A New Way of Teaching

Abstract

A new view of teaching is emerging from the work of the constructivists and mathematics education reform leaders. In particular, we examine here four aspects of teaching that must change: task selection, guidance of classroom discourse, setting the learning environment, and the analysis of teaching and learning. Several national curriculum projects are working to effect these changes and examples of their work are provided. This work has motivated individual teachers to similarly design investigations that engage students in the study of significant mathematics, and two examples are included. Assessment must also change and students must learn to become less dependent on “authority” for the correctness of answers. Finally, our present understanding of constructivism and its implications for teaching/learning must not be static; though that view now may be at the center, we must listen to those who are on the edges and expect to be changed again and again in the years ahead.