Our principal has challenged us (me and the other two math teachers) to articulate who we are as a math department. I’m trying to consider what that means in order to work on answering it. So far, here are the questions I think we need to address:
- What are our overall mathematical goals for our students?
- In what ways does our department work toward the goals of the school as a whole?
- What is distinctive about our math program?
- What is our perspective on the nature of mathematics, and how does this perspective influence our instruction?
- What is our perspective on the purpose of mathematics, and how does this perspective influence our instruction?
What other questions should I add to the list?
Have you gone through an exercise like this in your own department? Any additional thoughts?
Praxis of Reflection 