Beyond exhortations not to tell: The teacher’s role in discussionintensive mathematics classes. Craft Paper 95-2

Pressing for more than curricular change, the current mathematics reforms place an unprecedented emphasis on students ' mathematical communication and discourse. These visions of mathematics classrooms imply substantial changes for the teacher's role. Unlike much of their own past experience and practice, teachers are urged to open the classroom to student talk. In small and large groups, students are to present their ideas and solutions, explain their reasoning, and question one another. Accustomed to being the source of knowledge, and doing most of the talking, teachers now must refashion their role in ways that responsibly and effectively shift more authority and autonomy to students. The challenge to the teacher has not gone unrecognized by reformers,1 and yet, we argue, that the teacher's role in this new vision of classroom learning has been underconsidered. Some people seem to believe that teachers should never tell students anything or that students will learn appropriate mathematics on their own if they are engaged in worthwhile tasks with useful tools and materials. We argue that such a view underestimates the role of the teacher. Few opportunities have existed for careful examination of the complicated decisions and moves that teachers must make in classrooms, and even when such opportunities arise—for exampl