Review_Author: Chistina Poetzl
Book_Author: James W. Stigler and Jim Hiebert
Book_Title: The Teaching Gap
Reference: 1999, New York, The Free Press
Date: 12/14/2004
Time: 6:53:26 PM
Remote Name: 128.175.34.35
mailto:
Stigler, J. W., & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap.New York: The Free Press. The teaching gap is a well- written book. The authors take a closer look at the results of the TIMSS study buy conducting a video study of three countries, United States, Japan, and Germany. Japan was chosen because of its high score on the international tests, and Germany was chosen because it was an economic competitor of the United States. The goal of the book as stated by the authors is “to convince our readers that improving the quality of teaching must be front and center in efforts to improve students’ learning” (Stigler & Hiebert, p.3, 1999). In the video study they found surface features of the classroom that were consistent across the cultures. Most people would be able to tell that they were looking at a mathematics classroom, and they may not be able to place where it was if they were unable to hear the teacher speak. However, as they looked more closely at the teaching, they found that the teaching is different They found Japanese teaching to be very conceptual with high cognitive demands, they found German teaching to be procedural with high cognitive demands, and the US as procedural with low cognitive demands. Japanese lessons are very connected in the mathematics while US lessons tend to be much less connected. Teachers in all three countries may use the same manipulatives, but for different reasons. For example, teachers in Japan use the chalkboard to tell a story of the mathematics while US teachers use the blackboard to focus students’ attention. The authors also posit different cultural beliefs about mathematics and teaching. For example in Japan mathematics in a set of relationships where as in the US mathematics is a seen as a set of skills. The role of the teacher is to guide students and help students make connections where as US teachers are responsible for breaking down the content into easy to swallow pieces. Even within the students of the classroom, they found a difference. Teachers in Japan think diversity in the classroom is a necessary component and do not believe everyone is going to learn the same thing at the same time, whereas diversity in the classroom is very difficult to deal with in the United States because teachers try to have all students on the same page at the same time. The question then becomes, how do we improve teaching in the United States? The authors do a good job making a case that we need to focus on teaching, and also state that teaching other factors also affect student learning, but one question that was not answered for me is “What does it mean to learn?” Each of these countries approaches their teaching differently. Is this approach unique to mathematics, or is this approach similar in other school subjects? My first question, what does it mean to learn, is important because that is the basis for teaching. The instructional strategies we use are based on our understanding of what it means to learn. If change is what we want, then the change needs to occur here also. Can we do something similar to Japan’s lesson study? I don’t know. They authors seem to think there may be a possibility or at least something worth trying and adjusting to fit into our culture. There are some schools out there that have chosen to use this model to improve their teaching. One problem I see with this is that our cultural view of teachers is different. In Japan the teacher is seen as the expert and share information publicly with colleagues and researchers, in the United States the researcher is more highly regarded as the expert. It seems that in Japan teaching seems to be thought of as more intellectual, and in the United States teaching is seen more as a skill. I agree with the authors teaching is a cultural activity and for teaching and education to change there needs to be a change in what that particular society views as teaching. Is it a grass roots movement or is it abrupt change? The answer to these two questions is probably both. I think we need the abrupt change to start the grass roots movement. In summary, I think that the book is worth reading. It may not help us to make changes, but it is a start to help us understand what it is we can teaching. Stigler, J. W., & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap.New York: The Free Press.
Review_Author: New Mexico
Book_Author: Hartford
Book_Title: Arizona
Reference: Program Health Insurance Texas
Date: 3/5/2007
Time: 10:19:08 PM
Remote Name: 200.88.223.98
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