Soviet Math (teaching method)

choi

Ellen Gamerman, US Parents See Fresh Solutions in Russian Math. Wall Street Journal, Feb 21, 2023, at page A12
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rus ... tion-trend-b08b0eb5

Note:
(a) This article appears in the "Personal Journal" section that spans about three pages and features exhibitions reviews, popular tech (such as new gadgets), sports, cars, fashions and trends -- between pages for news and that (the third page from the last) for columns and book review (the penultimate page and the last in section are for editorial and op-eds, respectively).
(b) What is Soviet Math?
(i) Mom Baked Pies. Russian Math Tutors, May 7, 2020
https://russianmathtutoring.com/2020/05/07/mom-baked-pies/
("Mom baked pies – three with rice, three with beans and one with cherries – and laid them on a dish in a circle.
Then she put the dish in the microwave to warm. All the pies look exactly alike. Masha knows how they were arranged, but does
not know how the dish spun around in the microwave. She wants to eat a cherry pie, and the rest considers not very tasty. How can Masha achieve this by biting into as few tasteless pies as possible?")

There is no answer (in this Web page)!
(ii) I browse the Web and find no definition about Soviet or Russian math.
(iii) The only question of Soviet or Russia math that I can unearth is:
(A) What is Russian Math, Anyway?  Russian School of Mathematics, undated
https://blog.russianschool.com/what-is-russian-math
(B) Russian School of Mathematics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_School_of_Mathematics
(section 2 History)

choi

PISA

Note:
(a) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) PISA (Program for Student Assessment)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr ... _Student_Assessment
(table; "measuring 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. It was first performed in 2000 and then repeated every three years. * * * The results of the 2018 data collection were released on 3 December 2019")
(i) PISA. undated
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/
(in the home page's orange column: "OECD member countries and Associates decided to postpone the PISA 2021 assessment to 2022 and the PISA 2024 assessment to 2025 to reflect post-Covid difficulties")
(ii) Also in this home page, the upper right corner is "PISA 2018," whose first item is "PISA 2018 results."
(A) Click it. The new Web page featured a CENTRAL column called "country-specific overviews." Here you can see pupils in United States is offered English only, whereas those in Columbia , English or Spanish AND those in Japan, English or Japanese.

in the RIGHT column, there is
"PISA 2018 test [which is heading]
Try PISA 2018 Test Questions."
(B) Click it. The new Web page shows
• the page title "Try PISA 2018 Test Questions, followed by "Interactive Reading Test Questions[:] Chicken Forum  English | français" (French is listed because PUSA -- and OECD -- is based in Paris). But underneath is "View all language versions of the PISA 2018 Reading Test Questionsm"
where you can see the "Chinese" question for pupils in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei are similar but not identical in wording.
• At the bottom is this new Web page are questions from 2018, as well as older 2015 and 2012. Only the last presents math question, which is extremely easy and fit for third grader at the oldest.
(iii) Continuing from (a)(ii).

https://www.oecd.org/pisa/

Under "PISA 2018," the second item is:
PISA 2018: Insights and Interpretations.
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%2 ... s%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf
• China (People's Republic of) - PISA. PISA, undated
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/china-pisa.htm
("Year of participation*: 2022, 2018, 2015, 2012, 2009
*Shanghai has participated in PISA since 2009. China expanded its participation with Beijing, Jiangsu and Guangdong in PISA 2015 and with Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang in PISA 2018 and PISA 2022 in addition to Shanghai")
, where the top three participants -- in all three categories (reading, math and science) -- were always "B-S-J-Z (China)," Macao (China and Singapore -- in decreasing order.
• The thick vertical line dividing each of the three graphs is the average score. Notice the United States is about No 4 below the average in each graph.
(iv) PISA 2022
(A) PISA 2022 participants. OECD undated
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/pisa-2022-participants.htm
("OECD non-members are marked with an asterisk (*)" )
including China (People's Republic of)*, Hong Kong (China)*, Macao (China)*, Mongolia*, Singapore*, and Chinese Taipei*. Chinese Taipei is listed as if it started with T, rather than C -- same as in Olympics. In addition, Russia was not in.
(B) PISA 2022. Education Counts (New Zealand government), undated
https://www.educationcounts.govt ... onal/pisa/pisa-2022
("Key Facts: PISA 2022
   When: * * * Main Survey: 26 July to 16 September 2022.
   Who: Around 6,300 [New Zealand] students (aged between 15-years-3-months and 16-years-2-months at the time of assessment) will take part in the PISA 2022 Main Survey. These students are randomly sampled from a representative sample of around 200 New Zealand secondary schools. Schools are selected by an international sampling consortium using proportional random sampling techniques. * * *
   Where: 85 countries will take part in PISA 2022, including 38 OECD member countries")
(C) The result of PISA 2022 has not been released to the public.

(b)
(i) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Has Restricted Russia's Participation in International Comparative Studies in the Field of Education Due to the Military Invasion of Ukraine. Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Mar 24, 2022
https://mon.gov.ua/eng/news/oesr ... gnennya-do-ukrayini
, which explains Russia's absence in PISA 2022. See Note (a)(iv)(A).
(ii) However Russia has participated in PISA since 2000 (except 2022, that is). See
Russia will participate in PIRLS-2021 and PISA-2022. Moscow, Russia: Center for International Cooperation in Education Development, "08.04.2021" (I do not know whether it was April or August)
www.ciced.org/russia-will-partic ... 2021-and-pisa-2022/
("Russia has been taking part in the PISA study on a regular basis since 2000")
(iii) PISA 2018: Insights and Interpretations.
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%2 ... s%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf
(cited in Note(a)(iii) ) shows Russia's math performance is just several steps ahead of average.
(v) That is 2018. PISA 2015 has Russia's math ranking about the same. In 2015, in terms of math Singapore was top ranked, while "B-S-J-G (China)" was ranked tenth.
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf