Third International Mathematics and Science Study Repeat Video Project
TIMSS-R Video (1998-2004)
The TIMSS-R Video Study, complementary to TIMSS-R (TIMSS 1999), was a cross-national study of Grade 8 classroom mathematics and science teaching. The study involved videotaping and analyzing teaching practices. A teacher questionnaire and examples of worksheets, textbook pages, student work, and other materials supplemented the videotapes.
Videotaping was conducted during 1998–2001. The report presenting results for mathematics lessons was released in March 2003. The report on science lessons is expected.
Target population
One hundred schools have been sampled in each country, with one mathematics lesson and one science lesson at Grade 8 being videotaped in each school at some point during the school year. In this way, the tapes represent the full range of Grade 8 mathematics and science instruction in each country.
Participating Educational Systems
Australia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong (SAR), Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, United States.
Key Findings (for teaching mathematics)
- Grade 8 mathematics teaching in all seven countries shares some general features. On average, at least 80 percent of lesson time is devoted to solving mathematics problems. Lessons are organized to include some public whole-class work and some private individual (mostly) or small-group work. Lessons include some review of previous content as well as some attention to new content and, in the majority of cases, making use of a textbook or worksheet of some kind. Teachers in all countries talk more than students (at a ratio of at least 8:1 words).
- Discernible variation across countries exists in teaching mathematics. No single method of teaching was observed in all the relatively higher achieving countries participating in this study. Distinctions included:
- the introduction of new content
- coherence across mathematical problems and within their presentation
- level of procedural complexity of the mathematical problems and
- classroom practices regarding individual student work and homework in class.
Major Publication
Hiebert, J., Gallimore, R., Garnier, H., Bogard Giwin, K., Hollingsworth, H., Jacobs, J., Miu-Ying Chui, A., Wearne, D., Smith, M., Kersting, N., Manaster, A., Tseng, E., Etterbeek, W., Manaster, C., Gonzales, P., & Stigler, J. (2003).
Teaching Mathematics in Seven Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study
(NCES 2003-013). United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC.
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