An analysis of concerns of secondary mathematics teachers in the implementation of the Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics

The purposes of this investigation were: (1) to identify the categories of the stages of concerns secondary mathematics teachers have regarding the implementation of the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (Standards) (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989); (2) to investigate the existence of a relationship between the concerns and teacher demographic, participation in mathematics education organizations, content knowledge of the Standards, and philosophical consistency variables; and (3) to determine if the variables could predict, with a reasonable amount of accuracy, the categories of stages of concerns. All mathematics teachers of grades 9-12 who were members of the Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics (622) were surveyed; 455 participated in the study. The Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) from the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was used to identify the concerns;The seven stages of concerns were grouped into five categories: Unrelated, Self-Positive, Self-Threatened, Task, and Impact. Results indicated that a majority of secondary mathematics teachers (43.1%) have positive, proactive concerns (Self-Positive). Significant correlations (p <.001) were indicated between the categories of concerns and reading journals, attending conferences, making conference presentations, the computed participation score, having a personal copy of the Standards, reading a large percentage of the Standards, involvement in curriculum development, self-rated perception of content knowledge of the Standards, and the computed knowledge/factual score. The best predictors of the concerns, accounting for 16.43% of the variance, were the self-rated perception of content knowledge, making conference presentations, school district size, and involvement in curriculum development (F (4, 417) = 20.49, p <.001);Descriptions of the teachers in each concerns category based on the results of the study are given. Additionally, suggestions for in-servicing teachers in each of the concerns categories are included.