| The purpose of the study was for the researcher to understand the experience of 3 1st-year elementary mathematics teachers who had graduated from a reformoriented program as they tried to teach mathematics for understanding during their 1st year of teaching. I studied the beliefs, the practice, and the school context of each participant. With the advent of the mathematics reforms advocated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, research on how reform-prepared teachers make the transition from their university programs into actual classrooms was needed. I used interview and participant observation data collection techniques to understand this experience and to evaluate how successful the teachers were in implementing reform-based practices in their classrooms. I traced study participants' beliefs over the course of 1 school year and found that school contexts, teacher experience with children, and individual personal characteristics played a significant role in teacher success. Through a cross-case analysis, I determined that 1st-year teachers go through an adaptation process that has the power to affect their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning. I identified 3 different types of adaptive strategies and found that teachers' success in teaching reform-oriented lessons, their school context, and their personal characteristics figure prominently in the adaptations they make. |
