Abstract
Much has been written about the fact that Asian students show superior performance in international mathematics assessments compared with their non-Asian counterparts, such as PISA, TIMSS 2003 (Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, & Chrostowski, 2004; OECD, 2003). Students' performance can be taken as a possible indicator of the effectiveness of instruction. Stigler and Hiebert's (1999) analysis of the TIMSS video study collected from Japan, America, and Germany indicates that students in Japan spent more time inventing mathematical concepts while students in the United States spent more time on routine practice (Stigler, Gallimore, & Hiebert, 2000). A similar pattern is found regarding mathematics concepts that were developed by “the teacher with students' participation” (77% in Japan and 22% in the United States) vs. simply “stated by the teacher” (23% in Japan and 78% in the United States) (Stigler and Hiebert, 1999). Results suggest that there are cultural differences between Asian and Western countries in expectation for student achievement in mathematics and instructional strategies.