Working with Teachers and Leveraging Technology to Scale Opportunities to Learn More Complex and Conceptually Difficult Middle School Mathematics

该项目的主题是，与国际同龄人相比，美国学生学习复杂和概念上困难的数学的可能性较小，因此在衡量成绩方面落后。这个IERI项目的重点是推广一项重要的创新，这项创新是由于学校中技术的日益普及而成为可能的--使用可操纵的图形表示和模拟来普及对高等数学的获取。该项目建立在以前的第一阶段IERI奖的基础上，项目团队在那里开发了扩大这项创新的方法和证据基础，并建立了在学校进行随机试验所需的伙伴关系。该团队现在将调查以下与规模相关的问题：1.各种各样的教师能否使用创新技术(SimCalc)为学生创造新的机会来学习复杂和概念上困难的数学(建议的主题是比率和比例)？2.哪些教学实践对学生使用这些创新材料的学习产生了积极影响，教师能否通过实施这些最佳实践中有重点的子集来改善学生的学习？3.随着研究团队的减少，学生的收获是否持续？

The project takes as its theme the fact that U.S. students are less likely than their international peers to learn complex and conceptually difficult mathematics and thus lag in measures of achievement. This IERI project focuses on scaling an important innovation made possible by the increasing availability of technology in schools--the use of manipulable, graphical representations and simulations to democratize access to advanced mathematics. The project builds on a former Phase I IERI award where the project team developed the methodological approaches and an evidentiary base for scaling up this innovation, and created the partnerships needed to conduct a randomized experiment in schools. The team will now investigate the following questions relating to scale:1. Can a wide variety of teachers use innovative technology (SimCalc) to create new opportunities for students to learn complex and conceptually difficult mathematics (ratio and proportion are the topics proposed)?2. Which teaching practices positively affect students' learning with these innovative materials, and can teachers improve student learning by implementing a focused subset of these best practices?3. Do student gains persist as we reduce the presence of the research team?