Is Mathematics Teaching in East Asia Conducive to Creativity Development? - Results from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study and the Learners' Perspective Study

Students in East Asia have consistently out-performed their counterparts in the West in recent international studies of mathematics achievement. But some studies also show that East Asian students are more rigid in thought, and lack originality and creativity. While different theories have been proposed to account for these student performances, relatively few research studies have been done on classroom practices, potentially a major variable for explaining student performances. This paper will report on the results of two classroom studies: the TIMSS 1999 Video Study and the Learners' Perspective Study (LPS). Results the quantitative analysis of the TlMSS 1999 Video Study data show that the East Asian classrooms were dominated by teacher talk, and the mathematics content learned was abstract and unrelated to the real life. On the other hand, the characteristics of the instructional practices in Hong Kong as judged by an expert panel are that student learned relatively advanced mathematics content; the components of the lessons were more coherent, and the presentation of the lessons was more fully developed. Hong Kong students seemed to be more engaged in the mathematics lessons, and the. overall quality of the lessons was judged to be high. Results of the analysis of the LPS data also show that the classrooms in the East Asian city of Seoul were in general teacher dominated, but students were usually actively engaged in the mathematics learning. Emphasis on exploration of mathematics and practicing exercises with variation was common. It is argued that the quality teaching in the East Asian classrooms laid a firm foundation in mathematics for students, and that constitutes a necessary condition for the development of students' creativity. In order to fully develop the creativity of East Asian students, they need to be given the right environment and encouragement.