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ERIC Number: EJ1464767
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0025-5769
EISSN: EISSN-2330-0582
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Is It Perf? Dismantling Perfectionism
Michelle Lo; Teresa K. Dunleavy
Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, v118 n3 p210-217 2025
The mathematics classroom is particularly vulnerable to these judgments of perfectionism, with endless evidence of students and teachers believing that mathematics is based on an ultimate truth or a single, objective, unique answer. School mathematics still favors students' participation in rote procedures, memorization, and using only a few strategies to solve problems (Boaler, 2016; Dunleavy, 2018). This narrow idea of what mathematics is reduces students' abilities to enact their own agency to explore mathematical ideas on their own and to gain mathematical authority (Hicks et al., 2023). Any limitation on exploring what counts as mathematics is in conflict with students' development of their own creative mathematics identities as learners (Goffney & Gutiérrez, 2018). In this article, the authors present a case for dismantling perfectionism in mathematics teaching and learning. They share how students framed perfectionism during a task, how the teacher used questioning to redirect student thinking, and how the class welcomed unfinished thinking.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-9840; Fax: 703-476-2570; e-mail: publicationsdept@nctm.org; Web site: https://pubs.nctm.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A