Learning Goals and Effective Mathematics Teaching: What Can We Learn From Research?

Teaching is a complex endeavor and individual teaching behaviors that promote student learning are hard to identify. In this article, we discuss two methods of gaining advice to improve mathematics teaching and explore in some detail the advice that can be acquired from examining research studies that focus on teaching. An important truth about the effectiveness of instructional methods is that particular methods are not, in general, effective or ineffective. Particular methods are more or less effective for helping students achieve particular learning goals. Even when the learning goals are specified, the complex dynamics at play in a classroom make it difficult to document the best instructional methods for helping students achieve them. Despite this reality, some teachers are particularly effective in promoting student learning year after year. What is it that these teachers do to be effective and to remain effective at promoting high levels of student learning?