People looking for maths teaching jobs in the future may find their classroom activities influenced by the Chinese educational system.

The coalition's education minister Elizabeth Truss will embark on a fact-finding trip to Shanghai to see how children in the city's schools have become the best at maths in the world.

According to the latest Pisa tables, Shanghai's 15-year-olds were the most advanced in maths, while their counterparts in England were ranked in 26th place, an equivalent of three years behind.

In fact, south-east Asian jurisdictions were responsible for all of the top five places in the list.

The government believes English maths skill have stagnated even on a European scale, while recent research published by the OECD suggests highly paid professionals in the UK are worse at arithmetic than the children of manual workers in Shanghai and Singapore.

Ms Truss explained the teaching system has the potential to emulate the one employed in Shanghai and this can transform the anti-maths culture that currently exists in the UK to one with a "can-do attitude" that is evident in south-east Asia.

She added:"This visit represents a real opportunity for us to see at first hand the teaching methods that have enabled their young people to achieve so well in maths."

"The reality is that unless we change our philosophy and get better at maths, we will suffer economic decline."

As well as the education minister, the delegation will include the leader of the Inspiration Trust of academies, the director of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics and a UK primary school head teacher. 

Can ideas from different cultures be transported into the English maths classroom? If you have experience in a maths teaching job, what do you think should be done to ensure the UK improves its Pisa rankings and secures its economic positions?

Let us know your views.