Evaluating the Developing Mathematical Ideas Professional Development Program: Researching its impact on teaching and student learning

评估发展数学思想专业发展计划：研究其对教学和学生学习的影响

• 批准号: 1019769
• 负责人: James Hammerman
• 金额: $ 290.72万
• 依托单位: TERC Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1019769&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evaluating; Developing; Mathematical; Ideas; Professional

This is a 3.5-year efficacy study of the Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) elementary math teacher professional development (PD) program. DMI was developed by staff from Education Development Center (EDC), SummerMath for Teachers, and TERC, the STEM research and development institution responsible for this research. DMI is a well-known, commercially available PD program with substantial prior evidence showing its impact on elementary teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge. However, no studies have yet linked DMI directly with changes in teachers' classroom practice, or with improved student outcomes in math. This study aims to remedy this gap. The research questions for the study are: 1) Does participation in the Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) professional development program lead to increases in reform-oriented teaching?2) Does participation in DMI lead to increases in students' mathematics learning and achievement, especially in their ability to explain their thinking and justify their answers?3) What is the process by which a reform-oriented professional development program can influence teaching practice and, thus, student learning? Through what mechanisms does DMI have impact, and with what kinds of support do we see the desired changes on our outcome measures when the larger professional development context is examined?The dependent variables for this study include a) teachers' pedagogical and mathematics knowledge for teaching; b) the nature of their classroom practice; and c) student learning/ achievement in mathematics.The study uses experimental and quasi-experimental methods, working with about 195 elementary grades teachers and their students in Boston, Arlington, Concord, and other Massachusetts public schools. Volunteer teachers are randomly assigned either to PD with DMI in the first year of the efficacy study, or to a control group that will wait until the second year of the study to receive DMI PD. Both groups of teachers will be followed through two academic years. Analyses use OLS regression, hierarchical modeling, and structural equation modeling, as appropriate, to compare the two groups and to track changes over time. In this way, the project explores several aspects of a conceptual framework hypothesizing relationships among PD, teacher mathematical and pedagogical knowledge, classroom teaching practice, and student outcomes. There are multiple measures of each construct, including video-analysis of teacher practice, and a new video-based measure of teacher knowledge.The study tests the impact of DMI in a range of districts (large urban, small urban, suburban) serving an ethnically and economically diverse mix of students. It provides much needed, rigorous evidence testing the efficacy of this reform-oriented professional development program. It also directly explores the commonplace theory that teachers' understanding of content and student thinking and their encouragement of rich mathematical discourse for student sense-making lead to improvement on measures of mathematics achievement. Findings from the study are disseminated to both research and practitioner communities. The project provides professional development in mathematics to about 195 teachers to improve their ability to teach important concepts. If the evidence for efficacy is positive, then even larger-scale use of this PD program is likely.

本文是一项为期3.5年的小学数学教师专业发展（PD）项目的效能研究。该软件由教育发展中心（EDC），SummerMath for Teachers和负责这项研究的STEM研究和开发机构TERC的工作人员开发。数学教学是一个众所周知的，商业上可用的PD程序与大量的先前证据表明其对小学教师的数学和教学知识的影响。然而，目前还没有研究将数学教学与教师课堂实践的变化或学生数学成绩的提高直接联系起来。本研究的问题是：1）参与数学思想发展专业发展计划是否会导致以改革为导向的教学增加？2)参加数学探究活动是否会提高学生的数学学习和成绩，特别是他们解释自己的想法和证明自己的答案的能力？3)以改革为导向的专业发展计划可以影响教学实践，从而影响学生学习的过程是什么？通过什么机制，可持续发展产生影响，以及什么样的支持，我们看到我们的成果措施的预期变化时，更大的专业发展背景进行审查？这项研究的因变量包括a）教师的教学和数学知识; B）他们的课堂实践的性质;和c）学生的学习/成就在mathematics.The研究采用实验和准实验的方法，约195名小学年级的教师和他们的学生在波士顿，阿灵顿，康科德，和其他马萨诸塞州公立学校。志愿者教师被随机分配到PD与疗效研究的第一年，或对照组，将等待到研究的第二年，以接受PD-PD。这两组教师将在两个学年内接受跟踪。分析使用OLS回归、分层建模和结构方程建模（如适用）来比较两组并跟踪随时间的变化。通过这种方式，该项目探讨了一个概念框架假设PD，教师的数学和教学知识，课堂教学实践和学生的成果之间的关系的几个方面。每个结构都有多种措施，包括教师实践的视频分析，以及一个新的基于视频的教师knowledge.The研究测试的影响，在一系列的地区（大城市，小城市，郊区）服务的种族和经济上多样化的学生的组合，在一系列的学校。它提供了急需的，严格的证据测试这种改革为导向的专业发展计划的效力。本研究还直接探讨了教师对内容和学生思维的理解以及教师鼓励学生进行丰富的数学话语以促进学生意义建构的常见理论，从而导致数学成绩测量的改进。研究结果已分发给研究界和从业者。该项目为大约195名教师提供数学专业发展，以提高他们教授重要概念的能力。如果有效性证据是积极的，那么更大规模地使用这种PD计划是可能的。