The current mathematics reform movement has recognized that new forms of mathematics teaching will be needed to support the proposed curricular changes. These new forms extend beyond the acquisition of new teaching techniques and trategies to the reconstitution of fundamental notions of teaching, learning, and the nature of mathematics as a discipline, and also to the creation of different classroom opportunities for learning. The means by which teachers effect this kind of transformation are, as yet, little understood. This paper describes a set of component models of the process of teachers' development in mathematics practive. Drawing from theories of cognitive development, the paper focuses on three compoments of the change process: (1) qualitative reorganizations of understanding; (2) orderly progression of changes; and (3) the context and mechanisms by which transitions are effected; and suggests a fourth component--individual motivational and dispositional factors.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education