External links
- NCTM standards online Archived 2005-08-17 at the Wayback Machine 120-day free access, otherwise the public is required to pay to purchase or view the standards.
Reform mathematics is an approach to mathematics education, particularly in North America. It is based on principles explained in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The NCTM document Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (CESSM) set forth a vision for K–12 (ages 5–18) mathematics education in the United States and Canada. The CESSM recommendations were adopted by many local- and federal-level education agencies during the 1990s. In 2000, the NCTM revised its CESSM with the publication of Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM). Like those in the first publication, the updated recommendations became the basis for many states' mathematics standards, and the method in textbooks developed by many federally-funded projects. The CESSM de-emphasised manual arithmetic in favor of students developing their own conceptual thinking and problem solving. The PSSM presents a more balanced view, but still has the same emphases.
Mathematics instruction in this style has been labeled standards-based mathematics [1] or reform mathematics. [2]
Mathematics education reform built up momentum in the early 1980s, as educators reacted to the "new math" of the 1960s and 1970s. The work of Piaget and other developmental psychologists had shifted the focus of mathematics educators from mathematics content to how children best learn mathematics. [3] The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics summarized the state of current research with the publication of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards in 1989 and Principles and Standards for School Mathematics in 2000, bringing definition to the reform movement in North America. [4]
Reform mathematics curricula challenge students to make sense of new mathematical ideas through explorations and projects, often in real-world contexts. [3] Reform texts emphasize written and verbal communication, working in cooperative groups, and making connections between concepts and between representations. One of principles of reform mathematics is social equity. [5] In contrast, "traditional" textbooks emphasize procedural mathematics and provide step-by-step examples with skill-building exercises.
Traditional mathematics focuses on teaching algorithms that will lead to the correct answer of a particular problem. Because of this focus on application of algorithms, the student of traditional math must apply the specific method that is being taught. Reform mathematics de-emphasizes this algorithmic dependence. [6] Instead of leading students to find the exact answers to specific problems, reform educators focus students on the overall process which leads to an answer. Students' occasional errors are deemed less important than their understanding of an overall thought process. Research has shown that children make fewer mistakes with calculations and remember algorithms longer when they understand the concepts underlying the methods they use. In general, children in reform classes perform at least as well as children in traditional classes on tests of calculation skill, and perform considerably better on tests of problem solving. [7] [8] [9] [10]
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics was championed by educators, administrators and some mathematicians [11] as raising standards for all students; others criticized it for its prioritizing the understanding of processes over the learning of standard calculation procedures. Parents, educators and some mathematicians opposing reform mathematics complained about students becoming confused and frustrated, claiming that the style of instruction was inefficient and characterized by frequent false starts. [12] Proponents of reform mathematics countered that research showed that correctly-applied reform math curricula taught students basic math skills at least as well as curricula used in traditional programs, and additionally that reform math curricula was a more effective tool for teaching students the underlying concepts. [13] Communities that adopted reform curricula generally saw their students' math scores increase. [14] However, one study found that first-grade students with a below-average aptitude in math responded better to teacher-directed instruction. [15]
During the 1990s, the large-scale adoption of curricula such as Mathland was criticized for partially or entirely abandoning teaching of standard arithmetic methods such as practicing regrouping or finding common denominators. Protests from groups such as Mathematically Correct led to many districts and states abandoning such textbooks. Some states—such as California—revised their mathematics standards to partially or largely repudiate the basic tenets of reform mathematics, and to re-emphasize mastery of standard mathematics facts and methods.
The American Institutes for Research (AIR) reported in 2005 that the NCTM proposals "risk exposing students to unrealistically advanced mathematics content in the early grades." [16] This is in reference to NCTM's recommendation that algebraic concepts, such as understanding patterns and properties like commutativity (2+3=3+2), should be taught as early as first grade.
The 2008 National Mathematics Advisory Panel called for a balance between reform and traditional mathematics teaching styles, rather than a for a "war" to be waged between the proponents of the two styles. [17] In 2006 NCTM published its Curriculum Focal Points, which made clear that standard algorithms, as well as activities aiming at conceptual understanding, were to be included in all elementary school curricula.
A common misconception was that reform educators did not want children to learn the standard methods of arithmetic. As the NCTM Focal Points made clear, such methods were still the ultimate goal, but reformers believed that conceptual understanding should come first. Reform educators believed that such understanding is best pursued by first allowing children to attempt to solve problems using their own understanding and methods. Eventually, under guidance from the teacher, students arrive at an understanding of standard methods. Even the controversial NCTM Standards of 1989 did not call for abandoning standard algorithms, but instead recommended a decreased emphasis on complex paper-and-pencil computation drills, and an increased emphasis on mental computation, estimation skills, thinking strategies for mastering basic facts, and conceptual understanding of arithmetic operations.
During the peak of the controversy in the 1990s, unfavorable terminology for reform mathematics appeared in press and web articles, including Where's the math?, [18] anti-math, [19] math for dummies, [20] rainforest algebra , [21] math for women and minorities, [22] and new new math. [23] Most of these critical terms refer to the 1989 Standards rather than the PSSM.
Beginning in 2011, most states adopted the Common Core Standards, which attempted to incorporate reform ideas, rigor (introducing ideas at a younger age), and a leaner math curriculum.
Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education and beyond. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, space, and human sciences.
In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge.
New Mathematics or New Math was a dramatic but temporary change in the way mathematics was taught in American grade schools, and to a lesser extent in European countries and elsewhere, during the 1950s–1970s.
The National Science Education Standards (NSES) represent guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. These provide a set of goals for teachers to set for their students and for administrators to provide professional development. The NSES influence various states' own science learning standards, and statewide standardized testing.
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM) are guidelines produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2000, setting forth recommendations for mathematics educators. They form a national vision for preschool through twelfth grade mathematics education in the US and Canada. It is the primary model for standards-based mathematics.
Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds annual national and regional conferences for teachers and publishes five journals.
In elementary arithmetic, a standard algorithm or method is a specific method of computation which is conventionally taught for solving particular mathematical problems. These methods vary somewhat by nation and time, but generally include exchanging, regrouping, long division, and long multiplication using a standard notation, and standard formulas for average, area, and volume. Similar methods also exist for procedures such as square root and even more sophisticated functions, but have fallen out of the general mathematics curriculum in favor of calculators. As to standard algorithms in elementary mathematics, Fischer et al. (2019) state that advanced students use standard algorithms more effectively than peers who use these algorithms unreasoningly. That said, standard algorithms, such as addition, subtraction, as well as those mentioned above, represent central components of elementary math.
Saxon math, developed by John Saxon (1923–1996), is a teaching method for incremental learning of mathematics created in the 1980s. It involves teaching a new mathematical concept every day and constantly reviewing old concepts. Early editions were deprecated for providing very few opportunities to practice the new material before plunging into a review of all previous material. Newer editions typically split the day's work evenly between practicing the new material and reviewing old material. It uses a steady review of all previous material, with a focus on students who struggle with retaining the math they previously learned. However, it has sometimes been criticized for its heavy emphasis on rote rather than conceptual learning.
Core-Plus Mathematics is a high school mathematics program consisting of a four-year series of print and digital student textbooks and supporting materials for teachers, developed by the Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP) at Western Michigan University, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Development of the program started in 1992. The first edition, entitled Contemporary Mathematics in Context: A Unified Approach, was completed in 1995. The third edition, entitled Core-Plus Mathematics: Contemporary Mathematics in Context, was published by McGraw-Hill Education in 2015.
Mathematically Correct was a U.S.-based website created by educators, parents, mathematicians, and scientists who were concerned about the direction of reform mathematics curricula based on NCTM standards. Created in 1997, it was a frequently cited website in the so-called Math wars, and was actively updated until 2003.
Traditional mathematics was the predominant method of mathematics education in the United States in the early-to-mid 20th century. This contrasts with non-traditional approaches to math education. Traditional mathematics education has been challenged by several reform movements over the last several decades, notably new math, a now largely abandoned and discredited set of alternative methods, and most recently reform or standards-based mathematics based on NCTM standards, which is federally supported and has been widely adopted, but subject to ongoing criticism.
Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space is a K–5 mathematics curriculum, developed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The curriculum is often referred to as Investigations or simply TERC. Patterned after the NCTM standards for mathematics, it is among the most widely used of the new reform mathematics curricula. As opposed to referring to textbooks and having teachers impose methods for solving arithmetic problems, the TERC program uses a constructivist approach that encourages students to develop their own understanding of mathematics. The curriculum underwent a major revision in 2005–2007.
MathLand was one of several elementary mathematics curricula that were designed around the 1989 NCTM standards. It was developed and published by Creative Publications and was initially adopted by the U.S. state of California and schools run by the US Department of Defense by the mid 1990s. Unlike curricula such as Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space, by 2007 Mathland was no longer offered by the publisher, and has since been dropped by many early adopters. Its demise may have been, at least in part, a result of intense scrutiny by critics.
The Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP) is a four-year, problem-based mathematics curriculum for high schools. It was one of several curricula funded by the National Science Foundation and designed around the 1989 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards. The IMP books were authored by Dan Fendel and Diane Resek, professors of mathematics at San Francisco State University, and by Lynne Alper and Sherry Fraser. IMP was published by Key Curriculum Press in 1997 and sold in 2012 to It's About Time.
In the United States, math wars are debates over modern mathematics education, textbooks and curricula that were triggered by the publication in 1989 of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and subsequent development and widespread adoption of a new generation of mathematics curricula inspired by these standards.
Singapore math is a teaching method based on the national mathematics curriculum used for first through sixth grade in Singaporean schools. The term was coined in the United States to describe an approach originally developed in Singapore to teach students to learn and master fewer mathematical concepts at greater detail as well as having them learn these concepts using a three-step learning process: concrete, pictorial, and abstract. In the concrete step, students engage in hands-on learning experiences using physical objects which can be everyday items such as paper clips, toy blocks or math manipulates such as counting bears, link cubes and fraction discs. This is followed by drawing pictorial representations of mathematical concepts. Students then solve mathematical problems in an abstract way by using numbers and symbols.
Connected Mathematics is a comprehensive mathematics program intended for U.S. students in grades 6–8. The curriculum design, text materials for students, and supporting resources for teachers were created and have been progressively refined by the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) at Michigan State University with advice and contributions from many mathematics teachers, curriculum developers, mathematicians, and mathematics education researchers.
Recall of facts is a value of education which is to be de-emphasized in reform of science according to new American national curriculum standards. Recall facts is often associated with rote learning.
Sybilla Beckmann is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, at the University of Georgia and a recipient of the Association for Women in Mathematics Louise Hay Award.
Douglas H. Clements is an American scholar in the field of early mathematics education. Previously a preschool and kindergarten teacher, his research centers on the learning and teaching of early mathematics, computer applications for mathematics teaching, and scaling up successful educational interventions. Clements has contributed to the writing of educational standards including the Common Core State Standards, the NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and the NCTM's 2006 Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics.
