What Goes On Inside Latin American Math and Science Classrooms: A Video Study of Teaching Practices

Beyond common associated factors, such as teacher characteristics and socio-economic background of students, little is known about how student achievement in math and science is related to differences in the teaching approaches used in Latin American classrooms. This paper highlights the main findings of a qualitative study on cross-country differences in teaching practices in three Latin American countries. Of the three countries selected for the study, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic perform at the bottom of the regional comparative test, Second Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (SERCE), and the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon is one of the top performers. Our findings, based on a large sample of videotape recordings from sixth-grade classrooms in the three countries, indicate that inquiry based instruction appears to be associated with higher levels of learning. Teachers who actively engage students in activities that promote analytical and critical-thinking skills and move beyond a procedural understanding may lead to better performance on the SERCE assessments. However, drill, practice, and memorization predominate in all three countries