By Denise Spangler, Dionne Cross Francis

This PDF file presents chapter 15 of The Learning of Mathematics: 69th NCTM Yearbook in a downloadable file that preserves the design and layout of the book while allowing users to search and print selected pages.

Chapter 15: Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs about Mathematics and Links to Students’ Learning. Denise Mewborn and Dionne Cross (both of University of Georgia – Athens) present an argument for how teachers’ beliefs about the nature of mathematics can affect (1) how they view their roles as teachers and the role of the students, (2) their choice of classroom activities, and (3) the instructional approaches they use in the classroom. Mewborn and Cross also assert that teachers’ beliefs about what counts as mathematical understanding and knowledge, about how students learn mathematics, and about the purposes of schools in general also affect their mathematics teaching practices. They conclude that teachers’ beliefs have an intimate link to students’ opportunities to learn and therefore to students’ beliefs. In the remainder of their article they furnish information to assist teachers and teacher developers in addressing the issue of teachers’ beliefs. First, Mewborn and Cross describe the manner in which beliefs are held and changed. Then they supply some examples of tasks they have used with in-service and preservice teachers to raise their awareness of their beliefs about the nature of mathematics and about mathematics learning.

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