How Novice Elementary Teachers' Social Networks Affect Ambitious Math Instruction

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The study seeks to identify the mechanisms through novice teachers' social networks shape their mathematics instruction. The researchers will collect surveys, lesson plans, classroom observations, teacher tasks, and student work samples from 200 teachers across districts in three states with different contexts around standards and state assessments. Using social network analyses frameworks, the study will model the novice teachers' future teaching using ambitious mathematics instruction as measured by the Instructional Quality Assessment based on measures of these teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, and use of ambitious mathematics instruction and characteristics of the novice teachers' social network, as well as their interactions. Qualitative analyses will be used to support the results from the models. This study is framed by an interdisciplinary approach that integrates a cognitive component (focused on teachers' knowledge) and a sociological component (focused on the social context of teachers) in order to understand novices' planning and enactment of ambitious math instruction. No large-scale studies have used such an approach to measure how these factors shape novices' math instruction. The work will contribute to understanding factors that influence beginning elementary teachers learning in the early stages of their careers.This study will advance knowledge and understanding of STEM learning environments by examining how novice elementary teachers' math instruction is influenced by the knowledge sharing, behavior, and expectations of others. A key issue in the improvement of mathematics education is the support beginning elementary teachers of mathematics, particularly as the number of beginning teachers increases at all grade levels. This project, funded in the Research on Education and Learning program, will study 200 novice elementary teachers and their support networks in schools in three Midwestern states, using innovative research methods in social networking to understand the relationships among teacher knowledge, teaching practice, and the influence of their peers and administrators on the novice teachers' future teaching practice. It is important for districts to organize human capital and professional development in ways that strongly support these novice elementary teachers in teaching mathematics for increased student achievement. The results of the study will provide recommendations for when schools and districts should provide induction and professional development programs for novice teachers related to their mathematical knowledge for teaching and how they can help novices respond to possible conflicts among school-based norms, curricular standards, teacher evaluation instruments, and external professional development.