We studied how the distal policy mechanisms of curricular aims and objectives articulated in official curriculum documents influenced classroom instruction, and the factors that were associated with the enactment of those curricular aims and objectives. The study was set in the U.S. context, where there is an ambitious effort to transform…

Well-written curriculum materials are known to support teacher learning. Less discussion has focused on whether teachers' guides, curriculum materials written specifically for teachers by textbook publishers, provide sufficient support. In this study, I analyse four US-based mathematics teachers' guides to understand the opportunities within them…

Changes in U.S. textbooks indicate that U.S. first-grade students in the Common Core era were exposed to a wider variety of word problem types than students in previous generations were. We compared the performance of U.S. first graders in the Common Core era with that of previous generations in solving 11 types of additive word problems to…

While contemporary mathematics education literature argues that curricular resources, such as textbooks, play a significant role guiding mathematics teachers in what and how they teach, it also shows that these resources often do not do what they say they will do, nor adhere to the standards they claim to further. When it comes to the most…

The present study aims to compare the geometry standards in U.S. Common Core State Standards of Mathematics (CCSSM) and Chinese Compulsory Education Mathematics Curriculum Standards (CMCS) through the lens of van Hiele levels. The study considered a standard unit as one or multiple learning expectation(s) and placed each learning expectation into…

The addressed question from the interface between theory and teaching practice of constructivism is discussed at the background of whereabouts of the Common Core (CCSS-M) constructivist-based mathematics curriculum. It concerns the formulation of constructivist methodology of teaching, whose existence is called in doubts by US constructivist…

Improving children's "number sense" has been a core component of recent mathematics curricular and instructional reforms (CCSS, 2010; NCTM, 2000, 2014) in the United States. Students with mature number sense make sense of numbers and operations, use reasoning to notice patterns, and flexibly select the most effective and efficient…

Eight middle school mathematics teachers' perceptions and uses of curriculum materials and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) were investigated. Adapting a noticing framework and models of dialogic instruction and direct instruction, teachers' noticing practices with curriculum materials and the CCSSM when planning, enacting,…

Textbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways mathematics textbook adoption practices…

Do your students say that one object is "bigger" than another without attending more precisely to the attribute they are comparing? Do they have difficulty naming numbers from 11 to 19? Do some students still count all while their classmates are counting on or counting by tens? What tasks can you offer--what questions can you ask--to…

Textbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. We use a lens of institutional theory and interviews with district leaders in a stratified…

As part of the recent history of the mathematics curriculum, reasoning and argument have been emphasized throughout mathematics curriculum standards. Specifically, as part of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, the Standards for Mathematical Practice were presented, which included the expectation that students develop arguments and…

In the United States, the prevailing high school mathematics course sequence begins with a year of Algebra I, followed by a year of geometry and a year of Algebra II. Educators and others have raised concerns about the extent to which this sequence, which prioritizes the mastery of algebra, is appropriate for the longer-term education and career…

This study investigated how eleven secondary mathematics teachers used curriculum resources to plan and enact lessons that support the participation of emergent bilingual (EB) students in mathematical practices in their linguistically diverse classrooms. EB students classified as English Learners often experience mathematics as a set of…

This study examines the influence of a year-long mathematics professional development program on Kindergarten teachers' beliefs, content knowledge, instructional practices, and their students' achievement. The professional development program is grounded in the theoretical construct of learner-centered professional development and focuses on…