An infiltrative approach to reform mathematics teaching: An analysis of Chinese middle school teachers' lessons

This study examines the changed and persistent characteristics of mathematics lesson structures, focuses, and activities that Chinese middle school teachers developed under the influences of mathematics teaching reform and the existing contexts of teaching. Drawing on lesson description and interview data, it found that most participants changed their lessons by infiltrating the ideas and activities as envisioned by the reform curriculum into their traditional lesson structure without revamping their lessons. Such an infiltrative approach to reforming their mathematics teaching supports the assumption that the nature of mathematics teaching is culturally scripted. Consequently, teaching change is inevitably gradual and incremental shaped by the existing curriculum, assessment, and teaching contexts in which teaching practices are situated.