Less
well-known has been the modest mathematics performance of Finnish grade 8 students on the
two Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in which Finland has
participated, which, when compared with its PISA successes, has created something of an
enigma. In this paper, we attempt to shed light on this enigma through analyses of Finnish
mathematics classroom practice that draw on two extant data sets—interviews with Finnish
teacher educators and video-recordings of sequences of lessons taught on standard topics.