US-funded international survey gives tops marks for lesson quality, but only as an appendix in report critical of teaching
A local academic who contributed to a major international study of mathematics has criticised the final report for downplaying Hong Kong strengths in teaching the subject.
The results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 Video Study, a supplement to the Timms 1999 student assessment, highlight weaknesses in the way maths is taught here.
Quantitative data in the main report shows that Hong Kong maths teachers spend too much time talking to the whole class and lecturing about problems unrelated to real life. But qualitative data in the appendix indicates that lessons here are of a high quality and that students are fully engaged in class.
Dr Leung Koon-shing, national research co-ordinator for the Hong Kong segment of TIMSS and education professor at University of Hong Kong, said his team had tried to negotiate with the US government, which funded and administered the test, to include the appendix as part of the main report in order to give a more accurate picture of countries' performances.
'If this research had been released in Clinton's day the appendix probably would have been in the main report,' he said during a seminar this week to release the results.
'The qualitative analysis looked at each lesson as a whole, while the quantitative cut the lessons into pieces to measure different things. Placing it in the appendix reflects that the US has more confidence in quantitative rather than qualitative research, which is debatable,' he said.