The combination of training, recruitment, and
job conditions that prevails in China helps produce
a level of teaching excellence that Ma calls PUFM,
“profound understanding of fundamental mathematics”.
PUFM and how it is attained is the concern
of Chapters 5 and 6. It is important to understand
that PUFM involves more than subject matter expertise,
vital as that is; it also involves how to communicate
that subject matter to students. Education
involves two fundamental ingredients: subject
matter and students. Teaching is the art of getting
the students to learn the subject matter. Doing this
successfully requires excellent understanding of
both. As simple and obvious as this proposition
may seem, it is often forgotten in discussions of
mathematics education in the U.S., and one of the
two core ingredients is emphasized over the other.
In K–12 education the tendency is to emphasize
knowing students over knowing subject matter,
while at the university level the emphasis is frequently
the opposite. (This cultural difference may
well be part of the reason some university mathematicians
have reacted negatively to the NCTM
Standards. The emphasis on teaching methods
over subject matter is prominent in the recommendations
and “vignettes” of this document.)
Both these views of teaching are incomplete.