NCTM: The Teaching Principle

Students learn mathematics through the experiences that teachers provide. — Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, p. 16

The Teaching Principle is one of six principles describing the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’s vision of high-quality mathematics education. As noted in the discussion of this principle, teaching mathematics well requires several types of knowledge, including pedagogical knowledge, which "helps teachers understand how students learn mathematics, become facile with a range of different teaching techniques and instructional materials, and organize and manage the classroom" (NCTM, 2000, p. 17). The resources featured in Teaching Strategies in Middle School Math present a wide range of techniques and supporting materials in each type. They may give you opportunity to explore a teaching strategy new to you, or simply build up your store of activities in a strategy already familiar to you. (A brief summary of the Teaching Principle is available at http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter2/teach.htm.)

In a discussion of professional standards for mathematics teachers, Mathematics Teaching Today, NCTM emphasizes that "the tasks and activities that teachers select are mechanisms for drawing students into the important mathematics that composes the curriculum. Worthwhile mathematical tasks are those that do not separate mathematical thinking from mathematical concepts or skills, that capture students’ curiosity, and that invite students to speculate and to pursue their hunches" (NCTM, 2007, p. 33).

The activities in the resources highlighted here, both online and offline, directly address middle school curriculum while challenging students to make sense of the mathematical concepts through their own reasoning. We hope these resources will add to your own list of "worthwhile mathematical tasks".

References

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA: Author.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2007). Mathematics teaching today: Improving practice, improving student learning. Reston, VA: Author.

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Copyright December 2007 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.