The study investigated 20 Chinese and 20 U.S. high school teachers’ interpretation and response to a student’s errors in solving a quadratic equation. Analysis results show that the Chinese teachers provided more negative evaluations toward students’ errors and identified more students’ errors than the U.S. teachers did. Responding to students’ errors, the two groups of teachers highlighted conceptual explanations targeting students’ mistakes. The U.S. teachers were more likely to provide general knowledge guidance while the Chinese teachers tended to go back to basic knowledge.

Session Type: Brief Research Report