NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS ONLY: This is a revised edition of Experiencing School Mathematics first published in 1997 by Open University Press, (c) Jo Boaler. This revised edition is for sale in North America only.
The first book to provide direct evidence for the effectiveness of traditional and reform-oriented teaching methods, Experiencing School Mathematics reports on careful and extensive case studies of two schools that taught mathematics in totally different ways. Three hundred students were followed over three years, providing an unusual and important range of data, including observations, interviews, questionnaires, and assessments, to show the ways students' beliefs and understandings were shaped by the different approaches to mathematics teaching. The interviews that are reproduced in the book give compelling insights into what it meant to be a student in the classrooms of the two schools. Questions are raised about and new evidence is provided for:
* the ways in which "traditional" and "reform oriented" mathematics teaching approaches can impact student attitude, beliefs, and achievement;
*the effectiveness of different teaching methods in preparing students for the demands of the "real world" and the 21st century;
*the impact of tracking and heterogeneous ability grouping; and
*gender and teaching styles--the potential of different teaching approaches for the attainment of equity.

The book draws some radical new conclusions about the ways that traditional teaching methods lead to limited forms of knowledge that are ineffective in non-school settings.

This edition has been revised for the North American market to show the relevance of the study results in light of the U.S. reform movement, the "math wars" and debates about teachers, assessment, and tracking. The details of the study have been rewritten for an American audience and the results are compared with research conducted in the U.S. This is an important volume for mathematics teachers and researchers, education policymakers, and for students in mathematics education courses.

NOTE: This is a revised edition of Experiencing School Mathematics first published in 1997 by Open University Press, (c) Jo Boaler. This revised edition is for sale in North America only.

Reviews

"Questions are raised about, and new evidence is provided for: the ways in which 'traditional' and 'reform oriented' mathematics teaching approaches can impact student attitudes, beliefs, and achievements, and the effectiveness of different teaching methods in preparing students for the demands of the 'real world' and the 21st century; the impact of tracking and heterogenous ability grouping; gender and teaching styles--the potential of different teaching approaches for the attainment of equity. The book draws some radical new conclusions about the ways that traditional teaching methods lead to limited forms of knowledge that are ineffective in nonschool settings."
-Zentralblatt fur Didaktik der Mathematik

"Through her comprehensive, penetrating study of the mathematics departments in two English schools, Jo Boaler shows how mathematics teaching and learning are shaped by teachers and by the settings in which they work. For Americans wondering about the direction that mathematics is taking in their schools, this remarkable book affords profound insights and compelling conclusions."
-Jeremy Kilpatrick
University of Georgia

"It holds a lot of information for anyone who is into research dealing with constructivist and nonconstructivist thinking and teaching. There are also some strong clues into how students perceive the mathematics they are asked to learn and a plethora of other interesting research topics and discussion areas in mathematics education."

"The past decade has seen a resurgence in debates about approaches to teaching mathematics, and concerns about persistent inequities in students' opportunities to learn and learning. Too rarely, however, are these debates grounded in systematic investigation of the enactment of these approaches in real classrooms and their impact on students' learning....Boaler's compelling study provides a vivid portrait of contrasts in students' opportunities to learn in two dramatically different approaches to the curriculum and teaching of mathematics, supplying much-needed evidence about the teaching and learning of mathematics."
-Deborah Loewenberg Ball
University of Michigan

Book Information
ISBN 9780805840056
Author Jo Boaler
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 800g