Abstract
Stanley, Huang and Zhu (1986) reported a higher percentage of mathematically gifted students in China than in the United States, Taiwan or Singapore. Twenty-one students from a population of 279 were judged by Stanley, et al to mathematically precocious. Despite the fact that the Chinese sample was selected from among the best schools in Shanghai and, therefore, was not realty comparable to the other national populations studied these findings justified decisions made a decade before by Chinese educational authorities to establish special programs for the gifted. In 1978, following a visit by Columbia University Professor and Nobel laureate Tsung Dao Lee, the Chinese Academy of Science acted upon his recommendations to establish special “youth classes” in mathematics.
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