Understanding Teachers ’ Resistance to the Curricular Inclusion of Alternative Algorithms

This study focuses on a group of practitioners from a school district that adopted reform-oriented curriculum materials but later rejected them, partially due to the inclusion of alternative algorithms in the materials. Metaphors implicit in a conversation among the group were analysed to illuminate their perspectives on instructional issues surrounding alternative algorithms. Several possible sources of resistance to folding alternative algorithms into instruction were found, including the ideas that: successful learning does not involve struggling with mathematics, the teacher’s role in the classroom is primarily to present information, and that mathematics learning progresses according to a fixed sequence of levels. There is growing consensus in the field of mathematics education that school mathematics programs should not focus solely upon conventional algorithms in teaching computation. Several studies have recommended that teachers encourage students to invent their own algorithms rather than prematurely imposing traditional methods (Carpenter, Franke, Jacobs, Fennema, & Empson, 1998; Kamii & Dominick, 1998; Mack, 1990) In some cases, non-traditiona