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Published 2011
Knowing the critical content and pedagogical factors of the successful programs that enable so many Asian students to flourish, should help us begin to improve our own practice and our students' achievement. These twin aspects of curriculum content and curriculum delivery have been extensively described in professional journals and the popular press. The most comprehensive analyses are in the books, The Learning Gap[2] and The Teaching Gap[3]. The seminal work of Harold Stevens and James Stigler in 1986, which measured and examined differences between one state in the U.S. and three Asian countries, not only spawned the TIMSS report, but has led to a new generation of studies. These studies continue to investigate how teaching is performed and received and why so wide a gap continues between Asian and Eastern and Western nations. The importance placed on the endeavour is indicated by the amount of funding the project has been awarded - more than 12 million US dollars.
The funding has allowed Stigler and his associates to take up residence in a former furniture store in Los Angeles that has been transformed into a state of the art facility. The 42 person team is composed of researchers, translators, transcribers, visiting scholars, and professors of psychology and education. Using over a thousand video tapes of mathematics and science lessons from Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, the Czech Republic and Australia, as well as the United States, the multi-national team is developing CD Roms for use in teacher professional development projects. Each disc contains nine lessons from various participating nations, showing how teachers transmit knowledge and assist students' concept development around specific mathematics topics. Alongside the digitised video runs a full transcript of the lesson. Viewers are able to freeze frames, to review, to examine practice - exemplary or otherwise - to watch students from around the world as they interact and engage in learning[4]. For a profession known for its solitary confinement, this is a rare opportunity to open classroom doors and look inside.
A new project being developed focuses specifically on cross-national teaching of Algebra - the strand of mathematics that is regarded in the U.S. as "the gatekeeper" to higher education. The State of California is collaborating on a teacher development initiative to raise the standard of algebra instruction and attainment at the middle school sector.
The lesson shown on the disc is very similar in structure to those video taped in fourth grade classrooms (Year 5) for an earlier study. It opens with the teacher posing a problem to the class. There is an opportunity to collaborate with classmates. The room is noisy. Students are out of their seats, huddled in small groups discussing possible ways to solve the given problem. The teacher circulates, carefully selecting the groups who share their solutions. A representative of each chosen group uses manipulatives or displays visuals that the group has made to demonstrate their thinking. The strategies represented on the board range from least to most sophisticated in a very organised way. All methods are left on the board and at the end of the presentations students evaluate and comment on the various strategies and solutions. They comment on effectiveness, on efficiency, they look for discrepancies and lack of logic, and applaud when to acknowledge success and/or effort. The teacher uses mistakes as teaching opportunities, if students have not referred to an error then the teacher will guide their attention. The lesson does not just 'end' with the command, "Put your books away." The pupils summarise the day's lesson, often generating a mathematical 'rule'. The teacher records the definition on the board and students copy it into their notebooks for reference. Learners have ownership over a rule that is expressed in their own words and it is more meaningful to them.