The busy hum of activity in Margaret s classroom was directed toward mathematics . Although it is interesting to hear Margaret s story, it is more meaningful to understand her practice as a heuristic for solving the problem of poor mathematics achievement among African American students. Students treated as competent are likely to demonstrate competence. Providing instructional scaffolding for students allows students to move from what they know to what they do not know. The major focus of the classroom must be instructional.
Real education is about extending students thinking and abilities beyond what they already know.
Effective pedagogical practice involves in-depth knowledge of students as well as of subject matter. This partially takes the form of attending more to these students, valuing their response more, and evaluation their performances more favorably. If teachers are to be more effective with African American students, they must develop a positive identification with them-to perceive them to be like them, that is, fully human and possessing enormous intellectual capacity. I suggest here that a better way to address these problems is to develop more powerful theoretical rubrics for making sense of classroom practices and student performances. The former gives us an understanding of the situated nature of learning, or situated nature of learning, or situated cognition.