A Study Of Mathematic Literacy Of The Ninth Grade Students In Minority Regions

Nowadays, to develop students’ mathematic literacy is the main target of the mathematical education in junior high schools. Thus, in order to explore the current situation of the ninth grade students’ mathematic literacy in minority areas of Gansu Province, the study is mainly aiming at answering three questions, which are students and teachers’ understanding on mathematic literacy, the characteristics of the students’ mathematic literacy and the factors of influencing mathematic literacy. Referencing the concept of the PISA mathematic literacy and the assessment tools, selecting the ninth grade students and mathematics teachers in minority areas of Gansu Province as the participants, the study uses the methods of literature analysis, investigation and comparative study. Interviewing students and teachers to find out their understanding on mathematics literacy at first, and based on analysis of test data to explore the characteristics of the students’ mathematic literacy, questionnaire investigation factors at last, which affect the students’ mathematic literacy, the study expects to fully understanding the current situation of the ninth grade students’ mathematic literacy in minority areas in Gansu Province.Research results show that: 1.Some of the ninth grade students in minority areas in Gansu Province are familiar with mathematic literacy, but the way of getting information is single and lack of family education and social influence. The goals of mathematics learning weaken knowledge and skills acquisition while focusing on the mathematical thinking. Students like to experience fine affection throughout mathematics learning while concerning about math test scores, but do not find the importance of the problem-solving and ignore the relationship between mathematics and personal or social development; 2.The mathematic performance of the majority of the ninth grade students in minority areas in Gansu Province is good, but a phenomenon of group polarization also exists. There is a big gap between different student groups. Different Gender and age are not the main factors which affect students’ mathematic literacy. Although there are quite a number of students in villages and towns can overcome background difference and show perfect mathematic performance, but significant difference is found in students’ mathematical literacy development level between urban and rural areas. The level of students’ mathematic literacy development imbalance between different ethnic groups, shows the distinctive regional nationalities characteristics; 3. In terms of the ninth grade students in minority areas in Gansu Province, parental involvement, learning interests, learning strategies, sense of belonging for schools, the relationship between teachers and students are able to develop students’ mathematic literacy. Among them, the students’ mathematic learning strategy, lower math anxiety and harmonious relationship between teachers and students is significantly positively related to students’ mathematic literacy; 4.Mathematic teachers’ understanding on mathematic literacy come from their teaching practice. Teachers ignore problem-solving of the life background, and they have appropriate amount of mathematics class hours at school. The education background of teacher corps is mainly bachelor degree. As to the ratio of students to teacher, urban junior high school is upper than township schools. Multimedia equipments and computer-based resources are allocated to schools while different schools having different resources quantity. All schools offer Chinese lessons, besides the native language, students also prefer to learn Chinese. Teachers think the key of the development of mathematic literacy is that if students can try their best to trigger their potential to learn mathematics.The study suggests that: 1.Creating a good campus culture climate, teacher should guide students to reasonable application of modern information technology on mathematical reading and encourages students to pay attention to the campus life and social affairs in order to develop their mathematical thinking and practice; 2. Teacher should pay attention to students “mathematicalization” in the math teaching process, focusing on the difference of students according to their aptitude, and developing the ability to apply the mathematics knowledge and skills to solve practical problems;3.Teacher should pay more attention to the evaluation process, caring about students affection and attitude in the process of mathematics learning; 4. In order to have a mathematical teaching to the point, math teachers should consider about the actual situation of their school mathematics education, connecting students background information, in-depth analysis of various environmental factors which influence student’s mathematics learning;5.Reducing the unnecessary work of mathematics teachers, taking care of their living environment of rural teachers and theirs professional development, innovating mechanism of school development and guaranteeing the right of teachers, authorities should focus on mathematics teacher corps’ development in minority regions.