New Book Challenges Educators to Improve Mathematics Instruction

Bloomington, Ind. (February 25, 2019)—In Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching to Inform Instructional Quality—published by Solution Tree—authors Melissa D. Boston, Amber G. Candela and Juli K. Dixon outline a clear process for improving the quality of K–12 mathematics education.

Throughout the book, Boston, Candela and Dixon present a set of rubrics—the Instructional Quality Assessment (IQA) Mathematics Toolkit—as a framework to focus reflections, conversations, feedback and the planning and teaching of mathematics.

“The IQA rubrics, and levels of cognitive demand within each rubric, form the core of this book and provide a way for teachers to focus on their instructional practice over time,” explain the authors in the book’s introduction. “Using the IQA rubrics, [readers] will be able to identify instructional practices that support students’ learning, areas for growth and improvement, and pathways for promoting that growth and improvement.”

In line with the other books in the Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching series, this resource details how teachers and collaborative teams can utilize the Tasks, Questions and Evidence (TQE) Process to improve instruction and deepen their understanding of the mathematics being taught in classrooms. The book is split into three parts, each focusing on an aspect of the TQE Process:

• Part 1 engages teachers in considering the quality of tasks and task implementation.
• Part 2 supports teachers as they explore the quality and impact of their questions and other discourse actions.
• Part 3 guides teachers in examining the evidence of their students’ thinking and participation in the classroom community.

Readers also benefit from companion videos demonstrating the book’s strategies, multiple appendices that offer easy access to the book’s tables and rubrics and multiple reproducibles for use in the classroom.

“Good teaching is not an accident but is a product of hard work, learning about the craft and reflecting on our practice,” explained Frederick L. Dillon, a mathematics specialist and coach at the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Learning. “The rubrics and processes in Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching to Inform Instructional Quality lay the groundwork for each reader to improve the quality of his or her instruction ... This is an essential work for teachers, coaches and administrators.”

Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching to Inform Instructional Quality is now available to order at SolutionTree.com

About the Authors

Melissa D. Boston, EdD, is a professor of mathematics education at Duquesne University. She teaches mathematics methods courses for elementary, middle and high school teachers and previously taught similar courses at Slippery Rock University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Amber G. Candela, PhD, is an assistant professor of mathematics education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL). She currently teaches mathematics methods classes for prospective elementary, middle and high school teachers in the teacher education program at UMSL.

Juli K. Dixon, PhD, is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando. Prior to joining the faculty at UCF, Dr. Dixon was a secondary mathematics educator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a public school mathematics teacher in urban school settings at the elementary, middle and secondary levels.

Learn more about Solution Tree.