No country is the same when it comes to looking at league tables of results in schools worldwide. Chinese teachers typically begin their careers with a better understanding of elementary maths than teachers from the U.S is what Lipping Ma found from her research. They may attain higher grades than certain countries. Lipping Ma is a researcher who looked into a profound understanding of fundamental mathematics. Copious amounts of research was carried out, comparing and contrasting education between the two countries China and America. Her theory has four elements which are key to understand when looking at her research. The first, being basic principles. This may look into if it is understandable and if there is different ways to prove something correct. The second principle that was looked into by Lipping Ma was the connectedness involved in mathematics. This is when the teacher begins to feel that it is a necessity to make connections and links into the mathematics the children are learning and stress their importance. Thirdly there is multiple perspectives. This looks at different solutions in order to solve a problem and what are the best and worst ways to use, or the advantages and disadvantages to using different methods. This is to give children the understanding that there is more than one way. Lastly there is the fourth stage which is longitudinal coherence. This is where the teachers review where the pupils’ in their class are within fundamental mathematics and if they are advancing within the curriculum. The teacher can then begin to look at different areas and decide what they think is a key concept in order to teach their class.