Chazan (mathematics, U. of Maryland) and his co-authors, who are high school mathematics teachers, offer their perspectives on the changes wrought by reforms in mathematics teaching practice. Along with high school students, postdoctoral researchers, teachers and administrators and college faculty, they explain their thoughts and actions as they sought to improve and expand basic skills, retention, inquiry, and critical thinking. In this case study they describe how theory informed practice and vice versa in assessment, curriculum and instructional models, planning, instructional tasks and classroom roles. They closely explain their students' experiences (with lots of help from the students themselves) and their own professional growth. They also consider how reforms in mathematics teaching changed how their students thought and dealt with other disciplines and behaviors. Lawrence Erlbaum is an imprint of Taylor & Francis. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
This book tells a single story, in many voices, about a serious and sustained set of changes in mathematics teaching practice in a high school and how those efforts influenced and were influenced by a local university. It includes the writings and perspectives of high school students, high school teachers, preservice teacher candidates, doctoral students in mathematics education and other fields, mathematics teacher educators, and other education faculty. As a whole, this case study provides an opportunity to reflect on reform visions of mathematics for all students and the challenges inherent in the implementation of these visions in US schools. It challenges us to rethink boundaries between theory and practice and the relative roles of teachers and university faculty in educational endeavors.