ABSTRACT
One of the most compelling needs in mathematics education is ensuring that all students have access to high quality, engaging mathematics. In 1985, when mathematics education was focused on mathematical problem solving, there was a consensus among researchers that ATI (aptitude-treatment-interaction), cognitive correlate research, and work from other research paradigms using psychometrics (the measurement of mental abilities)—however useful these were to the understanding of human cognition—had been misused in education. Particularly in mathematics education, the assumption that some people have the ability to learn mathematics, whereas others have less or none, was used to sort and track students. Mathematics educators were called to promote a “heightened sensitivity to individual differences” (Silver, 1985, p. 259), but 15 years later, Kilpatrick and Silver (2000) reported that the notion of innate ability was so entrenched that little progress has been made in addressing individual differences and equity issues.
