Bridging the Gap Between Content Knowledge and Practice: Improving Middle School Teachers' Content Knowledge and Classroom Practices

这个为期三年的项目侧重于扩大SimCalc项目，并强调将比例推理和论证的数学知识用于教学（MKT），作为教师课堂实践的一部分。 SimCalc项目的初步研究结果表明，在没有明确的教学策略指导的情况下，教师的内容知识的增加并没有导致教师改变他们支持学生推理的方法。 目前的研究是探索性的，并将测试的假设，桥接专业发展（BPD），专业发展，有助于桥梁内容知识和课堂实践，可以影响积极的教师变化，并了解如何BPD可以做到这一点。 这项探索性研究是一个更大的研究议程的第一个;未来的研究将包括一个大规模的随机和另一个探索BPD对学生成绩的影响。

This three-year project focuses on scaling up the SimCalc project and emphasizes bridging mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) on proportional reasoning and argumentation as part of teachers' classroom practices. The preliminary findings from the SimCalc project suggest that the increase in teachers' content knowledge without explicit instruction in teaching strategies did not lead teachers to change their approach to supporting student reasoning. The current study is exploratory and will test the hypothesis that Bridging Professional Development (BPD), professional development that helps to bridge content knowledge and classroom practice, can effect positive teacher change and to understand how BPD can accomplish this. This exploratory study is the first of a larger research agenda; future studies will include a large-scale randomization and another that explores the impact of BPD on student achievement.