A Revolution in One Classroom: The Case of Mrs. Oublier

Item

Title

A Revolution in One Classroom: The Case of Mrs. Oublier

Abstract/Description

This essay probes the relationship between instructional policy and teaching practice. In the mid 1980s, California State officials launched an ambitious effort to revise mathematics teaching and learning. The aim was to replace mechanical memorization with mathematical understanding. This essay considers one teacher's response to the new policy. She sees herself as a success for the policy: she believes that she has revolutionized her mathematics teaching. But observation of her classroom reveals that the innovations in her teaching have been filtered through a very traditional approach to instruction. The result is a remarkable melange of novel and traditional material. Policy has affected practice in this case, but practice has had an even greater effect on policy.

Author/creator

Cohen, David K.

Date

1990

In publication

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Volume

12

Issue

3

Pages

311-329

Resource type

en Background/Context

Medium

en Print

Background/context type

en Policy

IRE Approach/Concept

Policy

Open access/free-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0162-3737

DOI

10.3102/01623737012003311

Other unique identifier

Handle (via JSTOR): 1164355

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (SAGE Journals)

Article on JSTOR

Citation

Cohen, D. K. (1990). A Revolution in One Classroom: The Case of Mrs. Oublier. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 12(3), 311–329. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737012003311

Cited in

The Policy Context of United States Educational Innovation and Improvement

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Empirical

Item sets

Oxford Bibliography: The Policy Context of United States Educational Innovation and Improvement

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