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With refreshing candor, Ruth Heaton, an elementary mathematics educator with ten years of experience, describes and traces her efforts to change her teaching practice in response to current national reforms in mathematics education. Part of what makes this account so compelling is that Heaton explores her changing practice from the vantages of both teacher and researcher. In the face of increased standards and state mandates, Heaton does learn new ways to teach and the results of her experience are of great value to educators everywhere who face increasing challenges to their craft. This autobiographical and academically rigorous book makes a much-needed contribution to the literature on teaching and offers an insider's view of the nature and process of changing one's practice.

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After nine years of teaching elementary school, the author began doctoral studies in mathematics education. As preparation for her work as a teacher educator, she took on the challenge of reforming her own teaching of mathematics and of recording her experiences and insights as she taught 25 fourth graders four days per week for six months. Her reflection benefited from observations by and conversations with Magdelene Lampert, a well-known mathematics educator; the regular classroom teacher; and a doctoral student in educational psychology. Heaton describes specific instances in which factors such as the school curriculum, the teacher's guide, and her own understanding of mathematics impeded or aided her practice of reform-based teaching. She argues that after initially setting a task there is a need to improvise in order that the student understand a topic, and she draws a number of analogies between musical improvisation and teaching of mathematics. The book is a model of thoughtful study of one's own practice. Teachers attempting reform teaching may find comfort in knowing that their struggles are not unique. Mathematics methods instructors will find an indication of what will be helpful for prospective teachers. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates through professionals. A. O. Graeber University of Maryland College Park

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Ruth Heaton is an assistant professor in the Center for Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.