Windows on Teaching Math

Drawing from her extensive experience of using cases in teacher education and in-service courses, Katherine Merseth offers this practical, hands-on guide to improving the teaching of mathematics. This book, the first to focus on the secondary school classroom (grades 7–12), provides a collection of cases that blend important mathematics content with the real complexities of school and classroom life.

Windows on Teaching Math:

• Responds to the ongoing efforts of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) to enact standards-based practice.
• Provides pre-case discussion exercises that help keep the discussion focused on the mathematics in the case.
• Focuses on topics that are often difficult to teach and challenging for students to learn, such as proportional reasoning, probability, and independence.
• Presents actual student responses that exhibit the misunderstandings and ambiguities of thinking, offering a window into the mathematical reasoning of students.
• Confronts often unaddressed influences on teaching, such as relationships with colleagues, disgruntled parents, tracking, diverse student populations, instances of cheating, and much more.
• Helps facilitators to lead effective discussions with a uniquely designed set of teaching notes that correspond to each case—Windows on Teaching Math: Cases of Middle and Secondary Classrooms: Facilitator’s Guide (sold separately).

Katherine K. Merseth is the Director of Teacher Education and Senior Lecturer at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Kay Merseth has added another superb volume to a growing body of work likely to revolutionize the education of teachers. Case methods can become the ‘signature pedagogy’ of teacher education, and in the hands of a master like Merseth, the promise of this approach is undeniable.”
— Lee S. Shulman, President, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Charles E. Ducummon Professor, Emeritus, Stanford University

“These cases represent a giant leap forward in teacher education. We have known for a while that we need such materials, but Professor Merseth and her colleagues have gone out and made them! The field owes them a great big thank you!”
—James W. Stigler, Professor, UCLA, and CEO, LessonLab

“Finally, the needs of teachers of secondary school mathematics have been addressed….This collection of case materials has the potential to become an indispensable part of mathematics teacher preparation programs across the country.”
—Edward Silver, School of Education, University of Michigan

“A important book….I firmly believe that Windows on Teaching Math will become required reading for future mathematics educators and those who teach them. A joy to read!”
—Solomon Garfunkel, Executive Director, COMAP