We will go over a written case study titled "The Quicksand of Problem Four," an imagined (but probably familiar) account of a teacher's discovery that students are having great difficulty with a particular problem, and that teacher's emotional turmoil upon realizing that going over the problem is taking more time than expected. In the course of our discussion, we will consider such topics as: how to interpret how well students understand material based on what they do or don't say in class; how to manage class discussion so that a variety of students participate and benefit; the teacher's emotional response to classroom developments, especially in attempting to manage unexpected turns of discussion; and the teacher's preparation for class.

This case study is taken from Teaching Mathematics in Colleges and Universities: Case Studies for Today's Classroom; Faculty Edition, by Solomon Friedberg et al.