Abstract
In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued Guidelines for Preschool
Education (GPE) (trial version) to call on early childhood practitioners to use a child-centered
and play-based approach to teaching and learning. The guidelines also include mathematics
within the science domain and described its standards in a way that significantly lessens the
teacher’s role as knowledge disseminator. Instead, the guidelines encourage mathematics
learning and teaching through play, self-discovery, and problem solving. This qualitative case
study examined one kindergarten teacher’s implementation of and associated challenges in
delivering mathematics lessons from a newly developed integrated provincial curriculum (PC)
and the quality of instruction as influenced by using a curriculum that is organized around
thematic units. The analysis of the curriculum, ten videotaped lessons, two teacher interviews,
and other supporting documents, such as student work and teacher lesson plans, indicated that
the teacher encountered difficulties implementing the PC as intended due to a number of
factors, including inadequate curricular resources, incoherency of the curriculumdesign, and a
mismatch between the mathematics standards and curriculum goals and the teacher’s
instructional style and teaching philosophy. As a result, the quality of mathematics instruction
was poor, especially in the areas of (1) using effective teaching strategies, (2) providing clear
and accurate instruction with a positive attitude, (3) engaging students in sustained interactions
with mathematical ideas, and (4) offering on-going assessment and feedback. To close,
recommendations for curriculum refinement and professional development are provided.
