Introduction: why pedagogy of school mathematics is important for us?

This textbook is designed to empower pre-service teachers to teach mathematics in schools in China. In this chapter, we briefly described the history of mathematics teaching in the West and in China and the history of mathematics education becoming a science. Then we reviewed some hot research issues associated with mathematics education that occurred from the mid-1950s. We selected four research in literature as examples to illustrate the research methods that PSTs could try in future. We hoped to help PSTs understand that having solid mathematical knowledge is not enough to be an excellent teacher. They need to learn professional knowledge and deal with teaching issues basing on research.