The Study

In this book, Dan Chazan, associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education, chronicles his three years of teaching a lower-track algebra class at Holt (Mich.) High School.

Findings

The book focuses on the relationship between teacher, student and subject matter, but from the inside, from the perspective of the teacher who is actively trying to connect student and subject matter. Chazan and co-teacher Sandy Bethell taught Algebra One to students who were both struggling in mathematics, and had a poor academic record overall. Chazan relates his efforts to create a course that included thoughtful, non-formulaic teaching practices and actively engaged students. In order to do so, in order to learn to see algebra in the world of their students’ experience, Chazan and Bethell had to relearn algebra themselves, because their prior understandings were not sufficient.  So Chazan and Bethell developed a number of activities and lessons and while some of them worked, many of them failed to engage the students. It is only after much effort that they begin to engage their students with the mathematics they were teaching.  One key factor in engaging the students was creating activities that helped Chazan and Bethell get to know their students through the mathematics, activities that helped students see algebraic objects as a part of the world around them. For instance, Chazan and Bethell had their students visit local businesses and interview employees to find mathematics in the “real world.” They also had students start writing about calculations that were done repetitively in their hobbies. These activities allowed Chazan and Bethell to learn about their students, and helped students see how mathematics was everywhere in their lives. Chazan concludes the book by pointing out the various predicaments for teachers in teaching high school mathematics, including having few opportunities to come to know their students and teaching in a compulsory setting with little time for interaction with colleagues. “In this book,” he writes, “I have argued that dealing with these predicaments of high school mathematics teaching involves challenging ways in which we commonly speak. The challenges that I have proposed include objection to ‘ability’ and ‘motivation’ as fixed characteristics of individuals, mathematics as a ‘meaningless’ game played with symbols, school mathematics as consisting of statements that can be judged unequivocally ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ and teaching as a craft in which actions can be judged unambiguously ‘good’ or ‘bad’… If we can develop other ways of speaking about mathematics teaching, we may create an environment more conducive to mathematics classrooms in which students are engaged in serious examination of their own mathematical ideas and the fit of their ideas with the ideas of other members of our culture.”

What It Means To You

Teaching mathematics at any level can be challenging. But Chazan shows that with determination and creativity, teachers can make algebra come to life for students who may not find the subject inherently interesting.

For More Information

Chazan, D. (2000). Beyond formulas in mathematics and teaching: Dynamics of the high school algebra classroom. Teachers College Press: New York.

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