Curriculum initiatives in both primary and secondary mathematics are nderway in Hong Kong. New visions of learning and teaching expected to be found in the new curricula would make new demands on teachers: to help students to investigate, to explore, to discover mathematics, to solve mathematical problems, to learn and to appreciate mathematical structures, to enjoy mathematics, and to prepare themselves for a rapidly changing technological world. Are the teachers of mathematics sufficiently prepared for the new curriculum ? Because teaching and learning is so complex, there can be many factors which influence students' achievement and attitude in mathematics. However, it cannot be denied that a teacher's classroom practices and his/her abilities in implementing the curriculum could be one of the many factors affecting students' chance of acquiring the relevant knowledge, skills and attitude. To enable an informed planning of the Refresher Training Course (Secondary) (RTC(S)) with particular reference to the teaching methodologies part offered to course participants taking mathematics as an elective, the general and specific teaching strategies acquired by some of the inservice teachers of secondary mathematics were studied. A questionnaire of two parts was constructed. The first part was intended to elicit the general practices by teachers, and the second part teacher activities relating to the specific strategies in the teaching of mathematical skills, concepts and principles. An unstructured group interview was conducted after each part of the questionnaire was completed, results collected, processed, and distributed. The first part of the questionnaire consists of open ended questions.The teachers were asked to state the most and least frequently used teaching strategies during their last two weeks of mathematics teaching. Only three teachers claimed to use the discovery teaching often and the rest teachers simply used exposition as the only means in order to cover

The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) is the main provider of teacher education programmes in Hong Kong; the courses offered range from sub-degree, degree, to post- graduate levels. This study reported on a study which aimed to find out the beliefs about mathematics teaching held by a group of mathematics student teachers taking a Certificate in Education programme. The study made use of the Beliefs About Teaching Mathematics (BTM) Questionnaire developed by Van Zoest et al. (1994). The questionnaire was administered to a group of student teachers enrolled in the Mathematics Teaching Methodology Module of the HKIEdÑof which the author was the lecturer in chargeÑat the start of the semester. The paper will report on the findings and discuss the implications for designing a mathematics methodology course.

Constructivist theory of learning is employed in delivering mathematics methodology modules in the Two-year Full-time Certificate in Education (Secondary) Programme in the Hong Kong Institute of Education, where I am working. This paper aims to determine second year student mathematics teachers’ teaching strategies which they acquired after attending a Methods I module in their first year of study, and changes in their practices after attending a second methodology module (Methods II) in their second year. In their first year of study, Chinese student mathematics teachers had been taught in Methods I the various teaching models, for example, specific methods in concept and skill teaching, and the general discovery and expository strategies. Discussion and application of the models were further enhanced in the Methods II module in the second year of study. On the basis of these teaching models, a questionnaire of 64 items of specific teacher activities was designed. It was administered to the class of students at the start of the first semester in their second year of study. Students were asked to indicate the frequency of using each stated teacher activity on a 5-point frequency scale (from “almost never” to “almost always”). Methods II was then offered to these students. At the end of the module, the same questionnaire was administered again. A focus group meeting was also held at the same time. Results showed that student teachers very often tested their pupils’ prior knowledge at the start of the lesson, and they became more aware of building mathematics learning on pupils’ prior experience. Exposition of mathematics content was still preferred; some time was set aside during the lesson to offer guidance to their pupils. Nevertheless, they provided little opportunities for pupils to express themselves and to explore mathematics (e.g., in small-group discussion, in playing mathematical games, and in computer-assisted learning). In the focus group meeting, student teachers