Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching / Edition 1

by Magdalene Lampert

Overview

In this fascinating book, an experienced classroom teacher takes us into her fifth-grade math class through the course of a year and shows how classroom dynamics—the complex relationship of teacher, student, and content—are critical in improving student performance. Magdalene Lampert offers an original model of teaching practice that casts new light on the ways teachers can successfully deal with teaching problems.
“Although the setting is mathematics, the value of Lampert’s book is broad, addressing the core issues that face anyone in education. This is one of the most important books about education to appear in the past decade. What Lampert writes is deep and compelling. The story is engaging, even gripping; I couldn’t put it down.”—Jim Stigler, author of The Learning Gap
“Marvellous insight into the teacher’s craft. . . . A well-crafted, modest, richly pleasurable, even gripping, book, that says more about the challenges and pleasures of teaching (and learning) than a host of manuals could. You don’t need to be a mathematics teacher to enjoy it, although once you have read it, you may wish you were. Excellent.”—Michael Duffy, Times Educational Supplement
“This book should be required reading for researchers of mathematics teaching, for teacher educators, and for teachers who wish to develop into reflective practitioners.”—Erna Yackel, Journal of Research in Mathematics Education
“This very readable book is invaluable for teacher preparation colleges.”—Choice

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300099478
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	03/11/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Magdalene Lampert is professor of educational studies, School of Education, University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
1	Understanding Teaching: Why Is It So Hard?	1
	The Problems in Teaching	1
	Teaching with Problems	3
	Why Teach with Problems?	4
	What I Teach with Problems	5
	A Case of Teaching	6
2	An Instance of Teaching Practice	9
	The Big Picture	9
	Zooming In to a Lesson on Rate	10
	Zooming Further In: Teaching Richard, Catherine, and Awad	14
	Changing Focus: Teaching Anthony and Tyrone	19
	Changing Focus Again: Teaching Ellie, Sam, and Yasu	23
	From Narrative to Analysis	27
3	Why I Wrote This Book--and How	29
	Isolation Versus Communication	29
	Teaching as Working in Relationships: A Basic Model of Practice	30
	Elaborating the Model: Teaching Across the Year, Across Students, and Across the Curriculum	35
	An Unusual Research Program	38
	Figuring out How to Display the Work of Teaching	41
	Where Do Teaching Problems Arise?	45
4	Teaching to Establish a Classroom Culture	51
	Arranging the Physical Environment to Support a Classroom Culture	54
	Choosing Mathematical Content to Complement Culture-Building Practices	56
	Zooming in on the First Mathematics Lesson of the Year	59
	Zooming out to the First Week of School: Introducing Conditions, Conjectures, and Revision	65
	Establishing Structures for Students' Independent and Collaborative Activities	79
	Establishing Norms for Written Communication	84
	What Kind of Work Is This?	92
	Problems in Teaching in the Domain of Establishing Classroom Culture	97
5	Teaching While Preparing for a Lesson	101
	Where to Begin, Mathematically?	101
	Learning About My Students and Their Capacity to Study This Mathematics	108
	Problems in Teaching in the Domain of Preparing a Lesson	117
6	Teaching While Students Work Independently	121
	Teaching Problems in One-on-One Interactions with Students	122
	Teaching Students to Study Collaboratively	127
	Observing and Making Sense of the Range of Student Performance	131
	Teaching Problems in the Domain of Supporting Students' Independent Work	139
	Teaching Problems in Other Domains Caused by Students' Independent Work on Mathematics Problems	141
7	Teaching While Leading a Whole-Class Discussion	143
	Teaching in the Moment so the Whole Class Can Study	144
	Zooming out from Particular Exchanges to the Class as a Whole: Linking Students with Content Across Events	159
	Using Students to Take the Class into New Mathematical Territory	164
	Problems in Teaching in the Domain of Leading a Whole-Class Discussion	174
	Problems in a Lesson Lead to Larger-Scale Problems	176
8	Teaching to Deliberately Connect Content Across Lessons	179
	Anticipating the Connections That Can Be Made in a Problem Context	180
	Teaching This Mathematics to This Class	188
	Problems in Teaching in the Domain of Deliberately Connecting Content Across Lessons	210
9	Teaching to Cover the Curriculum	213
	Teaching to Cover Topics with Problems	213
	Viewing the Teaching of Topics Through Wide-Angle Lenses	217
	Teaching Topics as Connected Elements of the "Big Ideas" in a Discipline	220
	Cases of Teaching "Conceptual Fields"	223
	Teaching Again in the "Same" Conceptual Field	240
	Common Contexts and the Work of Coverage Across Lessons	255
	Problems in Teaching in the Domain of Covering the Curriculum: "Invisible Work"	259
	New Problems Raised by Reformulating Coverage in Terms of Conceptual Fields	262
10	Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School	265
	Teaching Intellectual Courage, Intellectual Honesty, and Wise Restraint	266
	Working up to Mathematical Risk Taking: Teaching Richard from September to December	268
	Integrating Academic Character into Preadolescent Social Life: Teaching Saundra to Think and to Reason	287
	Problems of Practice in Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School	325
11	Teaching the Nature of Accomplishment	329
	Accomplishment in the Classroom	329
	A Quiz on Fractions as a Resource for Teaching About Accomplishment	332
	Problems in Teaching the Nature of Progress	357
	Remaining Problems for Teaching	358
12	Teaching the Whole Class	361
	Elements of Teaching in Understanding Variations in Achievement	363
	Looking with a Wider Lens at Teaching to Differences	367
	Figuring out What to Teach in March and Whom to Teach It To	371
	Acts of Teaching for Working with Diverse Skills and Understanding at the Whole-Class Level	387
13	Teaching Closure	389
	Providing an Opportunity for Students to Demonstrate Acquired Knowledge and Skill in a Conceptual Field	391

Editorial Reviews

"This very readable book is invaluable for teacher preparation colleges. Students and practitioners as well as general readers will gain a deeper understanding of teaching. Researchers will find the framework and methodology noteworthy."—Choice


"[V]ery readable. . . invaluable for teacher preparation colleges . . . [s]tudents . . . practitioners . . . general readers . . . Researchers will find the framework and methodology noteworthy."—Choice

"As I approached the book, I wondered whether it would offer new insights. I was not disappointed. The book provides a wealth of new information. In addition, Lampert has skillfully crafted her book so that it can be read productively by many different audiences and from many different perspectives. . . . Readers who teach intermediate grades, middle grades, or teacher education students will find problems that they will want to add to their existing repertoires. . . . The book can be read as a resource for teacher educators. . . . The book can serve as a resource for researchers. . . . The book can be read as a companion to NCTM’s recent Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.. . . As a whole, the book can be seen as a comprehensive elaboration of the five process standards: problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representation. . . . This book should be required reading for researchers of mathematics teaching, for teacher educators, and for teachers who wish to develop into reflective practitioners. In my view, the field of mathematics education would benefit greatly if all or parts of this book were read by school administrators and educational policymakers."—Erna Yackel, Journal of Research in Mathematics Education


"There have been many excellent books published about teaching but this book has something very special about it. I am currently in my thirty seventh year of teaching and I must say that I have never read anything quite like it. . . . This book is a great deal more than just another book about teaching. The psychology of teaching mathematics through problems, when allied to a detailed analysis of the psychology involved as the teacher reflects on the needs of every individual child in the class and the way her own responses are going to best support them, is such a fruitful combination that many people and not just teachers of mathematics would find this book extremely illuminating. I think that all teachers would find a great deal to help them."—Kevin Purday, Metapsychology



“The book cannot be praised enough for this wonderful combination of a theory of practice and a practical theory. . . . This extremely important book shows in an exciting way how teaching and learning evolve slowly throughout a school year. It shows in a detailed and exemplary fashion how a qualitatively different form of mathematics education is possible in which students’ understanding of mathematics becomes a true aim, and in which it is not only intended but also attained.”—Falk Seeger, Mind, Culture, and Activity



"Uses a case study of a fifth-grade mathematics class to examine how the dynamic relationships of the classroom affect learning."—The Chronicle of Higher Education


"Although the setting is mathematics, the value of Lampert’s book is broad, addressing the core issues that face anyone in education. This is one of the most important books about education to appear in the past decade. What Lampert writes is deep and compelling. The story is engaging, even griping; I couldn’t put it down."—Jim Stigler, author of The Learning Gap

From the Publisher

One of the most important books about education to appear in the past decade. . . . engaging, even gripping.

Jim Stigler