WHAT THE NCTM STANDARDS SAY:

 

"What's revolutionary about the NCTM standards?  Primarily, experts say, the fact that they remove computation from its reigning role in the mathematics curriculum and make it serve a more important goal--the development of mathematical thinking.

Specifically, the standards call for K-12 mathematics teachers to emphasize problem solving, mathematical reasoning, real-world applications, communication about mathematics, integration of mathematical topics, collaboration among students, and the use of manipulatives and technology.

Highlights of the recommendations include the following:

*Students need to experience genuine problems regularly.

*Instruction should persistently emphasize "doing" rather than "knowing."

*Computational skills should not be a prerequisite for working with word problems; experience with problems helps develop the ability to compute.

*Calculators should be available to all students at all times, and every student should have access to a computer for individual and group work.

*For grades 9-12, all students should experience a core program, which  should vary for college-bound students only in depth and breadth of treatment and the nature of applications.  (The teacher had handwritten in the words "spiral curriculum" on the side of the page.)

EVALUATION

The standards devoted to evaluation advise using multiple assessment techniques (including written, oral and demonstration formats) and using calculators, computers, and manipulatives in assessment. Among the specific recommendations are the following:

*Assessment should yield information about students' ability to apply knowledge to solve problems, to use mathematical language to communicate ideas, and to reason and analyze.

*Assessment should provide evidence that students can formulate problems, apply a variety of strategies to solve problems, verify and interpret results, and generalize solutions.

TEACHING STANDARDS

The NCTM's Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics, released in Marcy 1991, is the companion document to the curriculum standards.  The teaching standards emphasize that teachers are "the key" to changing mathematics teaching and learning, and that they "must have long-term support and adequate resources."

The teaching standards recommend, in part, a shift toward

*classrooms as mathematical communities

*logic and mathematical evidence as verification, and away from the teacher as the sole authority for right answers.

*conjecturing, inventing, and problem solving, and away from merely emphasizing finding the correct answer.

 

[And there you have it!  From a perspective twenty-three years later, it's easy to see what a mess this organization proposed and how detrimental to the math education of students it would be.  The sad thing is, there are far too many in the public education math curriculum field who are still hanging on to these precepts. The NCTM has revised these Standards (and pay attention to the duplicitous use of the word standards by this organization) to cover their true intent.  I include this first list because it is the most revealing of their objectives. These aren't "standards" at all;  they are instructions for undermining American students' math courses. Think how many students in the last twenty-three years have had NO math education that would allow them to move into a mathematics based career!  If one did not have a parent to teach him, that is what happened. Here's the reason there is a shortage of "STEM" college students:  The NCTM Standards and the teachers who embraced them are the reason! MM]