| This dissertation describes the experiences of four teachers in an exemplary, reform-oriented, mathematics professional development program---the Developing Mathematical Ideas Leadership (DMI-L) Institute. It begins with the premise that mathematics education reform visions may require that teachers change not only the content of their ideas about subject matter, learning, and teaching, but also the structure of how they hold these ideas, as teachers are asked to manage and balance diverse perspectives and values, generate practices from underlying principles without "recipes" to guide the way, and negotiate the uncertainty of ever-changing contexts. After reviewing various descriptions of the process of reform-oriented change, the dissertation proposes that a constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, 1982;1994), with its focus on cognitive complexity, locus of authority, and perspective taking, can help explain patterns in these frameworks.;Based on qualitative data collected before, during, and in the fall after the Institute, the dissertation presents nuanced portraits (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis, 1997) of the experiences of two teachers at each of two constructive developmental Orders of Mind. To understand these experiences and their impact on teaching, it then examines teachers' mathematical knowledge and beliefs, their pedagogical views, the structure of their meaning-making systems, and their school-based contexts of support.;Teachers making meaning at Kegan's Third Order may be converted to reform ideas in the short-term. Long-term change in their beliefs and practices, however, is dependent on the supports and impediments they experience in their whole school environment, or in a supportive subculture. Fourth Order teachers are less influenced by their environments, either for or against reform. For them, change requires convincing themselves through experiences and dialogue rather than by adopting common practice. These constructive-developmental differences imply a need for different strategies and structures in teacher education. Teachers' prior pedagogical beliefs and the depth and character of their mathematical knowledge also affect their understanding and implementation of reform-oriented teaching practices. Finally, this dissertation also begins to explore how constructivism can mean different things to different teachers, and examines whether teacher educators might need to support constructive-developmental change, as well. |
