Appendix A. Information Given to U.S. Teachers Prior to Videotaping

Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS)

Videotape Classroom Study

Information for Teachers

The Third International Math and Science Study is a cross-national study of students and teachers in more than 40 countries. You and your students have been asked to participate in TIMSS and in the Videotape Classroom Study, a new and experimental part of TIMSS. What are the goals of the videotape study, and what, exactly, do we want you to do?

Goals of the Study

Most international studies of educational systems have focused on achievement, that is, measuring the outputs of the system in terms of what students learn. Although the TIMSS project includes tests of what students have learned, great emphasis is also being placed on gathering information that will help to explain cross-national differences in achievement. The TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study focuses on mathematics instruction; our primary goal in this study is to characterize how teachers teach mathematics in the classrooms of different countries.

In this study we are videotaping 100 eighth-grade mathematics teachers in each of three countries: Japan, Germany, and the United States. The teachers are selected at random and are a representative sample of teachers in each country. This will be the first study ever to gather videotaped records of what actually happens in nationally representative samples of classrooms.

What We are Asking You to Do

We need your help in order to get an accurate picture of what happens in American classrooms. However, participating in the videotape study should require very little additional time commitment on your part. Aside from filling out a brief questionnaire, you will be asked to do nothing that you would not normally do in your classroom.

Our goal is to see what typically happens in American mathematics classrooms, so we really want to see exactly what you would have done had we not been videotaping. Although you will be contacted ahead of time, and you will know the exact date and time that your classroom will be videotaped, we ask that you not make any special preparations for this class. So please, do not make special materials, or plan special lessons, that would not typify what normally occurs in your classroom. Also, please do not prepare your students in any special way for this class. Do not, for example, practice the lesson ahead of time with your students.

Any kind of lesson--whether introducing new material or reviewing old--is appropriate; do not attempt to plan any particular kind of lesson for the day of the taping. The only thing we do not wish to videotape is a test that takes the entire class period. Other than that, any mathematics lesson is fine.

Appendix A. Information Given to U.S. Teachers Prior to Videotaping--Continued

Confidentiality

The tapes we collect will be used for research purposes only. Access will be restricted to researchers analyzing the tapes; no one else will be allowed to view the tapes. The results of this study will be reported only as averages across a large number of classrooms, never as information about a single classroom. The identities of the teachers and the schools will be kept in locked storage; even persons hired to code and analyze the tapes will not have access to this information.

Payment

This is an unusual study, and many teachers feel anxious about allowing a video camera into their classrooms. On the other hand, because we are selecting our sample randomly, success of the study depends on full participation by all of the teachers selected; we need your help. In appreciation of your participation we are offering to give $300 to your school when you have completed the videotaping and returned the questionnaire. Use of these funds is at the discretion of your principal, in consultation with you. We also will be happy to send you a copy of the videotape we make in your classroom.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study please call the Director of the study, Dr. Jim Stigler at the UCLA Department of Psychology. You may call collect: (310) 206-9494. If there is no answer leave a message and we will return your call.