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

桥接专业发展项目是为中学教师提供的专业学习经验，以支持他们在数学论证教学中发展五种数学实践。这些实践是：创建数学论证，战略性地使用适当的工具，寻找并利用结构，注意精度，在重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，支持学生理解数学的原因，而不仅仅是如何。专业发展干预包括侧重于教学实践近似的夏季研讨会，以及学年期间的指导。指导部分包括面对面指导和一个基于视频的工具，该工具允许教师和教练参与课堂互动的记录。该项目通过增加四项与论证相关的额外数学实践、增加辅导内容、收集学生公平参与课堂讨论的数据，以及开展一项影响研究来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，以及这种假设的改善是通过何种机制发生的，从而扩大了已取得成功的过渡性专业发展工作。桥接系列专业发展项目建立在一个理论框架上，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方法，并在近似的教学实践中与其他教师一起尝试这些方法。这种活动的结果是增加了教师的知识，这些知识可以在课程的规划和制定中调动起来，并改善了课堂上的教学动作。反过来，这可能会提高学生的参与度和数学成绩。在这个奖项中，Bridging增加了辅导周期，以支持教师将从近似实践中吸取的经验教训转化为课堂上与学生的工作，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的实践，包括教练培训和教练课程的设计和部署，因为这关系到教师培养学生更积极参与数学实践的能力。该项目将在拥有经验丰富的数学教练的中学招募25名教师参与，并指导教师选择一个重点班级进行数据收集。案例研究将由代表不同背景、经验和先前知识水平的六名教师和三名教练进行。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制定的课程，以确定教练对实践的影响。该研究还将调查教师参与专业发展导致教师实践和学生成果变化的方式。将收集和分析实践视频记录、书面教案、学生作业和访谈，以确定对教学实践的影响。在项目重点对教师的数学教学知识进行评估，评估教师的学习情况，收集学生标准化评估分数和绩效评估结果，评估学生的学习情况。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）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实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.