Research, Reflection, Practice: Look Who's Talking: Differences in Math Talk between U.S. and Chinese Classrooms

After twenty-three years of teaching, I stepped out of the classroom and into the world of education research. As part of a team of researchers comparing mathematics teaching and learning in the United States and China, I spent many hours watching videotaped mathematics lessons from fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms in both countries. It was fascinating. (To be honest, it was luxurious, since I was not also trying to grade spelling tests while I watched.) After I got past my initial reactions to the foreign setting—including bare walls, desks in rows, and over forty students per class—more substantive features of the differences between Chinese classrooms and what I was accustomed to seeing in U.S. classrooms began to capture my attention.