Relationship between Chinese mathematics teachers’ knowledge and their professional noticing

Although research on teachers’ noticing in mathematics education has significantly increased over the last decade, little is known about the relationship between teachers’ noticing and teachers’ knowledge as an influential basis of their professional noticing. This paper examines this relationship based on a study involving 203 in-service Chinese mathematics teachers. The results suggest that the different components of teacher knowledge influence teacher noticing differently. Among others, the sub-facets of teachers’ noticing, “interpretation and decision-making,” have a stronger correlation with teachers’ knowledge than the sub-facet “perception.” However, due to social and cultural differences between Eastern and Western countries, the study did not identify strong connections, as expected from the results of studies carried out in Western countries. Instead, rather weak overall connections between mathematics teachers’ knowledge and their noticing could be identified reflecting specific features of Chinese culture.