| The aim of the study was to examine teachers' interactions with a new textbook in order to gain insight into the potential for curriculum materials to contribute to reform in mathematics teaching. It was motivated by the tendency of educational policy makers to use curriculum materials to implement curricular and pedagogical change in mathematics teaching and by discrepancies in research findings regarding their impact on teaching. While studies reveal a close match between mathematical topics most frequently taught and the core topics, skills, and content in texts (Freeman & Porter, 1989; Stodolsky, 1989), researchers have also noted variations between classroom instruction and what is suggested in textbooks, particularly when the texts are based on nonconventional views of mathematics. (Putnam, 1992; Stephens, 1982; Sosniak & Stodolsky, 1993). Many researchers have found that teachers are influenced by their beliefs and knowledge about teaching, learning, and the subject matter more than by what is presented in texts (Ball, 1988; Donovan, 1983). The intent of this study was to consider whether and how reform-oriented curriculum materials might contribute to change in mathematics instruction.;Using case-study methodology, the author analyzed the interactive relationships between a new mathematics textbook and two fourth-grade teachers' thinking about, and teaching of, mathematics during one school year. In addition to observing and interviewing the teachers regularly, she analyzed the contents of the textbook for its depiction of mathematics teaching and learning. Through a cross-case analysis, the author developed a model of teachers' curriculum development activities, that is their construction of mathematics curriculum in the classroom. The model, which includes but is not limited to teachers' textbook use, consists of three arenas in which teachers engage in curriculum development: design, construction, and curriculum mapping. Each arena defines a particular realm of the curriculum development process about which teachers explicitly or implicitly make decisions. Through articulating each piece of the model, the author highlights the complex and multi-dimensional nature of teachers' curriculum processes, identifies significant characteristics of each arena that have implications for textbook use and instructional change, and indicates areas that call for further research. |
