CAREER: Multilevel Mediation Models to Study the Impact of Teacher Development on Student Achievement in Mathematics

这是一个教师早期职业发展计划(Career)项目。职业生涯计划是国家科学基金会范围内的一项活动，为那些通过杰出的研究、出色的教育以及教育和研究的整合来体现教师学者作用的初级教师提供最有声望的奖项。这项研究的智力价值和更广泛的影响在于该项目的两个互补贡献。首先，设计多层次调解研究的统计框架的开发具有广泛影响的巨大潜力，因为它开发了一个核心平台，可以转移到其他STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)教育领域和STEM学科。其次，为实施这一框架而开发的软件和课程材料进一步利用了这项工作的前景，因为它以一种可获得的方式将成果分发给STEM教育领域和STEM学科的不同研究和实践者群体。总而言之，这个项目的组成部分将大大扩大通过数学专业发展产生的证据的范围和质量，更广泛地说，通过提高研究人员对作为研究计划基础的行动理论和变化的有效和全面研究的能力，在整个STEM领域进行多层次调解研究。该项目将开发一个全面的框架，以提供信息和指导数学教师专业发展研究的分析设计。拟议的框架包括四个综合研究和教育组成部分：(1)开发统计公式和工具，以指导在存在测量误差的情况下进行实验性和非实验性多水平调解研究的优化设计，(2)对实施这些公式以设计数学教师发展研究所需的参数进行经验估计，(3)开发自由和可访问的软件来执行这一框架，以及(4)开发关于该框架的培训材料和举办讲习班，以提高实地设计有效和高效的教师发展研究的能力。这项研究的一个基本目标是以跨越研究和教育的方式推进一门教与学的科学。

This is a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) project. The CAREER program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers the most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research. The intellectual merit and broader impacts of this study lie in two complementary contributions of the project. First, the development of the statistical framework for the design of multilevel mediation studies has significant potential for broad impact because it develops a core platform that is transferable to other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education areas and STEM disciplines. Second, the development of software and curricular materials to implement this framework further capitalize on the promise of this work because it distributes the results in an accessible manner to diverse sets of research and practitioner groups across STEM education areas and STEM disciplines. Together, the components of this project will substantially expand the scope and quality of evidence generated through mathematics professional development and, more generally, multilevel mediation studies throughout STEM areas by increasing researchers' capacity to design valid and comprehensive studies of the theories of action and change that underlie research programs.This project will develop a comprehensive framework to inform and guide the analytic design of teacher professional development studies in mathematics. The proposed framework incorporates four integrated research and education components: (1) develop statistical formulas and tools to guide the optimal design of experimental and non-experimental multilevel mediation studies in the presence of measurement error, (2) develop empirical estimates of the parameters needed to implement these formulas to design teacher development studies in mathematics, (3) develop free and accessible software to execute this framework, and (4) develop training materials and conduct workshops on the framework to improve the capacity of the field to design effective and efficient studies of teacher development. An essential goal of the research is to advance a science of teaching and learning in ways that traverse both research and education.