Commentary on Theories of Mathematics Education

<strong>Commentary</strong> on Understanding a Teacher’s
Actions in the Classroom by Applying
Schoenfeld’s Theory Teaching-In-Context:
Reflecting on Goals and Beliefs
Dina Tirosh and Pessia Tsamir
Teaching is widely recognized as a complex process requiring decision making
and problem solving in a public, dynamic environment for several hours every day
(Berliner et al. 1988). A number of theories have attempted to characterize various
aspects of teachers and teaching including teachers’ knowledge, teachers’ beliefs,
the development of teachers and teachers’ classroom practices (see, for instance,
English 2008; Lester2007; Wood 2008). The Teacher Model Group at Berkeley,
headed by Alan Schoenfeld, focuses on characterizing both the nature of teacher
knowledge and the ways that it works in practice.
Schoenfeld’s Teaching-In-Context theory, characterizes teaching as problem
solving. This theory describes, at a theoretical level of mechanism, the kinds of
decision-making in which teachers are engaged in the act of teaching. An attempt is
made to capture how and why, on a moment-by-moment basis, teachers make their
“on line” decisions.
The basic idea of the Teaching-In-Context theory is that a teacher’s decisionmaking
can be represented by a goal-driven architecture, in which ongoing decisionmaking
(problem solving) is a function of that teacher’s knowledge, goals, and beliefs.
Schoenfeld (2006) describes the mechanism in the following manner:
The teacher enters the classroom with a particular set of goals in mind, and some plans for
achieving them. . . Plans are chosen by the teacher on the basis of his or her beliefs and
values....Theteacher then sets things in motion and monitors lesson progress. (p. 494)
Schoenfeld distinguishes between two situations and details the potential mechanism
in each. In Situation 1, there are no untoward or unusual events and the lesson
goes according to plan. In this case, the various goals are satisfied and other goals
and activities take their place as planned.
In Situation 2, something unusual (or unexpected) happens and the lesson does
not proceed according to plan. In this case:
D. Tirosh () · P. Tsamir
Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology, School of Education, Tel Aviv University,
Tel Aviv, Israel
e-mail: dina@post.tau.ac.il
P. Tsamir
e-mail: pessia@post.tau.ac.il
B. Sriraman, L. English (eds.), Theories of Mathematics Education,
Advances in Mathematics Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-00742-2_39, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
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