Journal of Mathematics Education at Teachers College (Oct 2013)

What Counts in Mathematics (and Other) Classrooms? A Framework for Looking at What Matters, and Thoughts About How One Might Use These Ideas for Professional Development

  • Alan H. Schoenfeld

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7916/jmetc.v0i0.663

Abstract

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This article describes the evolution of an analytical scheme that describes the dimensions of powerful mathematics classrooms-classrooms that produce students who are powerful mathematical thinkers. Such classrooms engage students with coherent and connected mathematics; they provide all students opportunities to do mathematical thinking. They help students develop a sense of mathematical agency and authority, and they employ formative assessment, finding out what students understand and building on those understandings. I discuss how this scheme can be used as the basis for professional development, and how a school district might take up a full-fledged professional development agenda.