Solving Equations: Exploring Instructional Exchanges as Lenses to Understand Teaching and Its Resistance to Reform

Abstract

Many research studies have sought to explain why NCTM's vision for mathematics classrooms has not had greater impact on everyday instruction, with teacher beliefs often identified as an explanatory variable. Using instructional exchanges as a theoretical construct, this study explores the influence of teachers' institutional positions on the solving of equations in algebra classrooms. The experimental design uses surveys with embedded rich-media representations of classroom interaction to surface how teachers appraise correct solutions to linear equations where some solutions follow suggested textbook procedures for solving linear equations and others do not. This paper illustrates the feasibility of studying teaching with rich-media surveys and suggests new ways to support changes in everyday mathematics teaching.