TIMSS Video Benchmark announcement [3-12-03]

TIMSS VIDEO STUDY BENCHMARKING OPTION A proposal by LessonLab - Santa Monica, California March 14, 2003 BACKGROUND The TIMSS 1999 Video Study is a follow-up to the TIMSS 1995 Video Study. The 1999 Video Study was conducted by LessonLab Inc., funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and sponsored by IEA. The 1999 video study includes seven countries: Australia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and United States. Whereas the 1995 study included only mathematics, this new one includes eighth-grade mathematics and science lessons, sampling 100 lessons for each subject and country. The goals of the study are to describe teaching practices in eighth-grade mathematics and science, to compare practices across countries, and to build a library of public-release videos that can be used to promote cross-national discussions of teaching. The results of the mathematics study will be released March 26, 2003. The science study will be released in 2004. OPPORTUNITY Although only seven countries participated in the 1999 Video Study, 50 countries participated in the assessment portion of TIMSS 1999. Now that the results of the mathematics video study are about to be released, LessonLab is offering all countries the opportunity to benchmark their country’s mathematics and science teaching against the seven countries that participated in the TIMSS 1999 video study. A country need not have participated in the TIMSS 1999 testing in ...