to The New York Times, Britain will introduce the whole set of Shanghai mathematics textbooks this fall. Starting January 2018, these books will officially enter selected British primary schools. In other words, the math classes of the British pupils will never be the same again.
So how come Britain choose Real Shanghai Mathematics? It turns out that British students have been performing poorly in the PISA tests (a test that scores participants on their performances in mathematics, science, and reading of 15-year-old school pupils in more than 60 countries). In 2015, British students ranked number 27.
Besides kids, adults in the UK are poor at mathematics, too. In 2015, when former Prime Minister David Cameron was giving a speech about education, he refused to answer a simple math question: “what are nine eights?”
Furthermore, National Numeracy, a charity that promotes the importance of numeracy and everyday math, once even stated, “Poor adult numeracy could cost the UK economy GBP20 billion a year.”
The reform of the math education was put on the education department’s agenda and that’s when Shanghai students’ prominent performance at PISA caught their attention.
As the news went viral on the Internet, many netizens have expressed their welcome and expectations.
“I probably would have loved math class had I been taught in the style this Shanghai textbooks uses.” -@Craig Saila
“Look forward to trying out the Chinese resources.”-@vijgos
Of course, there are also people who are against the idea.
“Do we really need all kids to be so well drilled in Mathematics? What is the point of this and who does it benefit?”-@Mike Travis
At the same time, other netizens point out that merely introducing Chinese textbooks is nothing but scratching the surface, since the problem exists in the whole educational system.
Do you like Chinese traditional teaching methods? Do you think introducing Shanghai math textbooks is a good thing for British students? Let us know your thoughts.
