Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching

Stanley Aronowitz

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2001
• ISBN:
  9780300148367
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

In today's education debates, many experts call for school vouchers, smaller classes, more standardized testing, or rigorous teacher accrediting as the key to improving student performance. Remarkably, none of these approaches addresses what actually goes on in the classroom. In this book an experienced classroom teacher and noted researcher on teaching takes us into her fifthgrade math class through the course of a year. Magdalene Lampert shows how classroom dynamics - the complex relationship of teacher, student, and content - are critical in the process of bringing each student to a deeper understanding of mathematics, or any other subject. She offers valuable insights into students and teaching for all who are concerned about improving the learning that happens in the classroom.

Lampert considers the teacher's and students' work from many different angles, in views large and small. She analyzes her own practice in a particular classroom, student by student and moment by moment. She also investigates the particular kind of teaching that aims at engaging elementary school students in learning fundamentally important ideas and skills by working on problems. Finally, she looks at the common problems of teaching that occur regardless of the individuals, subject matter, or kinds of practice involved. Lampert arrives at an original model of teaching practice that casts new light on the complexity in teachers' work and on the ways teachers can successfully deal with teaching problems.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Understanding Teaching: Why Is It So Hard?
• 2. An Instance of Teaching Practice
• 3. Why I Wrote This Book—and How
• 4. Teaching to Establish a Classroom Culture
• 5. Teaching While Preparing for a Lesson
• 6. Teaching While Students Work Independently
• 7. Teaching While Leading a Whole-Class Discussion
• 8. Teaching to Deliberately Connect Content Across Lessons
• 9. Teaching to Cover the Curriculum
• 10. Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School
• 11. Teaching the Nature of Accomplishment
• 12. Teaching the Whole Class
• 13. Teaching Closure
• 14. An Elaborated Model of Teaching Practice
• Appendix A: Complete Transcript of Large-Group Discussion on September 28
• Appendix B: Lesson Topics in a Sample of Lessons in Different Problem Contexts Across the Year
• Appendix C: Functions and Graphing Quiz
• Notes