Welcome to this presentation of the methods and preliminary findings of the Videotape Classroom Study, a video survey of eighth-grade mathematics lessons in Germany, Japan, and the United States. The video study was a part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a comparative study of mathematics and science education in 41 countries, focusing on student achievement and its educational context. Funded by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Science Foundation, the video study is the first attempt to collect videotaped records of classroom instruction from nationally representative samples of teachers. It is hoped that a better understanding of the processes of classroom instruction in different cultures will contribute to efforts to improve student learning in school.

The study was conducted in a total of 231 classrooms in Germany, Japan, and the United States. Innovative new multimedia database technology was used to facilitate the management and analysis of the videos. Read on to learn about the methodology used, to explore the findings of the study, or to explore and discuss videos of German, Japanese, and American lessons.