Classroom reform five years down the track: The experiences of two teachers

Abstract

This case study research investigated changing teacher roles associated with two teachers’ use of innovative mathematics materials at Grade Six level, in a setting which contained all the ideal ingredients for professional growth. Participant observation and interviews with the teachers over a seven-month period early in the use of the innovative materials and for a brief time five years later provided a picture of changing teacher roles, but also a sense of issues that had emerged. or persisted in the longer term. The greatest changes in these teachers’ roles (in the short and long term) related to increasing comfort with posing non-routine problems to students and allowing them to struggle together, and the provision of structured opportunities for student reflection upon activities and learning. However, little change was evident over the five year period in the teachers’ use of assessment practices or in their articulation of the “big ideas” of mathematics in the middle school years.