Mathematics

This project modifies an assessment system to provide ongoing, instructionally productive evidence to teachers about student learning and to link student work products and formative assessments with summative assessments in models that generate useful estimates of student growth. In this iteration, the assessment system is refined as we with K-5 teachers in two schools to develop a learning progression that guides our collaborative work foster student thinking about spatial measurement in the elementary grades.

In MS-GGU, we attend to middle-school students’ understandings of coordinate systems and frames of reference prior to examining their graph construction and interpretation. The project goals are to advance knowledge of students’ developing understandings of graphs “from the ground up” with attention to underlying coordinate systems and frames of reference that comprise the coordinate systems and (b) design and empirically test tasks to support students’ learning of coordinate systems and graphs to enhance graph literacy.

The primary aim of the MMaRS study is to develop a mathematics assessment system to use for grades K-2 that measure students’ abilities in two foundational and predictive constructs, numeric relational reasoning (NRR) and spatial reasoning (SR). Teachers may use results of these assessments to guide their instructional decision making to support student learning of these constructs. The objectives of the project are to develop formative assessments supporting each grade level (K-2) for each of the NRR and SR constructs and collect validity and reliability evidence.

The Taking a Deep Dive (TaDD) study examines the residual impacts of four different professional development models on teacher learning, specifically 3-4 years after the actual PD experiences. The project is conducting a rigorous cross case analysis across participants from the different projects. Additionally, a survey was given to participants in May 2019 which was 3-4 years after their PD experience. Findings contribute to the PD landscape of PD design and survey design.

This project developed a system of practical measures, and associated routines and data visualizations, to support the implementation of instructional improvement strategies (e.g., coaching) in middle-grades mathematics teaching. Classroom and professional learning measures assess students’ and teachers’ perspectives of key aspects of the learning environment, respectively. We will highlight the contributions they have made to our partner districts’ improvement efforts; and our attention to validity in the design and use of practical measures.

The Researching Order of Teaching project provides structured scaffolds for teachers to implement two sets of research-based teaching strategies hypothesized to positively impact mathematics achievement in mathematical modeling and problem solving. The poster summarizes the teaching strategies and associated research.

The aim of this project is to develop and test the efficacy of a play-based numeracy intervention for preschool classrooms. Classrooms were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions (representing different pedagogical guidance approaches) and a business-as-usual control condition. Teachers in experimental classrooms were trained to incorporate a set of numeracy games. The intervention was assessed by pre- and post-test measures of teachers and children, 11 structured observations, and focus group data.

This project explores how children in grades K-2 understand visual representations of algebraic concepts. For instance, children create tables or graphs to organize information about the relationship between two quantities. They might use graphs and diagrams to explain their mathematical thinking and develop their understanding of relationships in numbers and operations. The project uses data gathered in K-2 classrooms and via interviews with children to describe their use of the visual representations.

This project explores the potential of lesson-centered collaboration on lessons for supporting teachers’ professional growth. Specifically, the project examines how the exchange between both domestic and international teams of teachers centered on teacher-generated lesson artifacts—in the form of storyboarded lessons and annotations of those lessons—can serve as a powerful tool for supporting teachers’ ongoing professional learning and growth through collaboration.

The project is extending a digital collaborative platform for networks of teachers to create, use, and share resources for planning, teaching, and reflecting. The resources online include problem-based curriculum, classroom artifacts from students, and resources created by teachers. We report on how teachers use the resources, collaborate with each other, and make instructional decisions. With more classroom resources being created online, the project will help understand how mathematics teaching can be best supported.