Defining Visions of High-quality Mathematics Instruction

By synthesizing what has been learned with regard to critical dimensions of mathematics classroom teaching and learning, and investigating the ways teachers and other school personnel characterize high-quality mathematics instruction, this study defines the notion of ‘instructional vision’ and provides an initial categorization scheme. Motivating this work is the need to reliably document change in participants’ instructional visions within an ongoing study of the institutional setting of mathematics teaching, in which we hypothesize that improvement in teachers’ instructional practices and student achievement will be greater in schools where teachers and instructional leaders have a shared vision for high-quality mathematics instruction.