Revitalizing Algebra: Unstructuring Tasks
There is evidence that our first hypothesis (We could change teachers' practice so that they used less structure in classroom activities.) is correct. On the whole, there was much more discussion among teachers of reducing structure than action in the classroom. We do take some consolation in the broad acceptance among our lead teachers that low-structure, exploratory tasks are a positive idea. A proclaimed change of heart has yet to be matched by a change in teaching practice; however, with further support the latter change may occur. We did learn in our project that real change takes time. The changes we did see have mostly happened at least a year later than we expected.
We certainly have no direct evidence that the second (By using less structure in the classroom, student performance would improve.) holds. It is difficult to see how such a hypothesis could be established, but it remains as one of our strong beliefs, and our data is not showing anything to lessen our confidence in it.
