Strengthening Middle School Mathematical Argumentation through Teacher Coaching: Bridging from Professional Development to Classroom Practice

桥接专业发展项目是一项为中学教师提供的专业学习经验，以支持他们在教学中发展五种以数学论证为重点的数学实践。这些练习是：创建数学论证，策略性地使用适当的工具，寻找并利用结构，注意精确度，在反复推理中寻找并表达规律性。数学论证是解决复杂问题的重要组成部分，它支持学生理解数学的为什么，而不仅仅是如何。专业发展干预措施包括暑期工作坊，重点放在教学实践的近似，以及学年期间的指导。辅导部分包括面对面的辅导和一个基于视频的工具，允许教师和教练参与课堂互动的记录。该项目扩展了成功的衔接专业发展工作，增加了与辩论有关的四个额外的数学练习，增加了辅导部分，收集了关于学生公平参与课堂讨论的数据，并试行了一项影响研究，以确定包括辅导在内的专业发展是否会改善数学教学和学习，以及实现这种假想改进的机制。衔接一系列专业发展项目建立在一个理论框架之上，该框架首先为教师提供参与有意义的数学教学实践的机会，确定支持学生学习这些实践的教学动作，并与其他教师在接近教学实践的情况下尝试这些动作。这种活动的结果是增加了教师的知识，可以在课程的规划和实施中调动这些知识，并改进了课堂上的教学行动。这反过来可能会增加学生的参与度和数学成绩。在这一奖项中，Briding增加了培训周期，以支持教师将从近似实践中学到的经验转化为与学生在课堂上的工作，并为实施提供持续的学年支持。该项目的研究部分侧重于了解教练员的做法，包括设计和部署辅导培训和辅导课程，因为这与教师培养更多学生参与数学练习的能力有关。该项目将在中学招募25名教师，由经验丰富的数学教练参与，教师们将被指导选择一个重点班级进行数据收集。将与六名教师和三名教练进行案例研究，他们代表不同的背景、经验和先前的知识水平。将收集和分析教练培训和课程的视频记录，以及课程计划和教师授课，以确定教练对实践的影响。这项研究还将调查教师参与专业发展的方式如何导致教师实践和学生结果的变化。将收集和分析实践、书面教案、学生作业和访谈的视频记录，以确定对教学实践的影响。还将在评估教师学习的项目中的关键点对教师用于教学的数学知识进行评估，并收集学生标准化评估分数和表现评估结果来评估学生的学习。探索研究PREK-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高Pre-K-12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上的证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Bridging Professional Development project is a professional learning experience for middle school teachers to support them in developing five mathematical practices in their teaching focused on mathematical argumentation. These practices are: create mathematical arguments, use appropriate tools strategically, look for and make use of structure, attend to precision, and look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. Mathematics argumentation is an important component of complex problem solving and supporting students in understanding the why, not just the how, of mathematics. The professional development intervention consists of summer workshop focused on approximations of teaching practice, and coaching during the school year. The coaching component includes face-to-face coaching and a video-based tool that allows teachers and coaches to engage with records of classroom interactions. The project expands the successful Bridging professional development work by adding four additional mathematical practices that relate to argumentation, adding the coaching component, collecting data on students' equitable participation in classroom discussions, and piloting an impact study to determine whether the professional development that includes coaching leads to improved mathematics teaching and learning, and the mechanisms by which that hypothesized improvement occurs.The Bridging series of professional development projects are built on a theoretical framework that begins with providing teachers with opportunities to engage in meaningful mathematics teaching practices, identify teaching moves that would support students in learning those practices, and to try out those moves with other teachers in approximations of teaching practice. The outcomes of such activity are increased teacher knowledge that can be mobilized in the planning and enactment of lessons, and improved pedagogical moves in the classroom. This in turn is likely to lead to increased student engagement and mathematics achievement. In this award, Bridging adds cycles of coaching to support teachers in translating lessons learned from approximations of practice to the work in their classrooms with students, and to provide ongoing school-year support for implementation. The research components of the project focus on understanding the practice of the coaches, including the design and deployment of coaching training and coaching sessions, as it relates to teachers' abilities to foster stronger student engagement in mathematical practices. The project will recruit 25 teachers at middle schools with experienced mathematics coaches to participate, with teachers directed to select a single focus class for data collection. Case studies will be pursued with six teachers and three coaches that represent diverse backgrounds, experiences, and levels of prior knowledge. Video records of coaching training and sessions will be collected and analyzed, along with lessons plans and teacher-enacted lessons, to determine the influence of the coaching on practice. The study will also investigate the ways in which teacher engagement in the professional developments leads to changes in teacher practice and student outcomes. Video records of practice, written lesson plans, student work, and interviews will be collected and analyzed to determine the impact on teaching practice. Teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching will also be assessed at key points in the project to assess teacher learning, and student standardized assessment scores and performance assessment outcomes will be collected to assess student learning. The Discovery Research preK-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. 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.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.