Identifying Effective Instructional Practices that Foster the Development of Algebraic Thinking in Elementary School

迫切需要让所有学生为学习代数做好更好的准备。准备工作的一部分是，通过建立学生对模式、关系和结构的非正式直觉，将其转化为更正式的数学思维方式，从而为小学年级的代数奠定坚实的基础。这个项目旨在找出可以与学生在三、四、五年级早期学习代数有关的教学实践。该项目的目标是使用课堂教学的评估数据和视频，以便创建一种可用于记录有效教学做法的工具。然后，这种观察工具可以用来支持早期代数教师的专业发展，并研究教师的行为如何与学生的学习联系起来。该项目的独特之处在于，它将早期的代数课程与了解教师实施该课程的做法和学生学习数学的做法联系起来。探索研究K-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具(RMT)，显著提高K-12学龄前学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验证明。该项目旨在解决两个研究问题。首先，什么样的教学实践与学生在早期代数中的更好表现有关？第二，这些有效的教学实践在多大程度上因年级不同而不同？这项工作的主要成果是早期代数观察方案，它将捕捉有效教学的非领域和非年级水平的特定实践，并结合特定于早期代数的实践。早期代数课堂的视频将被用来设计观察方案，然后，它将与学生评估数据一起使用，以确定与学生学习相关的教学实践的概况。将使用多个阶段的测试和修订来创建观察方案。观察协议还将生成教师实践的简档，这些简档可用于描述有效教授早期代数的不同模型。该项目还将审查他们的工作对教师准备和专业发展的影响。

There is a critical need to better prepare all students for learning algebra. Part of this preparation involves developing a strong foundation for algebra in the elementary grades by building on students' informal intuitions about patterns, relationships and structure into more formalized ways of mathematical thinking. This project seeks to identify teaching practices that can be linked to students' early algebra learning in grades three, four and five. The goal of the project is to use assessment data and videos of classroom teaching in order to create a tool that can be used to document effective instructional practices. This observation tool can then be used to support teacher professional development in early algebra and research about how teachers' actions can be linked to students' learning. The project is unique in its work to link an early algebra curriculum with understanding of teachers' practices in implementing that curriculum and students' learning of mathematics. The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.The project aims to address two research questions. First, what profiles of instructional practice are associated with greater student performance in early algebra? Second, to what extent do these profiles of effective instructional practices vary by grade level? The primary product of the work is an early algebra observation protocol that will capture non-domain and non-grade level specific practices of effective teaching in combination with practices specific to early algebra. Videos of early algebra classrooms will be used to design the observation protocol, which in turn, will then be used along with student assessment data to identify profiles of instructional practices associated with students' learning. Multiple phases of testing and revision will be used to create the observation protocol. The observation protocol will also generate profiles of teacher practices that can be used to describe different models for effectively teaching early algebra. The project will also examine implications of their work for teacher preparation and professional development.