| Margaret Smith
University of Delaware
The cognitive levels of mathematics tasks during instruction: A video study of the treatment of mathematics tasks in eighth-grade classrooms in the United States, Germany, and Japan
FINAL REPORT:
The purpose of this study is to examine international differences in mathematics instruction that contribute to student achievement. In particular, it will examine the cognitive levels at which mathematics tasks are treated during classroom lessons in three countries: the United States, Germany, and Japan. The focus of mathematics reform efforts in the United States is on problem solving, which allows student to learn mathematical content by participating in the mathematical process. However, the instructional differences needed to support this are only beginning to be understood. This study will contribute to this important area of mathematics education research.
Using video data collected by the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS), critical instructional differences in eighth-grade mathematics teaching in the United States compared to Germany and Japan were found (Stigler & Hiebert, 1997). The study examines the cognitive processes students use to work on mathematical tasks during classroom instruction. Stein, Grover, and Henningsen (1996), studying American classrooms, found that when tasks eliciting high cognitive processes are assigned, teachers and students often use lower cognitive processes to work on the task during instruction. This study uses the video data collected by TIMSS to compare the types of tasks assigned and the processes students use to work on these task in U.S, German, and Japanese mathematics classrooms. Using a cross-national design will help explore how alternative models of instruction may be useful in sustaining the cognitive processes of higher level tasks while they are worked on during mathematics lessons.
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