CHANGING TEACHERS’ CONCEPTION OF MATHEMATICS

This paper describes the efforts of the authors to work with a group of in-service and pre-service math teachers to change their conception of mathematics. We describe the teachers’ starting conception and our desired re-conception. We then detail our efforts to craft moving experiences that would shift their thinking. We discuss why it is insufficient to “just tell them” and conclude with a cautionary note about the differing experiences of our teacher leaders who did or did not craft similar experiences for their fellow teachers.