Teachers' Knowledge of Children's Mathematics after Implementing a Student-Centered Curriculum

Our study investigated the knowledge 13elementary teachers gained implementing astudent-centered curriculum in the context ofdistrict-wide reform. Participants comprisedall the teachers in grades three, four and fiveat a single elementary school. We believed thatinvestigating teachers' responses to fictionalpedagogical scenarios involving nonstandardalgorithms would yield insights into criticalcomponents of their knowledge base. We lookedin particular at teachers' knowledge of children's mathematics. We found that teacherswere in the midst of creating a knowledge basefocused on children's mathematics and groundedin knowledge about alternative conceptualtrajectories through the elementary curriculum.Teachers' knowledge of nonstandard strategiessupported by the curriculum materials wasstronger and more coherent than their knowledgeof students' novel nonstandard strategies.Strong mathematical knowledge was notnecessarily associated with strong knowledge ofchildren's mathematics. Teachers' thinkingvaried by a topic's treatment in the writtencurriculum materials used, suggestingimplementation of the curriculum as a source oflearning.