A broad conclusion that can be drawn from these results is that no single method of teaching eighth-grade mathematics was observed in all the relatively higher achieving countries participating in this study.

All the countries that participated in the TIMSS 1999 Video Study shared some general features of eighth-grade mathematics teaching. However, each country combined and emphasized instructional features in various ways, sometimes differently from all the other countries, and sometimes no differently from some countries. In the TIMSS 1995 Video Study, Japan appeared to have a distinctive way of teaching eighth-grade mathematics compared to the other two countries in the study (Stigler et al. 1999). One of the questions that prompted the 1999 study was whether countries with high achievement on international mathematics assessments such as TIMSS share a common method of teaching. Results from the 1999 study of eighth-grade mathematics teaching among seven countries revealed that, among the relatively high-achieving countries, a variety of methods were employed rather than a single, shared approach to the teaching of mathematics.

To learn more about the results of this study and view video clips examples on CD-ROM, see the information below about how to access the report Teaching Mathematics in Seven Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study.