TY - JOUR
T1 - Explanations of mathematical concepts in Japanese, Chinese, U.S. first- and fifth-grade classrooms
AU - Perry, M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for conducting some of the analyses presented in this study was provided by the Bureau of Educational Research of the University of Illinois at Ur- bana-Champaign and by a National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. The data on which this report is based came from a study that was funded by National Science Foundation Grant BNS8409372 to Harold Stevenson, whom I thank for his generosity in sharing these data and for his insightful comments on a draft of this article. I also thank Terri Graham, Melissa Kelly, Alan Schoenfeld, and James Stigler for their assistance in clarifying some of the ideas presented in this article. Finally, I thank the teachers and students who participated in this study, allowing us to learn from them.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - In this research, I examine some of the classroom processes that may be responsible for the stellar mathematical performance among Asian children compared to U.S. children. The study documents differences in the frequency and type of mathematical explanations during lessons observed in 80 U.S., 40 Chinese, and 40 Japanese 1st- and 5th-grade classrooms. Explanations occurred more frequently in the Japanese and Chinese classrooms than in U.S. classrooms. Furthermore, typical explanations in the Asian classrooms were more substantive than those in the U.S. lessons, and Japanese children were learning about more complex topics than their peers in Taiwan or the United States.
AB - In this research, I examine some of the classroom processes that may be responsible for the stellar mathematical performance among Asian children compared to U.S. children. The study documents differences in the frequency and type of mathematical explanations during lessons observed in 80 U.S., 40 Chinese, and 40 Japanese 1st- and 5th-grade classrooms. Explanations occurred more frequently in the Japanese and Chinese classrooms than in U.S. classrooms. Furthermore, typical explanations in the Asian classrooms were more substantive than those in the U.S. lessons, and Japanese children were learning about more complex topics than their peers in Taiwan or the United States.
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U2 - 10.1207/S1532690XCI1802_02
DO - 10.1207/S1532690XCI1802_02
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0040182578
SN - 0737-0008
VL - 18
SP - 181
EP - 207
JO - Cognition and Instruction
JF - Cognition and Instruction
IS - 2
ER -