Factors Influencing Student Teachers’ Use of Mathematics Curriculum Materials

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe three elementary student teachers’ uses of mathematics curriculum materials and propose potential factors that may have worked together to contribute to their ways of using the materials. As the above quotations highlight, student teachers’ ways of using mathematics curriculum materials can vary tremendously. Heather aimed to follow closely the suggestions of her Standards-based curriculum materials, Anne made adaptations to her Standards-based materials, and Bridget followed selected components and supplemented her commercially-developed textbook. What factors might have influenced these student teachers to use their curriculum programs in different ways? Attention to this question has the potential to expand our current understandings of teachers’ relationships with mathematics curriculum materials and the ways teachers are prepared for their initial instructional experiences. Because preservice teachers’ field experiences are likely to involve textbooks or curriculum materials intended to guide the design of instruction, understanding the nature of and factors influencing these first encounters with curriculum materials for teaching are undoubtedly important.