DISSECTING CURRICULAR REASONING: AN EXAMINATION OF MIDDLE GRADE TEACHERS’ REASONING BEHIND THEIR INSTRUCTIONAL DECISIONS.

Mathematics teachers are vital components in determining what mathematics students have the opportunity to learn. There are a vast number of factors and reasons that influence a teacher’s instructional decisions. As such, teachers rely heavily on their curricular reasoning (CR) to make decisions about what content to teach, how that content is taught, and the tasks to use to facilitate student learning. In this paper, we outline five strands of CR gleaned from research with middle grades mathematics teachers as they plan and implement instruction with unfamiliar curricular resources. These strands lay the foundation for our Instructional Pyramid model of CR and provide a lens through which teacher decision-making can be further understood and enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]