Based on the author’s experience as a researcher and teacher of lower-track students, Beyond Formulas in Mathematics and Teaching illuminates the complex dynamics of the algebra classroom. From within this setting, Daniel Chazan thoughtfully explores topics that concern all dedicated educators, how to really know one’s students, how to find engaging material, and how to inspire meaningful classroom conversations. Throughout, he addresses the predicaments that are central to the lives of teachers who work in standard educational settings. By highlighting teaching dilemmas, Chazan prompts readers to consider what their own responses would be in similar situations. With an eye to ways of restructuring roles and relationships, Beyond Formulas in Mathematics and Teaching is essential reading for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices and understanding of students who may be estranged from school.

With an eye to ways of restructuring roles and relationships, Beyond Formulas in Mathematics and Teaching is essential reading for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices and understanding of students who may be estranged from school."--Jacket.

This book has two primary goals. On the level of theory development, the book clarifies the nature of an emerging "models and modeling perspective" about teaching, learning, and problem solving in mathematics and science education. On the level of emphasizing practical problems, it clarifies the nature of some of the most important elementary-but-powerful mathematical or scientific understandings and abilities that Americans are likely to need as foundations for success in the present and future technology-based information age. Beyond Constructivism: Models and Modeling Perspectives on Mathematics Problem Solving, Learning, and Teaching features an innovative Web site housing online appendices for each chapter, designed to supplement the print chapters with digital resources that include example problems, relevant research tools and video clips, as well as transcripts and other samples of students' work: http://tcct.soe.purdue.edu/booksULandULjournals/modelsULandUL modeling/ This is an essential volume for graduate-level courses in mathematics and science education, cognition and learning, and critical and creative thinking, as well as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in these areas.

For too many students, mathematics consists of facts in a vacuum, to be memorized because the instructor says so, and to be forgotten when the course of study is completed. In this all-too-common scenario, young learners often miss the chance to develop skills—specifically, reasoning skills—that can serve them for a lifetime. The elegant pages of Teaching Mathematical Reasoning in Secondary School Classrooms propose a more positive solution by presenting a reasoning- and discussion-based approach to teaching mathematics, emphasizing the connections between ideas, or why math works. The teachers whose work forms the basis of the book create a powerful record of methods, interactions, and decisions (including dealing with challenges and impasses) involving this elusive topic. And because this approach shifts the locus of authority from the instructor to mathematics itself, students gain a system of knowledge that they can apply not only to discrete tasks relating to numbers, but also to the larger world of people and the humanities. A sampling of the topics covered: Whole-class discussion methods for teaching mathematics reasoning. Learning mathematical reasoning through tasks. Teaching mathematics using the five strands. Classroom strategies for promoting mathematical reasoning. Maximizing student contributions in the classroom. Overcoming student resistance to mathematical conversations. Teaching Mathematical Reasoning in Secondary School Classrooms makes a wealth of cutting-edge strategies available to mathematics teachers and teacher educators. This book is an invaluable resource for researchers in mathematics and curriculum reform and of great interest to teacher educators and teachers.

Teaching Mathematics in Grades 6 - 12 by Randall E. Groth explores how research in mathematics education can inform teaching practice in grades 6-12. The author shows preservice mathematics teachers the value of being a "researcher—constantly experimenting with methods for developing students' mathematical thinking—and connecting this research to practices that enhance students' understanding of the material. Ultimately, preservice teachers will gain a deeper understanding of the types of mathematical knowledge students bring to school, and how students' thinking may develop in response to different teaching strategies.

This book opens up alternative ways of thinking and talking about ways in which a person can "know" a subject (in this case, mathematics), leading to a reconsideration of what it may mean to be a teacher of that subject. In a number of European languages, a distinction is made in ways of knowing that in the English language is collapsed into the singular word know. In French, for example, to know in the savoir sense is to know things, facts, names, how and why things work, and so on, whereas to know in the connaître sense is to know a person, a place, or even a thing—namely, an other— in such a way that one is familiar with, or in relationship with this other. Primarily through phenomenological reflection with a touch of empirical input, this book fleshes out an image for what a person’s connaître knowing of mathematics might mean, turning to mathematics teachers and teacher educators to help clarify this image.

The idea of teachers Learning through Teaching (LTT) – when presented to a naïve bystander – appears as an oxymoron. Are we not supposed to learn before we teach? After all, under the usual circumstances, learning is the task for those who are being taught, not of those who teach. However, this book is about the learning of teachers, not the learning of students. It is an ancient wisdom that the best way to “truly learn” something is to teach it to others. Nevertheless, once a teacher has taught a particular topic or concept and, consequently, “truly learned” it, what is left for this teacher to learn? As evident in this book, the experience of teaching presents teachers with an exciting opp- tunity for learning throughout their entire career. This means acquiring a “better” understanding of what is being taught, and, moreover, learning a variety of new things. What these new things may be and how they are learned is addressed in the collection of chapters in this volume. LTT is acknowledged by multiple researchers and mathematics educators. In the rst chapter, Leikin and Zazkis review literature that recognizes this phenomenon and stress that only a small number of studies attend systematically to LTT p- cesses. The authors in this volume purposefully analyze the teaching of mathematics as a source for teachers’ own learning.