Kansas high school mathematics teachers' attitudes and beliefs concerning the NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Kansas high school mathematics teachers view: The current reform represented in the NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Mathematics (Standards); their students' achievement of the new goals; the emphasis being given to some mathematics topics; the teaching methods and techniques being used in mathematics; and some of the factors that might play important roles in facilitating the implementation of the Standards. The sample of the study was 125 large and small high schools which were selected randomly. Two-hundred fifteen questionnaires were returned. Percentages, mean, and rank were used to explain the respondents' answers to the questionnaire items. ANOVA was used to test the 54 null hypotheses, followed by the LSD test where appropriate.;Findings. Most of the mathematics teachers considered almost all mathematics instructional goals to be very important or important.;Most of the mathematics teachers believed that less than half of the students achieved these goals, especially those that require students to communicate as well as to reason mathematically.;Most of the mathematics teachers believed that discrete mathematics, probability, and statistics received little or no emphasis in their mathematics departments.;Mathematics teachers believed that traditional methods and techniques should and do receive more emphasis than the new ones. Most mathematics teachers believed that computers and calculators actually receive little or no emphasis in assisting mathematics instruction.;About 50 percent of mathematics teachers believed that in-service and pre-service mathematics teacher preparation programs were between weakness and great weakness conditions for facilitating implementation of the Standards.;On average, the mathematics teachers indicated that mathematics curriculum topics should receive 20 percent more emphasis than they actually receive, and that mathematics teaching methods and techniques should receive about 21 percent more emphasis than they actually receive. However, the respondents reported that class size, length of school day, and length of school year were satisfactory.;Mathematics teachers who were familiar with the Standards believed that the mathematics instructional goals were more important than did others.;Mathematics teachers who taught in small schools believed that more of the students achieved the mathematics instructional goals than did those who taught in large schools.;Mathematics teachers who were familiar with the Standards believed that mathematics topics such as probability, statistics, and discrete mathematics should receive greater emphasis than did others.