Ben Hiromura

Assignment #2
EE 333
In the modern day, effective mathematics teaching exemplifies a departure from the
traditional styles of instruction as well as a monumental paradigm shift in philosophy. At the
center of the debate over the correct way to teach math in the United States is the sustained
failings of our students on national and international assessments. Many mathematics experts
attribute these low scores to a curriculum that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Such an
educational program forces teachers to rush through math material by mostly introducing topics
or re-teaching concepts. In this pedagogical culture, students become bored with the monotony
of instruction and learn basic procedures instead of thinking deeply about math or internalizing
problem solving abilities. To break the cycle of inadequate instruction and shallow math learning
the United States needs a federally mandated program that will lead to a paradigm shift amongst
administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Such a program has arrived in the form of the
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (2010) that includes the content that should be
covered in schools as well as processes and proficiencies students should develop before
graduation (p. 6). The key to improving effective math instruction lies within the standards of
mathematical practice, which outline the competencies by which the content-related curricular
aims are to be achieved. These eight standards were born from the research and analysis of the
Mathematics Learning Study Committee (2001) in their publication adding It Up, in which they
outlined five strands of mathematical proficiency. These skills, practices, and behaviors are the
goal of effective math instruction and now they are mandated by the CCSS.
The Common Core standards of mathematical practice will improve instruction because
they are the research-based essential skills of a true mathematician. Because these standards are
the curricular aims of all public school teachers, all public school students are expected to strive
for conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and
productive disposition (Kilpatrick, 2001, p. 116). This places the normative expectation for
instruction at level three, which means teachers can provide students opportunities to
understand these basic ideas, and support their learning so that the students become independent
learners. Classroom teachers must start thinking of instruction as an opportunity to accomplish
the five math proficiencies outlined above. In my own classroom I plan on first analyzing the
conceptual understandings I want to elicit from my students by looking deeply at the CCSS. The
content standards outline the concepts students should learn and with supporting materials such

as the NCTMs Principles to Actions, I can formulate lessons to breed multiple ways of deep
understanding for students. In these lessons, I must focus on increasing procedural fluency as it
applies to the concept in question. This means that I aim to help students become efficient with
calculation and capable with tools. One way to intensify this procedural fluency is to give
students the opportunity to be strategically competent. Such opportunities involve individualized
problem solving, where students are given the freedom to choose their own solution strategies,
which at some point necessitate procedural fluency. With this individualized approach to problem
solving, I recognize that my students will almost always come up with different ways of getting
to the same answer. Because of this eventuality, I plan on making adaptive reasoning a
benchmark of my classroom, which will provide opportunities for students to justify their
procedures and critique others. All of these techniques will contribute to a productive disposition
for students because students will be given freedom in solving problems and will be able to
engage in deep discussion with their classmates. My classroom will be a culture in which being
wrong is a necessary step in the process of learning and effort is seen as the most important
quality for progressing in math.

Works Cited
Common Core State Standards. (2010). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from
http://www.corestandards.org/Math/
Kilpatrick, J., Swafford, J., Findell, B., & National Research Council (U.S.). (2001). Adding it
up: Helping children learn mathematics. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2014). Principles to actions: Ensuring
mathematical success for all.