What Counts in Mathematics (and Other) Classrooms? A Framework for Looking at What Matters, and Thoughts About How One Might Use These Ideas for Professional Development

Abstract

This article describes the evolution of an analytical scheme that describes the dimensions of powerful mathematics classrooms—classrooms that produce students who are powerful mathematical thinkers. Such classrooms engage students with coherent and connected mathematics; they provide all students opportunities to do mathematical thinking. They help students develop a sense of mathematical agency and authority, and they employ formative assessment, finding out what students understand and building on those understandings. I discuss how this scheme can be used as the basis for professional development, and how a school district might take up a full-fledged professional development agenda.