Article,
Teacher Beliefs and the Reform Movement of Mathematics Education.
Phi Delta Kappan, (1994)
Abstract
Through extensive education programs and institutional reform, we must help teachers become comfortable with the new view of mathematics, Mr. Battista says -- because, once they fully understand and believe in the reform movement, teachers will lead the way in implementing it.
TEACHERS are key to the success of the current reform movement in U.S. mathematics education. However, many teachers have beliefs about mathematics that are incompatible with those underlying the reform effort. Because these beliefs play a critical role not only in what teachers teach but in how they teach it, this incompatibility blocks reform and prolongs the use of a mathematics curriculum that is seriously damaging the mathematical health of our children.
THE REFORM MOVEMENT
With its release of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics in 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) spawned a major reform movement in school mathematics. The movement calls for abandoning curricula that promote thinking about
mathematics as a rigid system of externally
dictated rules governed by standards
of accuracy, speed, and memory....
A mathematics curriculum that
emphasizes computation and rules is
like a writing curriculum that emphasizes
grammar and spelling; both put
the cart before the horse. There...
