Besuch aus Taiwan am IPN: Im Gespräch mit Kristin Litteck und Pin-Chen Guo

Die Abteilung Didaktik der Mathematik am IPN konnte erneut internationalen Besuch begrüßen: Pin-Chen Guo, Doktorand bei Prof. Dr. Kai-Lin Yang an der National Taiwan Normal University in Taipeh. Er arbeitete während seines rund einwöchigen Aufenthalts gemeinsam mit Dr. Kristin Litteck aus der Arbeitsgruppe von Prof. Dr. Aiso Heinze an einem deutsch-taiwanischen Kooperationsprojekt zum Wissen zum Ableitungsbegriff im Mathematikunterricht der Oberstufe.

Das aktuelle Projekt mit Kai-Lin Yang entstand 2023 während eines Besuchs von Kristin Litteck und Aiso Heinze in Taiwan. Es gliedert sich in die langjährige Kooperation von Kai-Lin Yang und Aiso Heinze ein, die 2016 in das Taiwanese-German Research Network TaiGer mündete, dessen Initiierung durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) und dem Taiwanesischem Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) gefördert wurde. Zum aktuellen Projekt liegen inzwischen schon erste Ergebnisse vor, die in mehrere gemeinsame wissenschaftliche Artikel einfließen. Im Mittelpunkt der Forschung steht der Vergleich von Schulbüchern und Schülerleistungen in Deutschland und Taiwan mit Blick auf das Wissen zu Ableitungen – einem zentralen Thema in der Oberstufenanalysis.

Wir haben die Gelegenheit genutzt und mit beiden über ihre Forschung sowie die Zusammenarbeit gesprochen (Interview auf Englisch):

IPN: Welcome, Mr. Guo, to Kiel and the IPN! How has your experience in Germany been so far? What has impressed or surprised you the most?

Pin-Chen Guo: Thank you for the warm welcome! It’s been a wonderful experience in Germany so far — everyone has been so energetic and kind. Something I’ve come to notice and admire during my visit is the strong sense of discipline. Whether it’s in the way researchers dedicate themselves to their work, how people follow rules in daily life, or how students participate actively in class, it really left a strong impression on me.Also, as someone from a subtropical country, seeing sunlight at 9 PM was a pleasant surprise! It gave me the sense that the day was longer, which somehow made it easier to stay focused and energized throughout the visit.It’s small things like this that have made the experience both enriching and memorable.

IPN: Dr. Litteck, how did the idea for this research collaboration with Pin-Chen Guo come about?

Kristin Litteck: Two years ago, Aiso Heinze and I had the opportunity to visit both the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and the University of Taipei. During this visit, I was honored to give a presentation on my research at NTNU, where I first met Kai-Lin Yang. Aiso Heinze and Kai-Lin Yang have a long-standing collaboration in mathematics education. Building on this initial contact and my earlier work on students’ understanding of derivatives, the three of us began discussing a potential joint project.

IPN: Your project focuses on the teaching and learning of the concept of derivative. Why is this topic particularly relevant for cross-national comparison?

Pin-Chen Guo: To my knowledge, research on calculus education has a long history, but much of it focuses on Western countries, with less attention given to perspectives from East Asia. From the aforementioned presentation by Kristin Litteck, we realized that there are significant differences in how the concept of derivative is taught. For example, in Taiwan, teaching often spends a lot of time on limits of functions before introducing derivatives, while less emphasis is placed on the concept of the difference quotient in textbooks. Of course, cross-national comparison not only illuminates alternative instructional pathways but also challenges assumptions that may be taken for granted within a single national context. In doing so, it opens up new possibilities for curriculum design, teacher education, and student learning.

IPN: What is it like working together across time zones and cultures? What have you learned from each other?

Kristin Litteck: From my perspective, the collaboration with Pin-Chen Guo has been tremendously fruitful. Taiwanese perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning differ in meaningful ways from German ones. I believe that this exchange of ideas is enriching for both sides.

Pin-Chen Guo: As I mentioned earlier, researchers at the IPN appear to be highly focused, determined, and effective in their work. When collaborating with Kristin Litteck, I found myself becoming more concentrated than usual, which I believe contributed to greater productivity. And, sharing our experiences in teaching and learning, as well as classroom observations from our own countries, has been extremely valuable in interpreting some of the research findings. This kind of exchange is unique to cross-national collaboration and is difficult to achieve within a single country, even when working with data from multiple nations.

Kristin Litteck: As far as the different time zones are concerned, it's always funny when the Taiwanese colleagues close our morning video conferences with a “Have a nice evening!”.

IPN: What have been the most surprising findings in your comparison so far – either regarding textbooks or student understanding?

Pin-Chen Guo: Our research on student understanding is still in the early stages, but we have already observed some interesting differences in the textbooks acress several dimensions. One aspect I particularly appreciate in German textbooks is the frequent use of real-world contexts. This might reflect the long-standing emphasis on mathematical modeling in the German curriculum. In contrast, Taiwanese textbooks often include a roughly equal mix of abstract and concrete analysis units, and more emphasize pure mathematical applications, such as finding a tangent line equation.

Kristin Litteck: To me, one of the most surprising findings so far are the different roles of textbooks in Taiwan and Germany. In Taiwan, textbooks are government-approved and teachers use every task and instruction from the book as instructed. In Germany, on the other hand, the textbooks are more of a resource that teachers may draw from selectively, often supplementing or replacing them with their own materials.

IPN: You’re currently working on a joint publication. Can you share a little about the process and your goals with this article?

Pin-Chen Guo: The article we are currently working on is a textbook analysis study. Rather than simply identifying differences between Taiwanese and German textbooks, we aim to interpret these differences through the lens of each country’s educational traditions. To achieve this, we have not only shared our perspectives and experiences with the respective curricula, but also reviewed previous, about two decades of comparative research from both Taiwan and Germany.Through this, we hope to outline systematic differences and contribute to a deeper understanding of how national contexts and culture shape curriculum design, ultimately informing more culturally responsive approaches to mathematics education.

IPN: What are the next steps in your research? Will there be a follow-up study or further collaboration planned?

Kristin Litteck: Yes, there is further collaboration that is intended for this project. So far, we have analyzed and compared the approaches used by textbooks to introduce the concept of derivative in upper secondary school. Recently, a test that we have used previously in Germany has been employed in Taiwan to measure students’ knowledge about the concept of derivative. As a next step, we want to analyze this data to determine the extent to which the teaching approaches identified in our textbook analysis influence the knowledge that students acquire in school. I am excited to continue this fruitful collaboration and to explore how our findings can contribute to a deeper understanding of teaching and learning the concept of derivative.