Current reform efforts in mathematics education call for changing patterns of classroom discourse to ones that foster students thinking and problem solving, and that more closely resemble discourse used among mathematicians. Yet classroom discourse has proven highly resistant to change. One reason for this resistance may be a lack of concrete examples, i.e., classrooms in which desirable patterns of discourse are actually used. Japanese classrooms may provide us with just such a set of examples. Although no in-depth studies exist of Japanese classroom discourse, prior work by the Principal Investigator and colleagues suggests that discourse in Japanese classrooms may conform closely to recommendations contained in the NCTM Professional Standards. The goal of this study is to evaluate this suggestion, and to determine the extent to which American reform efforts might be aided by empirical descriptions of Japanese classroom discourse. The project proposed will be completed in 6 steps: (1) Existing videotapes tapes of 160 classroom mathematics lessons-half from the United States- will be transcribed, translated, and entered into a multimedia database that coordinates the verbal transcriptions with the video; (2) Tools for analyzing the tapes in order to characterize and compare classroom discourse in Japan and the United States will be developed and applied; (3) Using the analyses from Step 2, classroom discourse in Japan will be examined in light of the NCTM standards and other current reform documents the focus on talk in the mathematics classroom; (4) In those cases where Japanese classrooms are judged to exemplify ideal patterns of discourse, tasks, materials, and techniques used by Japanese teachers to achieve these patterns will be identified; (5) Exploratory research will be conducted in collaboration with American teachers to investigate the usefulness of Japanese techniques in American classrooms; (6) Results of the project will be disseminated in both written reports and video presentations, and the full multimedia database will be made available to other researchers.
