This book reports the findings of a study of Mathematics classes in Japan, Germany, and the United States. Many lessons were videotaped in each country, and then analyzed by the researchers. I'm an English teacher but I still found the researcher's observations to be intriguing. After describing the general characteristics of classes in each country, the researchers focus on Japan and the way that educators there collaborate. The way the Japanese teachers collaborate very intensively and the Japanese attitude toward educational reform were pointed out to show how Japan has managed to greatly improve its educational system in the last 50 years while the US system has gone through reform after reform without seeming to achieve any results. Differences in the Japanese culture that have added to this success are pointed out, and reasons for these differences are discussed. As an experienced teacher in the US, who has also lived in Japan and taught Japanese students in America, I believe that their observations were very accurate, and don't bode well for the success of educational reform in America in the future. However, I think that every teacher who is truly interested in school reform should read this book. (And unlike many books about education, it is very readable-- no pretension jargon, or murky tangled sentence structure.) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684852748/qid=1013092047/br=1-2/ref=br_lf_b_2/104-9717848-2315962 The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom