Lesson structure and organization across the five Chinese teachers were quite similar. They usually started with a
brief review of what had been taught in the previous lesson, then they clearly stated the topic for the lesson and wrote
down the topic on the blackboard. Each of the Chinese lessons consisted of a combination of whole-class discussion
and individual student seatwork. In Chinese classrooms, individual students were frequently asked to write down their
solutions to problems on the blackboard and explain to the rest of the students. A total of 39.5 min, which accounted
for about 9% of the total classroom instruction time in the 10 Chinese lessons, were spent on students’ writing their
solutions to problems on the blackboard and explaining to the rest of the students. The longest time students spent
on presentation and explanation at the front of the class occurred in Ms. He’s first lesson. In that lesson, Ms. He
asked four of the students to present their solutions to problems, which took a total of 12 min (about a quarter of the
instruction time in the lesson). During the instruction, Chinese students were also frequently asked to read important
points together. Chinese teachers seemed to believe that the more students read aloud, the more they would be able to
remember and understand the important points. At the end of each lesson, Chinese teachers always tried to summarize
the main or important points related to the lesson. Some teachers had already written these important points on a small
blackboard in advance. They simply hung up the small blackboard and then directed students’ attention toward what
they considered to be the important points. Other teachers referred to what had been written on the large blackboard
while they discussing these important points. We should note that Chinese teachers rarely erased what had been written
on the blackboard during their instruction because the design of the blackboard presentation is considered part of the
lesson plan. No group work was involved in any of the ten Chinese lessons.
The four U.S. teachers showed two kinds of teaching styles. Two of the teachers used a combination of whole class
discussion and group work in their instruction. The other two teachers mainly used whole class discussion. Every U.S.
teacher mainly used an overhead projector during instruction. There were two lessons from two different teachers in
which U.S. students were asked to display their solutions on the overhead, but they were not asked to explain their
solutions to the rest of the students in the room. Like Chinese teachers, U.S. teachers tended to begin their lessons
by reviewing what had been taught previously. Unlike Chinese teachers, U.S. teachers rarely summarized main or
important points at the end of each lesson. Our general impression is that the Chinese lessons were well-organized; a
claim we cannot make about the U.S. lessons.