Return to search

Same numbers, different standards : A minor field study of mathematic teaching in an elementary school in Thailand

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how teachers, in a private school in Thailand, organize and plan their mathematic teaching, what material they use and how the teachers challenge the students. In the background, we report briefly about Thailand and the school's history. Then a presentation follows of previous research that has been made within our chosen subject. The theories are linked to our research questions, such as mathematic teaching, mathematic material and gifted students, according to Western literature. You can also find a short summary of the curriculum for mathematics, from the government in Thailand. Trough a qualitative method five interviews with mathematic teachers and observations in their classes have been conducted and this result have been analyzed and discussed. Interview and observation guides were used with the purpose to give the respondents room to develop their reasoning with the help of our follow- up questions. Trough our interviews and observations we have come to a result that shows that the teachers organized their teaching according to a Brain based learning pattern and after the governments curriculum. The mathematic material consisted of mathematic books, laminated sticks, bars, number cards and also of computer programs. The mathematic books were not individualized but played a significant part of the teaching. The plastic material was used to concretize the mathematics. The school had the idea that separating the gifted students from the others in the group was positive for their development. The gifted students were challenged by more difficult mathematics meant for older students and had to work at a higher pace than their peers. The results can not be generalized for all schools in Thailand. When the study is relatively small, it only shows how a part of the mathematics teaching is implemented at the school where the study was conducted.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-11912
Date January 2011
CreatorsOlsson, Rebecca, Petersson, Isabell, Williamsson, Emilie
PublisherLinnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, fysik och matematik, DFM, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, fysik och matematik, DFM, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, fysik och matematik, DFM
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Page generated in 0.0018 seconds