It also helps them understand that there may be more than one valid way of thinking about problems. It maintains a very strong role for the teacher, and helps teachers implement and enrich district curriculum and be informed users of other resources. Five teachers with varied backgrounds worked on the project for four years, combining knowledge gained working with researchers and their own classroom experience. The teachers' backgrounds ranged from secondary math majors to elementary self-contained and Title 1 settings. From this process, they developed a series of activities to help teachers and paraprofessionals understand the implications of the research for classroom practice.
Participants continue to enrich the content during the dissemination process.
They then return to their classrooms, put what they have learned into practice, and subsequently disseminate to colleagues. A third volume, Connections to Rational Numbers, focuses on fractions, decimals, and ratio. AFT national staff or national trainers visit each new site during the start-up year to provide support in the form of coaching, demonstration lessons, assistance with local professional development, contact with administration or local colleges, or whatever the local need. A newsletter is distributed twice a year. An electronic network is available.