Chinese primary students' mathematical task types preferences

The number of ethnic Chinese students in schools across Australian cities is small but increasing. It is important to understand how these students socialise into the Australian (mathematics) education system, so that we can better facilitate their education experiences in ways which optimise their potential to learn. This paper reports on part of a larger study which seeks to deepen our knowledge in this area. The research question addressed by this paper is: what are the preferences amongst three types of mathematical tasks of Grade 5 and 6 students from Chongqing, China? Through the administration of a questionnaire to 1109 students, it was found that across the topics of Number and Geometry, contextualised tasks were the most preferred by Chinese students. 'Challenging', 'easy to do' and 'involving a model' were students' reasons for preferring particular task types. The significance of providing all students with a diverse range of task types, at the same time providing them with opportunities to be challenged and to experience success, are emphasized.