New Images of Teaching

For months, almost 50 research assistants abandoned the sunshine to sit in windowless rooms full of television and computer equipment at the University of California, Los Angeles. They watched videotapes of more than 200 8th grade math lessons from the United States, Germany, and Japan--over and over again.

They translated the German and Japanese lessons into English and created transcripts for each of the taped lessons. Natives of each country kept detailed records of what kind of math was being studied, when new topics were introduced, and when the students worked quietly at their seats. The research team analyzed and studied and discussed.

What they discovered represents the first cross-cultural study to examine in exhaustive detail what teachers tell their 8th graders about math and how they...