Teaching Mathematics: Italian Lessons From a Cross-Cultural Perspective

摘要

The video component of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provided national-level descriptions of 8th-grade mathematics teaching in 3 countries: Germany, Japan, and the United States. Based on these data, Stigler and Hiebert (1999) argued that teaching is a cultural activity, varying more across cultures than within. This study extends their work, on a small scale, to investigate 8th-grade mathematics teaching in yet another country, Italy. Eleven Italian lessons, from urban and rural schools in northern Italy, were videotaped, translated, transcribed, and analyzed following the same procedures used in TIMSS. They were then compared with German, Japanese, and U.S. lessons videotaped in TIMSS. Analyses revealed Italian lessons to be relatively homogeneous among themselves, yet distinct from those in the other cultures. In particular, Italian lessons were found to include a unique activity, not observed in other countries, in which students and teachers interact at the blackboard, with the rest of the class as the audience. Interviews with Italian education professionals investigated the roots of this activity and supported the cultural nature of Italian teaching. Cross-cultural studies of teaching are useful for revealing practices hidden within a culture and for finding alternative ways of teaching.