Abstract
This article is to provide information on school contexts for learning and instruction of mathematics based on the results and data of TIMSS 1999. It is organized around two major topics: teacher and students achievement, instruction and students achievement In this article the following summarizes the major findings. First, about $50\%$ of Korean eight-grade students were taught mathematics by teachers in their 30s, and this was higher than the international average. Most of teachers in Korea had certification of teachers majors in mathematics. Korean teachers reported relatively low confidence to teach mathematics compared to other counties. And Korean students taught by teachers who believes they were well prepared attained low achievement scores in contrast to international result. Second, korean teachers spent about $50\%$ of their formally scheduled school time teaching their subject, but is was below the international average. They spent much more time on administrative duties and other related activities than other countries. Korean students reported that most of their class time were spent lecture style presentations by teacher. Also they reported that teachers showed them how to do mathematics. The percentages of Korean students were placed on the low level of index of emphasis on mathematics reasoning and problem-solving. The students taught by teachers who emphasized reasoning and problem-solving showed low achievement scores in contrast with result of the previous literatures. Korean teachers didn't seem to emphasize homework and assessments. Internationally, teachers frequently used teacher-made objective tests and projects or practical exercises, but Korean teachers die less in most of categories. Based on the above findings, this article presents implications about teacher education, reduction of administrative working in teachers tasks, using everyday life topics, as learning materials, specialization instruction methods for each subject matter. This article is a kind of descriptive and factual in nature, but some attempt has been made to contextualize these results focused on teachers and instruction.