TIMSS Videos (Videos from Third International Math and Science Study)

 

Level

8th Grade

 

Cost

Free (after creating a username and password)

http://www.timssvideo.com/videos/Mathematics

 

Type of Video 

Whole class/Whole lesson videos, video generally follows the teacher, but does include some small groups and individual students interacting with the teacher.

 

Length of Videos

Most videos are between 40 and 50 minutes long.  There are some that are shorter (30-40 minutes) and on that is a double period of 69 minutes.

 

Number of videos

29 videos (4 videos from 7 different countries)

• 13 videos are in English (Australia, USA, and 3 of the 4 Hong Kong videos)

• The rest have English subtitles (All the videos have English Transcripts)

 

Content Domains

• Australia

  • Angles in a polygon (conjectures)

  • Congruent triangles

  • Data Collection and representation

  • Ratios

• Czech Republic

  • Pythagorean Thm

  • Perimeter of a circle

  • Exponents, combining like terms

  • Operations on numbers with exponents, area and volume

• Hong Kong:

  • Square Roots

  • Simultaneous Linear Equations

  • Polygons (interior angles)

  • Identities

• Japan:

  • Parallel Lines and Angles

  • Areas of Triangles between parallel lines

  • Solving inequalities

  • Solving inequalities

• Netherlands

  • Graphing Linear Equations

  • Pythagorean Thm

  • Surface Area

  • Equations (factoring)

• Switzerland

  • Factoring quadratics

  • Introducing algebra (terms and variables)

  • Pythagorean thm. Solids.

  • Equivalence, solving equations

• USA

  • Graphing Linear Equations

  • Writing variable expressions

  • Exponent rules

  • Secants and tangents

  • Interior angles of a polygon

 

Description of the Videos

The videos are examples of uninterrupted and unedited classroom lessons.  They show a variety of teaching structures and approaches, as well as a variety of content domains. 

The videos are also very useful to show cultural differences in instruction between countries. 

The videos are not idealized versions of classrooms.  As a result, they are less models of “ideal” teaching, but rather opportunities to analyze classroom teaching. 

 

Usefulness of the Videos

There are several ways in which these videos could be used in effective ways. First of all, as unedited examples of teaching, they are very good for analyzing and interacting with the complexities of practice.  One could use the videos as a way to look at specific instantiations of patterns of interaction and see how they play out in classroom situations. 

 

A couple interactive features of the videos would enable teacher educators to use the videos in this way.  For example, videos can be bookmarked and then the bookmarks saved so that students could choose interesting parts of the video and make comments on them in response to specific questions from the teacher.  Students can also create papers in which they embed video links, and then have those papers accessible to others. 

 

Ancillary Materials

For each video there is:

• A short overview describing the content, length and size of the class. 

• A transcript of the class (in English). 

• Close-captions in English

• Lesson graph, in which lesson sections are described and connected to elapsed time

• Copies of the problems given

• Comments made by a researcher connected to times in the lesson (these usually situate the lesson in terms of national averages, for instance, they comment that this lesson had five minutes going over HW.  51% of classes in this country started by going over homework.  He spent 35% of the class going over homework)

• Comments made by the teacher connected to times in the lesson (these usually describe the context or the teachers’ thinking at that particular time. 

• Some videos have a third commentary (NRC Commentary) which seems to be a researcher from the country of the video placing it in the national context.  For instance the researcher may describe how “typical” specific practices or structures seen in the video are in that country, or how difficult a specific topic might be for typical students of that country. 

 

Author/Sponsor

TIMSS