Changing Curriculum, Changing Practice

改变课程，改变实践项目，由教育发展中心的数学教育工作者领导，正在研究实施NSF资助的强调数学思维习惯的高中数学课程的影响。与侧重于数学主题的课程不同，本课程侧重于思考和做数学的方法。该项目正在研究教师用于教学的数学知识的发展以及他们将教学与新课程相结合的能力。该项目包括中等水平的专业发展和开发有效和可靠的工具，以评估教师用于教学的数学知识及其教学实践。这项为期四年的混合方法研究正在调查这样一个猜想，即高中教师实施强调数学思维习惯的课程将导致教师的数学知识和教学发生可衡量的变化。研究人员还对(1)教师的先验知识、(2)他们对课程的使用和(3)学校层面对课程实施的支持之间的关系感兴趣。调查人员正在研究12所学校的70名教师实施课程的情况，这些学校的学生的社会经济地位和地理位置各不相同。研究设计包括对九名教师的教学观察，以获得更细粒度的教学实践测量。他们正在开发或调整现有的工具，以衡量教师的知识和教学与数学思维习惯教学目标的一致性。他们在课堂访问中使用教学质量评估问卷，评估学生发展数学思维技能的机会。混合方法的使用将使研究人员能够从多个角度分析数据。这项研究是帮助高中生培养特定数学思维习惯的长期努力的一部分。目前的研究是在以前课程开发的基础上进行的，并为未来调查学生采用数学思维习惯的研究提供了见解。目前的项目是一项重要的努力，以了解教师在实施课程改革中所扮演的角色，这些课程改革有可能提高学生的数学成绩。教师是连接课程与学习者的重要桥梁。这项研究将有助于解释教师的知识、教师的指导和教师在学校内的环境如何有助于或削弱课程目标的忠实实施。它将为了解未来评估学生学习什么以及他们如何学习的努力奠定基础。

The Changing Curriculum, Changing Practice project, led by mathematics educators at the Education Development Center, is studying the impact of implementing a NSF-funded, high school mathematics curriculum that emphasizes mathematical habits of mind. This curriculum focuses on ways of thinking and doing mathematics in contrast with curricula that focus on mathematical topics. The project is studying the development of teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching and their capacity to align their instruction with the new curriculum. The project includes a moderate level of professional development and the development of valid and reliable instruments to assess teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching and their instructional practices. This four-year, mixed-methods study is investigating the conjecture that high school teachers' implementation of a curriculum emphasizing mathematical habits of mind will lead to measurable changes in teachers' mathematical knowledge and their instruction. The investigators are also interested in the relationships among (1) teachers' prior knowledge, (2) their use of the curriculum and (3) the school-level support for implementation. The investigators are studying the implementation of the curriculum by 70 teachers in 12 schools that vary in socio-economic status of the students and geographic location. The research design includes observations of the instruction of a sub-sample of nine teachers to obtain a finer-grained measure of instructional practice. They are developing or adapting existing instruments that measure teachers' knowledge and alignment of instruction with the goals of teaching mathematical habits of mind. Using the Instructional Quality Assessment rubric during visits to the classroom, they are assessing students' opportunities to develop mathematical thinking skills. The use of mixed-methods approaches will allow the researchers to analyze the data from multiple perspectives. This study is part of a long-term effort to help high school students develop specific mathematical habits of mind. The current study is building on previous curriculum development and also developing insights for future studies investigating students' adoption of mathematical habits of mind. The current project is an important effort to understand the roles teachers play in implementing curricular changes that have the potential for improving student achievement in mathematics. Teachers are the critical bridging agents who connect curriculum and learners. This study will help to explain how teachers' knowledge, teachers' instruction, and teachers' contexts within schools contribute to or detract from the faithful implementation of the goals intended by a curriculum. It will lay a foundation for understanding future efforts to assess what students learn and how they learn it.