Implementing Standards-based Mathematical Instruction

Teachers and teacher educators interested in synthesizing their current practice with new mathematics standards will welcome this highly useful volume. Author Mary Kay Stein and her colleagues at the QUASAR Project at the University of Pittsburgh present prevalent cases of mathematics instruction drawn from their research of nearly 500 classroom lessons. The Mathematical Tasks Framework, developed by the authors and explained thoroughly in the book, offers teachers and teacher educators the means to evaluate instructional decisions, the choice of materials, and learning outcomes, and the case studies afford readers the opportunity to ground these ideas in actual classroom practice. Readers will gain insight about how to foster a challenging, cognitively rich, and exciting classroom climate that propels students toward a richer understanding of mathematics.