What Values Do You Teach When You Teach Mathematics? - Alan J. Bishop

The article "What Values Do You Teach When You Teach Mathematics?" looks into the values that students are learning through mathematics. How a teacher allows their students answer a question can teach students certain values. The way the teacher responds to a student after they answer a question also teaches students about values. The article examines the connection between mathematics and culture, focusing specifically on values that are portrayed when teaching math and how we teach it.

Teaching values is not like teaching fractions. There is no right answer when teaching values. "The choices that you make depend on your values, which in turn influence your students' values. Understanding more about values is, in my view, essential to improving mathematics teaching" (Bishop, 2001). The article examines the different sociocultural values that are taught through mathematics. The different values that are taught through mathematics are rationalism, objectism, control, progress, openness, and mystery. The article gives different ways to explore the idea of values in mathematics teaching. There are different ways to examine lessons to see the values in each.

I thought this article was very interesting. The concept that values are being taught in a math lesson shed a new light on the subject area that I had never considered before. I liked that the article gave background information about values. I also liked the end of the article when the author listed different ways you can examine lessons to see the values being taught. I also liked that the article listed many questions that a teacher can ask themselves about a lesson to see how a value is taught by the way they respond to a certain situation.

Bishop, A. (2001). What values do you teach when you teach mathematics?. Teaching Children Mathematics, 7(6), 346-349. Retrieved January 22, 2010, from http://www.nctm.org/eresources/view_media.asp?article_id=766