Assessing Teacher Change in Facilitating Mathematizing in Urban Middle Schools - Results of an Effective Professional Development Program

Oct 15, 2026

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Study documents teaching practice changes among mathematics teachers in urban middle schools after participating in a standards-based professional development program. Teachers shift from didactic lecture delivery toward facilitating conditions that support student exploration and mathematizing. The development process is analyzed across three critical domains: pedagogy, use of mathematical tasks, and focus on mathematics. The paper also frames the need for teacher preparation for this instructional paradigm shift and explains the underlying theory of mathematizing and student representation building.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

The Study

Purpose and Assessment Domains

Professional Development and Standards-Based Shifts

Theoretical Framework

Mathematizing and Mental Representations

Student Representations and Social Interaction

Teacher Listening and Timely Questioning

CIMLE Current Issues in Middle Level Education (2014) 19 (2), 9-12 Assessing Teacher Change in Facilitating Mathematizing in Urban Middle Schools: Results of an Effective Professional Development Program Lynn D. Tarlow City College of the City University of New York This study documents the change in teaching practices ofa group of mathematics teachers in urban middle schools as they participated in a program ofprofessional development to promote standards-based learning environments. The teachers made a shift in their classroom practice from a traditional, didactic lecture approach towards a role offacilitating conditions suitable for students’ explorations and mathematizing. The stages of development the teachers experienced are described with regard to three critical domains: Pedagogy, Use of Mathematical Tasks, and Focus on Mathematics. Reports from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1980, 1989, 2000) and other influential organizations (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; National Research Council, 1989; United States Department of Education, 1999), recommend that teachers rethink their goals and practice of teaching mathematics. Mathematics education has shifted away from characterizing mathematics as a discipline offacts, procedures, and formal proofs that can be transmitted by articulate teachers to diligent learners, towards one based on the constructive activity of learners, as suggested by NCTM (1989, 2000) standards. However, prior research indicates that a lack of success in some efforts to implement standards-based mathematics learning environments may be due to the fact that teachers generally have not been prepared for this endeavor (Hiebert, 2003) . How might we educate teachers for this paradigmatic shift? Mewborn (2003) asserted,“Teachers’ thinking needs to beat the center of professional development sessions just as children’s thinking needs to be at the center of mathematics instruction” (p. 49) . Therefore, the more providers of professional development know regarding teachers’ thinking about mathematics teaching and learning, the better they can provide programs that facilitate teachers’ standards-based practices in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a research base relating to effective teacher development by documenting teacher change within a teacher-development program. Of key concern when assessing the impact of a teacher-development program is whether the teachers have actually become better mathematics teachers, and if so, how did their teaching practices change? What pedagogical practices have evolved to support students’ learning? Do the teachers select and make use of appropriate tasks to support students’ constructions? Are they able to recognize the mathematics in students’ thinking and use that understanding to provoke students’ further growth of mathematical understanding and ideas? In order to understand this change, teachers’ lessons were observed, studied, and assessed within three significant domains: Pedagogy, Use of Mathematical Tasks, and Focus on Mathematics. Theoretical Framework This research is based on the view that building mental representations is the foundation of doing mathematics. Rather than a discipline or body of knowledge (concepts, skills) to be transmitted, mathematics is defined from the perspective of“mathematizing” – the activity of interpreting, organizing, and constructing meaning of situations with mathematical modeling (Freudenthal, 1991) . Mental images formed by individuals are used in building representations of mathematical ideas (Davis, 1984) . To represent an idea, an individual may create a model or present a notation. Although the internal, cognitive representations are not available to us, certain features of them are made public as ideas are explained, justified, and shared with others. The representations that students build are constantly reexamined and m

FAQs

What teaching practice changes occurred for teachers in urban middle schools?

Teachers moved from a traditional didactic lecture approach toward facilitating classroom conditions that support students’ exploration and mathematizing.

How does the study assess the impact of the professional development program?

It documents teacher change by observing, studying, and assessing lessons across three domains: pedagogy, use of mathematical tasks, and focus on mathematics.

What theoretical idea underpins the study’s view of mathematics learning?

Mathematics is defined through mathematizing—the activity of interpreting, organizing, and constructing meaning using mathematical modeling, grounded in building mental representations.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni