Past research on Chinese mathematics teaching has focused mainly on the role of teacher's beliefs and professional knowledge separately in teaching approaches, or examined three variables—teacher's beliefs, professional knowledge and teaching approaches—in correlational studies. How teaching beliefs and professional knowledge specifically influence teaching approaches remained largely unclear. Also, most studies have focused on pre-service or elementary school teachers in the West. There is a need to know whether these conceptual frameworks can be applied and adapted to the Chinese teaching context at the secondary level.
