Concurrent Session

Teams of researchers from Drexel University, Rutgers University, University of Missouri, and the Math Forum have been investigating online environments for math education and math teacher professional learning communities. The Virtual Math Teams project has developed a synchronous, multi-user GeoGebra implementation and studies the learning of small groups as well as the preparation of teachers to facilitate this learning.

In this structured poster session, a set of projects will present and discuss resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to support upper elementary teachers to implement an array of curricular and instructional interventions reflecting diverse disciplinary concepts and practices embodied in NGSS. The session aims to provide a forum for exploring diverse approaches to improving science in 3^rd-5^th-grade classrooms and engage in discussion about how these ideas can advance systemic efforts to support quality science instruction and student learning. 

Goal: Participants will explore the spectrum of “working together” from collaboration to community. Alongside participant examples, CODAP will be used as a model to explore the range of possibilities.

Objectives: That participants

The session will feature the experiences, outcomes, and materials from two engineering-oriented DR K-12 projects. The two projects, INFUSE and INSPIRES, use different approaches to teacher professional development with the goal of preparing science teachers to infuse or integrate engineering into their classrooms. They have both developed a unique set of materials designed to impact science and technology outcomes (working on a combination of curriculum development, professional development, and research).

This session will focus on implementations of curriculum materials, especially with regard to ambitious mathematics and pedagogy, and participants will consider how materials are interpreted and enacted, and the means of support that facilitate development of ambitious mathematics and pedagogy. Presenters from three DR K-12 projects will share frameworks and findings from their work, followed by participant discussion.

School districts play a critical role in supporting the development of school-level capacity for instructional improvement. Yet, our knowledge on what it takes to achieve district-wide improvement in mathematics instruction and student learning is still limited.  The objectives of this panel presentation are: 1) to share, compare, and discuss findings on district leadership for scaling up instructional improvement at various sites, and 2) to identify common aspects of district leadership critical for scaling up ambitious and equitable mathematics instruction. 

A pressing need for science education researchers, as well as classroom teachers and assessment designers, is determining how to assess student learning in settings where instruction is aiming to meet the vision of the Framework for K-12 Science Education.

A challenge for researchers and federal research funding institutions in the 21st century is how to get the word out on how research is pertinent and being used in by the field. According to Neild (2016, p1):

In this interactive panel symposium, presenters will draw from a set of active DR K-12 projects to explore a diverse array of resources, models, and tools (RMTs) designed to operationalize varying perspectives on scientific modeling in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms across disciplinary domains.

Often the most we know about our colleagues’ on-the-ground support of teachers is what we read in the methods sections of research articles, or what has been reified many times over in their published teacher learning materials. We rarely get to see, much less experience, one another’s approaches to supporting teachers. This session will open up the black-box of our work with teachers for discussion and scrutiny.