In each of three consecutive years, 16 teachers were admitted to a program in which they participated in a study group to reform their teaching practices in mathematics. The 48 (total) elementary school teachers in this program were selected to ensure diversity of setting— urban and suburban, as well as public and parochial. Teachers routinely met with the study group for 1 year, engaging in follow‐up activities after that year. Surveys, interviews, and site visits showed that teachers underwent significant changes in their knowledge, beliefs, and teaching practices and were attempting to implement reform consistent with current standards. Teachers with 11 to 25 years of experience demonstrated the greatest changes. Long‐term effects of the program and its impact on colleagues within the building and district have yet to be studied.
This article provides an introduction to the six guiding principles for school mathematics and eight core mathematics teaching practices that appear in the new NCTM document, Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) launched the “standards-based” education movement in North America in 1989 with the release of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, an unprecedented action to promote systemic improvement in mathematics education. Now, twenty-five years later, the widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) by forty-five states provides an opportunity to reenergize and focus our commitment to significant improvement in mathematics education (CCSSI 2010).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.