Aims
This Topic Study Group aims to elevate people’s understanding of the importance, specific nature, and challenges in research on classroom practice, to promote exchanges and collaborations in identifying and examining high-quality practices in classroom instruction across different education systems, and to enhance the quality of research and classroom practice. Although it has long been recognized that research on classroom practice is important, developing systematic research on classroom practice in school mathematics is a relatively new endeavor. In fact, this Topic Study Group is the second time in the ICME history to take a primary focus on classroom practice. As the quality of classroom instruction is a key to the improvement of students’ mathematics learning, this Topic Study Group should be of great interest to those who care about finding ways for understanding, assessing, and improving the quality of classroom practice.

Focus and themes
The focus of TSG 21 is a discussion of research related to mathematics classroom practice. Classroom practice includes activities of learning and teaching processes located within the classroom as a system. A consideration of the mathematics classroom as a system requires the study of the interactions among the mathematical content to be taught and learned, the instructional practices of the teacher, and the work and experiences of the students. In the interaction processes, mathematical content is contextualized through situations, the teacher plays an important instructional role drawing on his/her knowledge, and the students involve themselves in the learning processes. It is important to understand through research the nature and extent of the interactions in the mathematics classroom, the complexity of the didactic system, the roles of the teacher and students in the interaction processes when the mathematical content is taught and learned, and the complexity of the activities in mathematics classrooms.
With this focus, TSG21 is intended to provide an international platform for all interested parties (e.g., mathematics educators, school teachers, educational researchers, etc.) to disseminate findings from their research on classroom practice with the use of various theoretical perspectives and methodologies, and to exchange ideas about mathematics classroom research, development, and evaluation.
Possible themes of TSG21 include the following:

• Theoretical perspectives and research approaches in defining, identifying, assessing, and improving the quality of classroom practice;
• Methodological advances in research on classroom practice, such as the use of video clips;
• High-quality classroom practices that are identified, valued, and assessed in different education systems;
• Various issues concerning research on classroom practice and possible (dis)connections between research and practice.

Guidelines for submission
The organizing team welcomes contributions to the themes outlined above as well as related issues. Participants are invited to submit 1500-2000 word (excluding references) proposals by November 30, 2011 both via e-mail to the team chairs and through the on-line submission system at the Congress Website. Your proposals should contain the following information:

• A cover page including “Proposal’s title, Author name(s), Institution/School, Country, and Contact information (esp. e-mail address of the corresponding author)”
• Abstract
• Main text
• References