With the economic and technological developments of Asian countries in the last two decades, nurturing individuals' capabilities for logical thinking and problem solving have become one of the major foci of secondary education. Being a core subject for developing the fundamental ability of high school students towards systematic and organized ways of thinking, mathematics is no longer a requirement only for students who are going to study science or engineering majors in university but has become a common core subject for whole-person education. In this chapter, we shall investigate the recent development of high school mathematics curricula in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, in coping with the change. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.

This study investigates how teacher background, subject knowledge and pedagogic efficacy affect Grade 4 children's (aged 9-10) mathematical achievement in 10 primary schools in Hong Kong. Mathematics teachers were selected for their strong commitment to teaching mathematics and their pupils' consistently high international mathematics performance. Teacher measures (i.e. level of mathematics education, teaching experience, mathematics subject knowledge, performance in mathematical operations and pedagogic efficacy) were checked for factor consistency and assessed against age-appropriate pupil mathematical achievement. The results showed that teachers were secure in their subject knowledge, and that such knowledge was related to their performance of mathematical operations, but it was high levels of pedagogic efficacy and the ability to perform age-appropriate mathematics operations (rather than subject knowledge) that positively affected their pupils' achievement. These findings contradict ongoing international calls for the enhancement of primary school teachers' mathematical subject knowledge, as they show pedagogic efficacy to be more strongly associated with pupil achievement.
[Copyright of International Journal of Educational Research is the property of Elsevier Ltd.]

What is learning and how could the learning in mathematics be enhanced has fallen into debate for many years. Singapore rank number one in both TIMSS and PISA in 2015. What are the insights we could earned from such competition? Regarding to the facts that Singapore is one of the first countries in implementing the metacognition into their mathematics curriculum in 1990s (Chan & Leung, 2013), metacognition may possible be the answer we are searching for. There is no doubt that textbooks take a very important role in this. White & Mesa (2014) indicated that lecturer rely highly on textbook in their teaching especially the tasks assigned. However, researches with textbooks related to mathematical content and researches on their potential in developing metacognitive knowledge are limited (Mesa, 2004; Mesa, 2010). Especially, comparisons between metacognitive strategies among textbooks in different countries are very limited. Thus the following questions are proposed to be investigated. 1. Does mathematics textbook emphasis enough metacognitive strategies in enhancing students' metacognition? 2. Does the pattern of using metacognitive strategies in mathematics textbooks different among countries/cities? The assessment is divided as seven categories: think aloud, questioning, self-questioning, error detection, group activity, alternative strategies and reflection. It is identical to those suggested by Chan and Leung (2013). Result shows that think aloud is the most popular strategy used in textbooks among Singapore, British and Hong Kong. However, other strategies weight about only 20% in total. It is suggested that more metacognitive ingredients could be added in textbooks in enhancing students' metacognition.

以古德萊德對課程理解框架為參考，此研究從理解和實施的課程層面，調查和比較了北京、臺灣、香港三地數學教師的教科書使用情況，包括教師的備課(教科書內容的理解與評價)和課堂教學(教科書內容的選取、調適和運用)兩部分，並據此分析了三地數學教師與教科書之間的關係。研究發現，從教師對教科書的滿意度和忠誠度的角度來看，三地數學教師明顯呈現不同的教科書使用風格。研究結論對於課程實施和教師專業發展實踐都具有重要的參考意義。
[Copyright © 2017 湖南師範大學.]

中國香港是東西方文化的交融之地。在教育研究的諸多方面，它既有自己的獨特之處，也相容華人世界的共性。透過對中國香港過往30年間數學教育研究成果的系統闡述，從學習、教學法、課程、評估、教師教育等研究領域做出回顧與分析。從分析可見，中國香港數學教育研究已初具規模，在國際學術界亦受到一定的認可，但同時也面臨著一些挑戰，包括學術氛圍的改變等。這些不僅是中國香港教育研究經驗的總結，也能對當前中國內地數學教育現狀和未來的發展提供一些參考和借鑒。
[Copyright © 2017 天津師範大學;中國教育學會.]

比較臺灣、內地和香港三地2000年前後進行的建構主義數學新課程改革的期望課程和實施課程，發現有很多因素限制建構主義課程的實施，如政治因素、考試文化、社會參與、教科書編寫和教師培訓等，而系統的課程評價模式的引入、師範教育的改革以及鼓勵更廣泛的社會參與等是促進課程改革成功的有效策略。
[Copyright © 2011 北京教育科學研究院; 北京廣播電視大學.]

Use of Textbooks: Textbooks, which reflects the curriculum, are an important informant to portray the intended curriculum (Johansson, 2003). They are absolutely a valuable source for teachers (Stodolsky, 1999; Remillard, 2005; Tarr et al., 2006). The research on textbooks benefits substantively to the understanding of a curriculum in a particular region (Thaqi & Gimenez, 2016). Outstanding Performance in Some Regions: Mathematics learning in some Asian regions interests many educators, as the students from these regions have outperformed others in several worldwide mathematical assessments. The PISA report highlights that more than a quarter of students from each of the top-performing regions: Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China), Hong Kong (China) and Chinese Taipei could mathematically verbalize complicated problems (Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016). Another renowned international assessment TIMSS also shows that almost half (i.e. 47-49%) of students at Secondary 2 in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong reach the advanced international benchmark (Mullis et al., 2012). The textbooks adopted by these Asian countries or regions are definitely worth referencing. Textbook Content Analysis: This study selected one textbook from each of these Asian regions and their content was decoded according to a proposed framework called Assessment-Background-Content textbook analysis, which was developed from the textbook context analysis of Incikabi & Tjoe (2013), Huntley (2008), Alajmi (2012) and National Research Council (2004). Textbooks were coded according to their lesson components. Pickle (2012) adapted from Jones’s (2004) coding suggested ten lesson components in identifying units in the textbooks. The ten components include description, definition, question, activity, worked example, oral exercise, follow-up practice, highlight, project, and reflection (Pickle, 2012, p.51). Textbooks in Asian Regions: The proposed presentation will compare the

The paper focuses on the evaluation of the present curriculum in Hong Kong. It discusses the analysis of questionnaires collected from 130 primary schools in Hong Kong. Findings regarding the views of mathematics teachers on the goals of curriculum, teaching content and assessment methods are also presented. Besides the paper discusses the learning and teaching strategies in the mathematics classroom, small class teaching (SCT) has been adopted by most of the schools in the first three years of primary education for about ten years. A lot of research has been conducted to study the efficacy of SCT. Most of the studies confirmed the benefits of SCT. The author made a study of this in 4 primary schools. There were classroom observations for 10 lessons. Whether their teaching can enhance children^ higher order thinking skills will also be investigated. In Hong Kong, the Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA) is an assessment administered at the territory level. It facilitates assessment for learning by providing schools with objective data on students' performances at the end of Key Stages 1-3. This paper examines its efficacy and discusses the public view on it. Teachers are interviewed regarding their views on the mathematics curriculum and their experiences. Children are also interviewed to investigate their interest in mathematics learning. The paper continues to discuss the mathematics curriculum in 3 different countries namely, the United States, the United Kingdom and Mainland China. A brief comparison is made regarding the content of their primary mathematics curricula, the learning and teaching strategies, children^ interest in mathematics learning and the cultural impact on their learning. Moreover, analysis of the cultural differences and contextual factors such as high expectation of parents, keen competition in education may shed light on the design of the mathematics curriculum. Research into comparative studies of the mathematics curricula of major Asian

In response to the Hong Kong government’s call for renewing and enriching “the curricula and learning activities of Science, Technology and Mathematics, and enhance the training of teachers, thereby allowing primary and secondary students to fully unleash their potential in innovation”, the author collaborated with a team of science teacher educators and scientists to develop a new dual major science teacher education programme called Bachelor of Education in Science (BEd(Science)) which prepares competent graduates for teaching two senior secondary science subjects (physics, chemistry or biology) as well as the junior secondary science. Compared with the conventional Bachelor of Science (BSc) programme offered by many other universities, our BEd(Science) has the special programme features of not only offering three kinds of dual majors (physics + chemistry/chemistry + biology/biology + physics) but also deliberately integrating subject knowledge with pedagogical content knowledge in many science courses, practising pedagogy in field experience (to be conducted in school environment) and delivering the programme by a teaching team composed of both scientists and science educators. Apart from five foundation courses in science and science education, there are nine advanced science subject courses plus a subject-specific pedagogy course in each chosen major. Besides, our design of the curriculum content of the BEd(Science) programme is based on a detailed examination of the local school science curricula so that it is ensured to cover all the subject knowledge necessary for the effective teaching of the corresponding school science subject. Hence, those advanced science courses or topics such as advanced quantum mechanics, which are usually required for specific scientific research but are not relevant nor required for the teaching of secondary science, will be replaced by other educational courses or topics which could effectively help school pupils remove their common

The trend to extend science education to include STEM education in the US in the recent decade also takes place in many other countries in the world. In Hong Kong, the future development in education proposed in the Policy Address 2015 included: “The Education Bureau will renew and enrich the curricula and learning activities of Science, Technology and Mathematics, and enhance the training of teachers, thereby allowing primary and secondary pupils to fully unleash their potential in innovation (item 152).” However, the integration of science with technology, mathematics and engineering is still to be established and further research along this line is necessary. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze the written reports in an inquiry project event for a better understanding of STEM activities demonstrated by the primary students. The primary students’ inquiry project reports were chosen from those 140 teams (with 4-5 members in a team) with 1000 primary students who were aged 10-12 participated in the 2015 “Innovations in Science and Environment Studies” event in Hong Kong. Under the main theme of “Go Green at Home”, the participating teams had to present the processes and results of their inquiry projects and to submit a written report which recorded their ideas, methodology and inquiry processes and results. 10 project reports were randomly chosen from each group of outstanding, merit and consolation projects with a total of 30 projects being analyzed. Content analysis was first conducted to code STEM activities demonstrated in each project report. The coded data were then changed into numerical data for quantitative analysis. The results showed that more engineering and science activities were adopted than technology and mathematics activities in the inquiry projects. Outstanding group conducted more STEM activities than the merit and consolation groups and significant group differences existed in science and mathematics activities. Furthermore, science activities