CLOSE  WINDOW  The TIMSS 1999 Video Study was a cross-national study of eighth-grade classroom mathematics and science teaching. The study involves videotaping and analyzing teaching practices in more than one thousand classrooms in seven countries with the following goals: Investigate mathematics and science teaching practices in U.S. classrooms. Compare U.S. teaching practices with those found in high-achieving countries. Discover new ideas about teaching mathematics and science. Develop new teaching research methods and tools for teacher professional development. Create a digital library of images of teaching to inform U.S. educational policy. Stimulate and focus discussion of teaching practices among educators, policy makers, and the public. The TIMSS 1999 Video Study was completed in two separate phases. The mathematics portion of the study was completed in March 2003, and the science portion in April 2006. In conjunction with the International Association of the Evaluation of Education Achievement (IEA), the study was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education under a contract with LessonLab Research Institute of Santa Monica, California. Research Design Approximately 100 schools were randomly selected in each country. One math lesson and one science lesson was videotaped in each school that agreed to participate. The seven countries participating in the mathematics portion of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study were Australia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong SAR, Japan , the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States . The five countries participating in the science portion of the study were Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. Taping was distributed evenly throughout the school year so that the lessons represent the full range of eighth-grade mathematics and science instruction in each country. Teacher questionnaires, and worksheets and textbook pages used in the lessons, supplement the videotapes. Data from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study were coded and analyzed by teams of bilingual coders, mathematics or science specialists, educational researchers, and international representatives. Bilingual coders were, in almost all cases, born and raised in the countries whose lessons they were coding. They coded with a minimum individual reliability of 85 percent. For certain codes, reliability was established through consensus coding. Data were appropriately weighted to account for sampling design to obtain reliable comparisons among the participating countries with significance at the .05 level. Results TIMSS 1999 Video Study Mathematics All the countries that participated in the TIMSS 1999 Video Study shared some general features of eighth-grade mathematics teaching. Some of these features include: In all of the countries, eighth-grade mathematics was often taught through solving problems; at least 80 percent of lesson time, on average, was devoted to solving mathematics problems. Eighth-grade mathematics lessons in all seven countries were organized to include some public, whole-class work and some private, individual or small-group work. During the time that students worked privately, the most common pattern across the countries was for students to work individually, rather than in pairs or groups. On average, lessons in all of the countries included some review of previous content as well as some attention to new content. At least 90 percent of lessons in all the countries made use of a textbook or worksheet of some kind. Teachers in all of the countries talked more than students, at a ratio of at least 8:1 words, respectively. While there were some shared general features, results from the 1999 study of eighth-grade mathematics teaching among seven countries revealed that, among the relatively high-achieving countries, a variety of methods were employed rather than a single, shared approach to the teaching of mathematics. Distinctions included the length of time spent introducting of new content, the coherence across mathematical problems and within their presentation, the topics covered and the procedural complexity of the mathematical problems, and classroom practices regarding individual student work and homework in class. To learn more about the results of this study, see the information below. TIMSS 1999 Video Study Mathematics Report Teaching Mathematics in Seven Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study This is the official international report released by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Included with the report is a CD-ROM with video clip examples. (March 2003) TIMSS 1999 Video Study Math Highlights Highlights From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study of Eighth-Grade Mathematics Teaching This document provides highlights from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study Mathematics Report. (March 2003) TIMSS 1999 Video Study Science The science portion of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study found results similar to those from the math portion in that there were general features of eighth-grade science teaching shared by all five participating countries as well as distinct teaching approaches across countries. Some of the general features include: In all the countries, whole-class seatwork occurred in at least 98 percent of eighth-grade science lessons. Some form of practical activity occurred in at least 72 percent of lessons across the countries. Across all of the countries, 84 percent or more of the eighth-grade science lessons included at least some public attention to science canonical knowledge. Science canonical knowledge was more prominent in the science lessons of all five countries than any other type of science knowledge investigated. Knowledge about the nature of science, meta-cognitive strategies, and safety accounted for no more than a combined total of two percent of public talk time in any of the countries. Students participated in some form of discussion in at least 81 percent of the lessons in each of the countries during whole-class interactions. Students in all the countries were more likely to observe phenomena during independent practical activities rather than to design and make models, to carry out dissections or classification activities, or to conduct controlled experiments. Despite some commonalities across the countries, results from the 1999 study of eighth-grade science teaching revealed that each of the countries had a distinct approach to science teaching, providing students with different opportunities to learn science and different visions of what it means to understand science. Countries' distinct approaches varied in the organizational features, content features, and the ways in which students were involved in actively doing science work in the science lessons. To learn more about the results of this study, see the information below. TIMSS 1999 Video Study Science Report Teaching Science in Five Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study This is the official international report released by the National Center for Educational Statistics. Included with report is a CD-ROM with video clip examples. (April 2006) TIMSS 1999 Video Study Science Highlights Highlights From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study of Eighth-Grade Science Teaching This document provides highlights from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study Science Report. (April 2006) Public Release Lessons Purpose of the Public Release Lessons Video examples are essential for communicating the results of video studies. All of the teachers filmed for the TIMSS 1999 Video Study were assured confidentiality, and their lessons cannot be shown publicly. However, a small group of teachers from each country were recruited who agreed to have their lessons videotaped for public release. Written permission to show these lessons publicly was obtained in each country, following the procedures appropriate in that country. Typically, permission was obtained from the teachers and from the parents of the students appearing in the videos. Dissemination of these public release lessons serves multiple purposes. First, the videos provide a concrete basis for interpreting the quantitative findings of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study. They provide illustrations of key findings that communicate more clearly than written reports or oral presentations alone. In addition, video-enhanced definitions can, over time, provide educators with a set of shared referents for commonly used descriptors, such as "problem solving" or "inquiry." This could yield a shared language of classroom practice, an essential tool in building a widely shared professional knowledge base for mathematics and science teaching. Videotapes can also become a compelling source of new ideas for teaching. Because these new ideas are concrete and grounded in practice, they have immediate practical potential for teachers. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these public release videos enable teachers and researchers around the world to view samples of the kind of lessons that were analyzed as part of TIMSS 1999 Video Study and to stimulate local and international discussions of mathematics and science teaching. Description of the Public Release CD-Sets The TIMSS 1999 Video Study Mathematics Public Release Lessons come in a set of four CDs. They contain 28 complete mathematics lessons, four from each country in the study: Australia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States. The TIMSS 1999 Video Study Science Public Release Lessons come in a set of five CDs. They contain 25 complete science lessons, five from each country in the study: Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States. Each of the mathematics and science lessons in the CD sets includes the following: video of the lesson; transcript of the lesson; lesson graph that provides a summary of the lesson; video index to navigate the lesson; lesson commentaries by the teacher of the lesson, a national educational representative, and a member of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study research team; and relevant resources specific to the lesson (e.g., teacher's lesson plan, handouts, textbook pages, etc.). To purchase the public release CDs for purposes of teacher professional development and education research, please go to: http://www.lessonlab.com/researchinstitute/?show=completed_external