Balancing Mathematics Education Research and the NCTM Standards

The release of the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics in the United States by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) brought to the forefront the debate of whether research should determine the validity of the espoused Standards? Or conversely whether the Standards should influence the research agenda of the mathematics education community? How should university teacher educators address this issue? Should pre-service and practicing teachers blindly accept the Standards as well as the research, or do we cultivate the critical thinking skills that will allow preparing teachers to resolve this dilemma? In this article a university mathematics educator and an idealistic pre-service elementary teacher try to resolve the dilemma of balancing the Standards with research and personal beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics.