In many countries there remains widespread dissatisfaction with levels of student achievement in mathematics. While curricular changes may affect what is taught, the basic issues and problems of teaching and learning mathematics with understanding remain: pupils often have difficulties transferring and relating the mathematics to other contexts, and they often have problems to develop an understanding of how mathematical ideas interrelate. The literature claims that ‘competent teachers’, in their classrooms, listen ‘carefully’ and filter the information from rich classroom discussions and activities, so that they can made judgements about pupil learning and what next steps to take. Feedback seems to have an important role in this process and may potentially lead to large learning gains. Formative assessment identifies three types of feedback: from student to teacher; from teacher to student; and between students. Moreover, it is important that feedback tells pupils how to improve. Furthemore, the literature on Assessment for Learning (e.g. Black et al, 2003; Hodgen & Wiliam, 2006) suggests four types of action for putting formative assessment into practice, amongst them ‘questioning’ and ‘feedback’.

In this symposium we explore two of the main actions in formative assessment, namely feedback and questioning, in three countries’ mathematics classrooms: Japan; New Zealand; and Norway. The three presentations draw on the same research design and data from the Learner’s Perspective Study (LPS), which aims to juxtapose the observable practices of the classroom and the meanings attributed to those by classroom participants. The LPS research design documents sequences of approximately ten lessons, using video cameras, supplemented by reconstructive accounts of classroom participants obtained in post-lesson video-stimulated interviews, and by test and questionnaire data, and copies of student written material. In each participating country, data generation focuses on the classrooms of three teachers, identified by the local mathematics education community as competent, and situated in demographically school communities within one major city.

The aim of the symposium is not only to identify different feedback and questioning practices in the countries’ mathematics classrooms, but more importantly to develop a deeper understanding of the construct of ‘questioning’, and what it means for teachers to give suitable feedback. What are the types of questions asked that are ‘worth’ asking, in each classroom, that is questions which may be instrumental for the development of pupil understanding? How do teachers perceive suitable feedback, e.g. in class or by marking pupil work? These and other questions will permeate the discussions in this symposium. This symposium is likely to offer insights for teacher educators, researchers and policy makers, in terms of teacher professional development and with respect to formative assessment in the mathematics classroom.