ABSTRACT
Over recent years, there has been much interest in the instructional practices of classrooms in different East-Asian communities. Video studies such as the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999) and the Learner’s Perspective Study (LPS) (Clarke, Keitel, & Shimizu, 2006) have made the practices of mathematics classrooms visible to the international educational community. Despite macro-cultural similarities, it has been demonstrated that there are significant differences in actual instructional practice among countries as geographically proximate as China, Japan, and Korea (Clarke, 2010). It is natural to ask, “How have these distinctive instructional practices developed?” and attention then shifts to the practices by which teacher professional learning is promoted in different cultures.
