Stein, Remillard, & Smith (2007)

Handbook chapter from the Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning by Mary Kay Stein, Janine Remillard, and Margaret Smith.

Detailed Chapter Summary

Stein, Remillard, and Smith open their chapter with comments on the growth of research in the area of curriculum use. The 1992 NCTM Handbook did not include a chapter on this topic, but the emergence of new curricula following the 1989 NCTM Standards spurred a greater research interest in curricula and how they influence student learning. Also, the Child Left Behind requirement that federal funds only be spent on effective curricular materials drove curriculum developers to prove their materials had a positive effect on student learning.

Conceptual Issues, Definitions, and Boundaries

Multiple Meanings of Curriculum

Stein, Remillard, and Smith define curriculum as "the substance or content of teaching and learning (as distinguished from the 'how' of teaching)" (p. 321). They recognize, however, that curriculum is frequently used to describe a prescribed set of materials or content expectations described by policy documents or frameworks.

Within curriculum research, care is typically taken to describe differences in curriculum:

• Written (Remillard, 1999; Stein, Grover, & Henningsen, 1996) curriculum refers to curriculum as it exists on the printed page, or the goals and activities described by textbooks and policy documents. This is also known as the formal (Doyle, 1992), planned (Gehrke, Knapp, & Sirotnik, 1992), institutional, or intended curriculum.
• Intended (Remillard, 1999; Stein, Grover, & Henningsen, 1996) curriculum refers to the teachers' plans for instruction, which may differ from the written curriculum.
• Enacted (Gehrke, Knapp, & Sirotnik, 1992; Remillard, 1999; Stein, Grover, & Henningsen, 1996) curriculum refers to the curriculum implemented in classrooms.
• Experienced (Gehrke, Knapp, & Sirotnik, 1992) or attained (Valverde, Bianchi, Wolfe, Schmidt, & Houang, 2002) curriculum describes the impact the enacted curriculum has on students. Stein, Remillard, & Smith simply refer to this as student learning.

Opportunities for research exist both within and bewtween each of these stages of curriculum. For example, teachers' beliefs and goals transform a written curriculum into an intended curriculum, and within the enacted curriculum exists all the complexities of classrooms full of students that shape the implementation of a lesson. Furthermore, the enacted curriculum and student learning will shape teachers' future indended curriculum. Stein, Remillard, and Smith summarize the following list of factors that mediate curriculum:

• Teacher beliefs (Cohen, 1990; Jennings, 1996; Putnam, 1992; Remillard, 1992; Spillane, 1999; Spillane & Jennings, 1997) and knowledge (Brophy, 1991, 2001; Stein, Baxter, & Leinhardt, 1990)
• Teachers' orientations toward curriculum
• Teachers' professional identity (Remillard & Bryans, 2004)
• Teacher professional communities (Cobb, McClain, de Silva Lamberg & Dean, 2003; Little & McLaughlin, 1993; Louis, Marks, & Kruse, 1996; Stein, Silver, & Smith, 1998)
• Organizational and policy contexts (Berends, Kirby, Naftel, & McKelvey, 2001; Bodilly, 1998; Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan, 2002; Fullan, 1991; Kirby, Behrends, & Naftel, 2001)
• Classroom structures and norms

Summary and Conclusions

The Success of Standards-Based Curricula is Influenced by Multiple Factors

END

Metadata

APA

Stein, M. K., Remillard, J. T., & Smith, M. S. (2007). How curriculum influences student learning. In F. K. Lester (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 319–369). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.

BibTeX

@incollection{Stein2007,
address = {Charlotte, NC},
author = {Stein, Mary Kay and Remillard, Janine T. and Smith, Margaret Schwan},
booktitle = {Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning},
chapter = {8},
editor = {Lester, Frank K.},
pages = {319--369},
publisher = {Information Age},
title = {{How curriculum influences student learning}},
year = {2007}
}