CHAPTER 12: Translating Elementary School Mathematics Curriculum: Isn’t School Mathematics Universal?

Japanese students historically have performed well on various international studies, including the recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies. A persistent question that remains unanswered is what are the contributing factors to such high performance? The 1995 TIMSS also included a video study component that provided a glimpse into mathematics classrooms in Japan, Germany, and the United States. What we saw on the public release videos were three very different approaches to mathematics teaching. From this limited study, some came away with the impression that there was one right way to teach. However, the 1999 TIMSS video study, which included other high achieving countries, showed that teaching styles among the high achieving countries also varied (Hiebert et al., 2003).