A Study On The Generation Of Mathematical Literacy In Teaching

With the wide application of mathematics in real life and technological development, it becomes a common concern to enhance students' mathematical literacy in the field of world-wide study on mathematical teaching. Since 1980s, the teaching curriculums (also known as the mathematics curriculum standard) for primary school and high school have advanced definitely the requirement of "enhancing students' mathematical literacy". Moreover, the new-round of basic education reform is right under its way following the footsteps of quality education, enhancing students' subject literacy has become the key to the implementation of quality education. However, neither the curriculum standard nor the teaching curriculum of mathematics illustrates the connotation and denotation of mathematical literacy, resulting in the fact that many teachers substitute the teaching of mathematical knowledge for the generation of mathematical literacy, taking the achievement of mathematics exam as the only standard to evaluate students' mathematical literacy. Therefore, the investigation into the teaching strategies on the generation of student-oriented mathematical literacy has become crucial in solving the problems of mathematical education both home and abroad by way of sorting out the connotation of mathematical literacy, systematic analysis of its generative mechanism as well as the survey on the status quo and influential factors of the mathematical literacy in China.Many methodologies are adopted in this study, such as literature review, systematic analysis, survey, comparison, works analysis and experiments. First of all, based on the literature review both home and broad, the connotations and features of mathematical literacy are analyzed, the meaning and constituent of mathematical literacy are explained from the generative perspective, and its generative mechanism is analyzed, then based on the survey of the status quo and the influential factors of ninth grade students, this dissertation constructed initially the teaching strategies pointing to the generation of mathematical literacy and experiment is carried out, the following initial conclusions are reached:First, the meaning and constitutes of mathematical literacy. Mathematical literacy refers to a kind of comprehensive characteristics that the subject shows in the real situation through experience, comprehension and reflection on mathematics on the basis of the mathematical experience. These characteristics include situational, individual, synthetic, explicit and generative. Mathematical literacy consists of mathematical knowledge, mathematical application, the thinking approach, mathematical way of thinking, and mathematical spirit.Secondly, the status quo of students' mathematical literacy and the influential factors in the generation of the mathematical literacy are discussed. The improved PISA as research instrument is adopted, and 878 junior middle school students are used as subjects. Conclusions are reached as follows. Holistically speaking, in China, much emphasis is placed on mathematical knowledge, the overall enhancement of mathematical literacy is neglected; from the viewpoint of the situation that mathematical literacy is concerned, much importance is attached to the mathematical knowledge and the conventional application of skills, while the application in real, diverse, and open question situation is ignored; in the aspect of generative process of mathematical literacy, we pay much attention to the solution of mathematical problems, neglecting the inducement to the ability of solving the problem and the experience, apprehension, reflection and performance in this process. With respect to the curriculum resource that mathematical literacy is generated, classroom teaching is much valued, whereas the applied mathematics in social life is overlooked.Studies on the relevant influential factors in the generation of mathematical literacy show that students' mathematical literacy is positively correlated to the following factors such as interest and motivation in learning and using mathematics, mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics self-concept, processing strategies, control strategies, competitive learning, student-teacher relations and learning atmosphere. Among which, the mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics self-concept, control strategies and learning atmosphere are in significantly positive correlation to mathematical literacy; mathematics anxiety, memorization strategies, cooperative learning and teacher support is negatively correlated, while mathematics anxiety, memorization strategies and teacher support are significantly negatively correlated to mathematical literacy.Thirdly, the initial construction and experiment of teaching strategies pointing to the generation of mathematical literacy are studied. Based on the status quo and the influential factors of mathematical literacy in teaching, together with its generative mechanism, this dissertation advances the initial teaching strategies pointing to the generation of mathematical literacy; it is problem-motivated in real situation, pointing to every aspect of mathematical literacy; takes the diverse teaching activities as the carrier, leading students to experience, apprehend, reflect and perform; takes the transformation of student-teacher relation as means to mediate teachers' support and students' autonomy; depends on the application of mathematics in real life to develop teaching resource shifting from course-book to social life; takes real, diverse and open questions as the instrument to arouse and induce students to perform mathematical literacy. The experiment shows that the teaching strategies pointing to the generation of mathematical literacy significantly influence the generation of students' mathematical literacy.Based on the above-mentioned result, the suggestion that mathematics teaching should be shifted from the impartation of mathematical knowledge to the generation of mathematical literacy is advanced. That is, the generation of mathematical literacy is taken as the destination of quality education in the mathematical subject education, starting from the status quo and the influential factors of mathematical literacy, on the basis of the generative mechanism of mathematical literacy, aiming to the meaning and its constituents and pointing to the teaching strategies on the generation of mathematical literacy.The innovation of this dissertation lies in the following: firstly, the mathematical literacy is defined and its constituents are analyzed from the perspective of the generation of mathematical literacy, thus providing a new thought for the implementation of quality education in the subject of mathematics. Secondly, it is the first time that the correlation between the status quo and the influential factors and the mathematical literacy is investigated and analyzed, thus setting a solid foundation for further study in this field. Thirdly, it systematically probed the generative mechanism of the mathematical literacy, and in combination with the status quo and the influential factors of the mathematical literacy, this dissertation constructs the teaching strategies pointing to the generation of mathematical literacy and experiment is carried out. In respect to the methodology, a route of "from theoretical analysis to the investigation into the status quo, to the strategy construction and the empirical test of the strategies" about the study on mathematical literacy is put forward.Further study is needed in the following aspects: for one thing, this dissertation mainly emphasizes the teaching study on mathematical literacy, especially on its meaning and constituents, generative mechanism, the status quo and the teaching strategies. For another, the evaluative standard on the mathematical literacy still leave room further study; the teaching strategies pointing to the generation of mathematical literacy this study constructed are only testified in preliminary experiment, it needs to be improved and perfected.