For nearly a century The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has provided teacher education. From 1917 it was through the Faculty of Arts until a separate School of Education was formed in 1976. This developed into the Faculty of Education in 1984. Today, the Faculty is leading the world in comparative studies in mathematics education.

Professor Frederick Leung Koon-Shing of the Faculty of Education, HKU, was awarded the Hans Freudenthal Award in 2013 by the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction. Professor Leung is the first Asian scholar to be awarded the medal, the highest international accolade in mathematics education, in recognition of his distinguished research spanning a decade in comparative studies of mathematics education and on the influence of culture on this field of teaching and learning.

Professor Leung is the first scholar to explore teaching and learning mathematics from the Eastern cultural or Confucian Heritage Culture perspective, in contrast to Western culture. His research has resulted in significant contributions to the cultural perspective of mathematics education for understanding the relationship between cultural backgrounds and mathematics education. It also has great impact on classroom practices and pedagogical policies in this field.

His groundbreaking work is the utilisation of the perspective of the Confucian Heritage Culture as an explanation of the superior mathematics achievement of East Asian students in international studies such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies. His research extends to the study of mathematics education of children of ethnic minorities in China from a cultural standpoint, and to the influence of the Chinese and English languages on the learning of mathematics. He has also been working on a number of classroom video study projects, including the Hong Kong component of the Learners’ Perspective Study.

Professor Leung earned his Bachelor and Master’s degrees at HKU, and his PhD in the United Kingdom. His research interest in cultural differences in mathematics education emerged as he experienced this meeting of cultures between the East and the West. He was the Associate Dean of the Graduate School at HKU from 2009 to 2010, and Dean of the Faculty of Education from 1996 to 2002, after serving as the Associate Dean from 1993 to 1996.

He sits on major committees within the Faculty and the University, including the Budget and Resources Committee of the University, the Academic Board, and the Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, Business and Architecture Panel of the University Selection and Promotion Committee, and is now the Chairman of the Promotion and Tenure Panel of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In addition to sitting on the Education Bureau and Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority committees, he is an advisor of the Hong Kong Association for Mathematics Education, and has published a series of mathematics textbooks widely used in Hong Kong schools.

Altogether Professor Leung has produced over 60 internationally refereed publications, and more than 40 key-note or plenary conference papers. He was named a Changjiang Scholar by the Ministry of Education, China (2014), and he received the World Outstanding Chinese Award (2015). He was also conferred the Faculty Outstanding Researcher Award (2006) and Outstanding Research Student Supervisor (2008) at HKU.