Writing lesson plans has traditionally been a big part of a teacher’s job. But this doesn’t mean they should be starting from a blank slate. Teachers should base their lessons ideally on the worksheets, textbooks and digital resources that school leaders spent time selecting and reviewing.
A recent survey of over 1,000 math teachers in the United States revealed that many reject the materials they are supposed to use and instead create their own.
“A surprising number of math teachers, particularly at the high school level, simply said we don’t use the district or school-provided materials, or they claimed they didn’t have any,” said William Zahner, an associate professor of mathematics at San Diego State University, who presented the survey at the April 2024 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Philadelphia. Students, he said, are often being taught through a “bricolage” of materials that teachers assemble themselves from colleagues and the internet.
“What I see happening is a lot of math teachers are rewriting a curriculum that has already been written,” said Zahner.
The results differed by grade. More than 75…
