ONE POINT OF VIEW: The Next QuestionAuthor(s): Sally C. TuckerSource: The Arithmetic Teacher, Vol. 40, No. 9 (MAY 1993), p. 496Published by: National Council of Teachers of MathematicsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41195841 .

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ONE POINT OF'^EW

The Next Question Sally С Tucker

11 the mathemat- ics educators I

meet are concerned about implementing the curriculum and evalua- tion standards (NCTM 1989) in classrooms throughout the United

States. As an elementary school principal and K-6 mathematics coordinator in a large rural school district in central Illinois, I am

particularly concerned about the implemen- tation in my own district's classrooms. How should we go about moving teachers and students toward achieving the greatest pos- sible level of understanding and empower- ment? I believe that the way we can move toward a higher and higher level of achieve- ment is through asking and answering "the next question."

Recent trends have allowed staff devel- opment in classroom practice to take place in a "next question" model. Principals have been encouraged to take on more of the responsibility of being the educational lead- ers in their schools. They are moving into positions of close contact with teachers and students, learning more about what current classroom practice entails, and taking time to become more informed about new think-

ing in teaching and learning mathematics and other curricular areas. In addition, many teachers throughout the country have sought out additional mathematical in-service op- portunities in both content and pedagogy, so that they have become the mathematics spe- cialists needed in the elementary schools.

Sally Tucker is principal at Hopedale Elementary School, Hopedale, IL 61747, and K-6 mathematics coordinator in the Olympia Community School Dis- trict, Stanford, IL 6I774.

496

As a result of these movements, it is more likely now than in the past that a teacher would walk into the principal's office, sit down, and say, "My lesson to introduce the concept of multiplication didn't go as well as I had hoped today, and I'm not sure where to go with it tomorrow. Can you help?" The principal would then have the opportunity to "ask the next question": "Can you give me a couple of examples of students' think- ing that led you to this conclusion? Since this was the introductory lesson, what ap- proach did you use to connect this concept to others? Did you use a context from the students' world as a background for this introduction?" These and myriad other "next questions" would be asked on the basis of what the principal knows about the teacher and the students in that classroom.

Principals, acting in the supportive role of educational leaders, have an opportunity to encourage change in the classroom through dialogue with teachers as the need arises. The curriculum standards have en- couraged collaboration among teachers, stu- dents, parents, and principals about teach- ing and learning mathematics.

Teachers as mathematics specialists have also opened the door for staff development by asking "the next question." Several years ago, while working in a large urban elemen- tary school in a mathematics resource pro- gram, a sixth-grade teacher and I were dis- cussing her goals for her class in mathematics during the coming school year. She asked, "Do you have any ideas about how I could work with my students this year in order for them to become better problem solvers?" I asked her what she had done in the past and what brought her to this goal for her stu- dents. After we talked awhile, I gave her a

copy of some sixth-grade problem-solving materials that were part of a summer work- shop and suggested that she look them over. Less than twenty minutes later she returned to my room and said, "I think that I would like to try this approach, but I don't know where to begin. Could you help me?" We talked about the nuts and bolts of the pro- gram for a while and then decided together to organize an after-school workshop on teaching problem solving. A group of teach- ers met over several weeks to implement the program and continue to work together to support one another in teaching mathemat- ics by asking and answering many "next questions."

My belief is that if teachers could ask "the next question" of someone who would re- spond in a supportive, nonjudgmental way about mathematical content and teaching, the implementation of the curriculum stan- dards would proceed along a much surer path. After all, students and teachers learn most when new information* is connected directly to prior knowledge and is mastered more easily when the situation presents a "need to know" or an opportunity to apply what is learned in a timely fashion.

References

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Cur- riculum and Evaluation Standards/or School Math- ematics. Reston, Va.: The Council, 1989. ·

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ARITHMETIC TEACHER

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