Does It Work? Building Methods for Understanding Effects of Professional Development

该项目旨在严格调查有关专业发展对教师学习、课堂实践和学生成绩的影响的挑战性问题。技术顾问小组提供强大的方法支持以及处理数学教育、教师专业发展和解决问题方面的问题的能力。 目的是开发和完善用于实证检验这些变量之间关系的方法。 研究问题包括：教师从 InterMath 经验中学到了什么；如果教师向 InterMath 学习，他们的教学实践是否会因此而改变？如果教师的做法发生变化，学生的成绩是否会发生可衡量的变化。 PI 认为这项研究有助于为数学学习者提供教育机会。 通过研究从专业发展到学生学习的连续体的联系，PI 打算采取措施“获得见解，为与这些联系相关的实践提供信息。研究的重点是一门（六分之一）50 小时的 7-8 年级数学数字概念课程，用于教师专业发展，并将治疗教师与对照组进行比较，并根据 CKT-M（数学教学内容知识）评估中项目的相似反应模式进行匹配。根据州 CRCT（标准）评估学生在职前的成绩参考能力测试）和 NAEP 发布了基于录像的教师观察项目。虽然 InterMath 显然取得了成功，但之前的工作主要基于教师的自我报告。在有理由相信公认的实践观点已经到位的情况下，教师学习、教师实践和学生成绩。

The project intends to rigorously investigate challenging questions about the effects of professional development on teacher learning, classroom practice and student achievement. A technical advisory panel provides strong methodological support, and capacity for dealing with issues in mathematics education, teacher professional development, and problem solving. The intent is to develop and refine methods for empirically examining the relationships among these variables. Research questions include: what do the teachers learn from InterMath experiences; if the teachers learn from InterMath, do their instructional practices change as a result; and if the teachers' practices change, are there measurable changes in students' achievement. PIs see the study as contributing to educational opportunities for mathematics learners. By studying links along the continuum from professional development to student learning PIs intend to take steps toward" gaining insights to inform practice relevant to these connections. The focus of the study is on one (out of six ) 50-hour grades 7-8 mathematics number concepts course for teacher professional development and comparing treatment teachers to control groups with matching based on similar response patterns across items on an assessment of CKT-M (Content Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics). Pre-post student achievement assessed on state CRCT (Criterion Referenced Competency Test) and NAEP released items. Pre-post teacher observation based on videotapes. While InterMath has apparently been successful no independent study of the program has been carried out and previous work is based largely on teacher self report. The program provides an opportunity for research that may illuminate the connections studied. This is not an evaluation of InterMath but use of the program to study the relationships among the key variables and perhaps contribute to how one might study the relationships. The study has is intended to illuminate connections among the key global variables of professional development, teacher learning, teacher practice, and student achievement in a context where there is reason to believe the received view of practice is in place.