Implementing the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics: Knowing School Mathematics: A Personal Reflection on the NCTM's Teaching Standards

For many of us, the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM 1991) represents a much scarier and much more intimidating vision of school mathematics than its predecessor, the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989). Accordingly, implementing the teaching standards will require different strategies from those being used or proposed to implement the curriculum standards.

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Animating Geometry with Flexigons

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.87.8.0602 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 87 (8) ◽

pp. 602-606

Author(s):

Ruth McClintock

Keyword(s):

Language Skills ◽

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Physical Models ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Mathematical Concepts ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Grade Levels ◽

Conversation Piece

Viewing mathematics as communication is the second standard listed for all grade levels in the NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989). This emphasis underscores the need for nurturing language skills that enable children to translate nonverbal awareness into words. One way to initiate discussion about mathematical concepts is to use physical models and manipulatives. Standard 4 of the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM 1991) addresses the need for tools to enhance discourse. The flexigon is a simple and inexpensive conversation piece that helps students make geometric discoveries and find language to share their ideas.

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Implementing the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics: Learn from Your Students

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.85.8.0656 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 85 (8) ◽

pp. 656-659

Author(s):

Margaret A. Farrell

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Classroom Instruction ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Teaching Standards ◽

Professional Development Of Teachers ◽

Professional Teaching Standards ◽

Professional Teaching ◽

Individual Commitment

The next four articles in this department address issues related to four of the six standards in the section of the Professional Teaching Standards (NCTM 1991) titled “Standards for the Professional Development of Teachers of Mathematics.” The series will pay particular attention to the ways in which these standards affect the in-service teacher of mathematics, whose ongoing professional development depends. to a large extent, on individual commitment, reflection, and action. We hope that these articles will furnish a basis from which teachers can begin to examine and improve their own classroom instruction.

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Professional Development: Teachers' Communication and Collaboration Keys to Student Achievement

Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School ◽

10.5951/mtms.1.6.0454 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 1 (6) ◽

pp. 454-458

Author(s):

Helene J. Sherman ◽

Thomas Jaeger

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Student Achievement ◽

Educational Reform ◽

Mathematics Teaching ◽

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Professional Satisfaction ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Instructional Changes

The curriculum and evaluation standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989) and the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM 1991) have served as both stimuli for, and responses to, numerous formal and informal programs, conferences, and conversations calling for educational reform and improvement in mathematics teaching. After all the plans are drawn and all the objectives are written, however, reform is most likely to occur and make a lasting difference when teachers are aware of the need for improvement, have a voice in planning it, and derive a real sense of professional satisfaction from implementing the instructional changes.

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Interpreting the Standards: Translating Principles into Practice

Teaching Children Mathematics ◽

10.5951/tcm.4.4.0202 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 202-205

Author(s):

Deborah E. Schifter ◽

Deborah Carey O'Brien

Keyword(s):

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Mathematical Concepts ◽

Mathematics Pedagogy ◽

Student Centered ◽

Evaluation Standards

Since the publication of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 1989) and the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM 1991). such phrases as “mathematics should be taught for understanding.” “teachers should facilitate the construction of mathematical concepts,” and “classrooms should be student centered” have become identified with a reformed mathematics pedagogy.

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Implementing the “Curriculum and Evaluation Standards”: Recognizing and Recording Reform in Mathematics: New Questions, Many Answers

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.87.3.0190 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 87 (3) ◽

pp. 190-193

Author(s):

Joan Ferrini-Mundy ◽

Loren Johnson ◽

James R. Smart

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Education ◽

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Anecdotal Evidence ◽

Reform Effort ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Curriculum And Pedagogy ◽

Standards Documents

NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989) and its Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (1991) lend possible direction and meaning to the reform effort in mathematics education that is sweeping the country. The documents have been widely disseminated and discussed, and anecdotal evidence indicates that teachers of mathematics are seeking ways to enact the ideas contained in the standards documents. These documents are also inspiring the development of standards in other disciplines. But a number of questions are being raised as schools, districts, states, and provinces attempt to incorporate these Standards in changing their curriculum and pedagogy.

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Implementing the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics: Self-Evaluation as an Act of Teaching

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.87.5.0354 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 87 (5) ◽

pp. 354-358

Author(s):

Vicky L. Kouba

Keyword(s):

Professional Standards ◽

Peer Evaluation ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Self Evaluation ◽

Teaching Standards ◽

Reflective Teachers ◽

Professional Teaching Standards ◽

High Level ◽

Professional Teaching

A common call heard today is that we want “reflective teachers” who have the skills and expetiences necessary to engage in a high-level examination of teaching. Indeed, the authors of the NCTM's Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (Professional Teaching Standards), published in 1991, recommend that teachers assume more of the responsibility for both self-evaluation and peer evaluation.

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Inquiry-Discourse Mathematics Instruction

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.101.4.0290 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 101 (4) ◽

pp. 290-300

Author(s):

Azita Manouchehri

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Teachers ◽

Mathematics Instruction ◽

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Mathematical Inquiry ◽

Mathematical Structures ◽

Approach To Teaching ◽

Principles And Standards ◽

Student Inquiry

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM 2000) proposes that mathematics instruction provide opportunities for students to engage in mathematical inquiry and in meaningmaking through discourse. Mathematics teachers are encouraged to build on student discoveries in designing subsequent instruction. Natural consequences of using an inquiry-based approach to teaching include the emergence of unexpected mathematical results and the articulation of novel and different strategies by students. Anticipating the potential for such occurrences, Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM 1991) urges all teachers to remain flexible and responsive to student ideas in their instruction: Help students make connections among various solutions, tie student ideas to important mathematical structures, and extend student inquiry by posing questions and tasks that challenge their initial interpretations of problems or their false generalizations.

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Soundoff: Make Room for Dancing

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.88.1.0006 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 88 (1) ◽

pp. 6-7

Author(s):

Larry E. Askins

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Education ◽

Mathematics Teachers ◽

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

Evaluation Standards ◽

Clear Vision

As mathematics teachers, we are eager for an optimistic view of what our classrooms can become during this decade and beyond. I believe that NCTM's Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (1991) and Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989) present a clear vision for making mathematics education successful in the 1990s. However, the documents mean nothing if individual teachers fail to take deliberate steps toward realizing that vision.

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Implementing the “Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics”: Applying the Standards to the College Mathematics Classroom: Ideas and Obstacles

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.86.9.0744 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 86 (9) ◽

pp. 744-747

Author(s):

Mary Kim Prichard

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Teaching ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Mathematics Classroom ◽

School Mathematics ◽

Professional Standards ◽

Teaching Mathematics ◽

College Level ◽

College And University ◽

University Mathematics ◽

New Vision

This assumption that how teachers teach mathematics is fundamentally connected with how they learned it underlies the first standard of the “Standards for the Professional Development of Teachers of Mathematics.” This standard, Experiencing Good Mathematics Teaching, focuses on the role of the college and university mathematics professors in the process of reforming school mathematics teaching. It is essential that mathematics teacher educators invite and encourage college-level mathematics faculty to join them in implementing the teaching standards. The NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989) and Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (1991) present a new vision of school mathematics. Mathematics courses and programs of study in colleges and universities should share in this vision.

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