Mathematics Education

In this paper we report findings and implications related to secondary school mathematics teachers' use of instructional time and how patterns of classroom time utilization relate to the type of textbook used (content organization) and the class period format in place. The findings reported are based on data collected from 325 classroom observations of 109 teachers in 5 states during the first two years of the NSF-funded project, Comparing Options in Secondary School Mathematics: Investigating Curriculum (COSMIC) , a longitudinal comparative study of the impact of high school mathematics curricula on students learning. Class time data were classified and analyzed based on Activity Codes (e.g., Warm-Up, Review, Lesson Preview, Teach, Practice and Apply, Assess) and two textbook types: Subject-Specific content organization (Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra II) in which the content each year is centered around a core mathematics area, and Integrated content organization (Course 1, Co...

This paper reports and discusses preliminary findings related to curriculum implementation in mathematics classrooms. The primary focus is on the extent and manner in which teachers use textbooks in their daily teaching. Specific attention is given to implementation differences related to two types of mathematics textbooks where the mathematical content is organized differently. Research has established that students learn what they are given the opportunity to learn (OTL) (for mathematics, see Floden, 2002; Hiebert, 1999; Hiebert & Grouws, 2007). In classrooms, teachers are the final decision-makers with regard to the specific content taught and how it is taught. Furthermore, they rely heavily on curricular materials to inform and implement such decisions (Grouws & Smith, 2000; Weiss, Banilower, McMahon, & Smith, 2001; Weiss, Pasley, Smith, Banilower, & Heck, 2003). In order to understand how curriculum materials, in this case mathematics textbooks, impact student learning one must...