Western Development Of Mathematics Education A Preliminary Study

Education is of great importance to a nation's prosperity. The strategy of Western China Development put forward by the Fifteenth Conference of Chinese Communist Party has given priority to the development of education. This policy stresses that the education in Western China must be given priority. The Ministry of Education has taken ten strategies to support the development of education in Western China, for example, strengthening national support; promoting the development of Western China's elementary education; carrying out "the project of supporting the poor and their education accordingly"; assisting Western China's middle schools; improving teachers and headmasters' quality in Western China's middle schools; promoting the communication between eastern and western educational departments and school leaders; accelerating the renewal of Western China's educational leaders' ideas, etc. The implementation of these strategies will greatly accelerate the forward step of Western China's education.To accomplish the all-round development of education, we should first achieve the development of every subject. Mathematics is an elementary subject and a subject of great importance. The development of mathematics always has great influence on other subjects. People's studying level of mathematics can also directly affect their study of relative subjects, such as physics, chemistry, biology and computer science. From the above facts, it can be seen that it is most necessary and urgent to strengthen the study of mathematics education in Western China's subject education.Based on the above ideas and a mathematics educator's responsibility, a research into mathematics education in several western areas has been carried out and then this thesis has been written. Mathematics education in Western China cannot be divorced from the macro-environment of Western China's education. In this research, the thesis first discusses the influence of Western China's natural and human environment as well as Western China's education on mathematicseducation from macroscopic point of view, then explores Western China's mathematics education from subject educational point of view.This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter One examines the relation between Western China's development and mathematics education, discusses the significance of the study of Western China's mathematics education and elaborates the basic research ideas and methods. Chapter Two which has two sections is named "Western China's Education and Mathematics Education: Introduction of the Current Situation". Section one analyzes the environment of Western China's education and elaborates the influence of Western China's social environment on Western China's education from the aspects of nationality structure, economic level, culture and customs, etc. Section two describes the current situation of and problems existing in Western China's mathematics education from the perspectives of mathematics education administration, scientific research of mathematics education, evaluation of mathematics education and teachers' quality. Based on the research and from the view of subject educational study, Chapter Three analyzes every factors of Western China's mathematics education in detail: social culture and concepts affected people's need of mathematics education; parents' low educational level and their ignorance towards education failed to help their children form positive educational outlook; mathematics teachers' poor quality is the major reason that caused the poor teaching quality of mathematics; the backward management of mathematics teaching has greatly restricted the development of mathematics education. Chapter Four puts forward countermeasures to solve the problems exist in Western China's education and Western China's mathematics education, including advancing teachers' further education; carrying out the support for Western China's education; training leaders of the subject of mathematics; strengthening teaching research and improving mathematics teachers' qua...