Enhancing Teacher Preparation in Elementary Mathematics through a Research-based Framework for Teacher-facilitated Discussions

本项目在美国国家科学基金“改善本科STEM教育计划：教育与人力资源”（IUSE: EHR）的支持下，旨在通过改善本科职前小学教师的教育服务于国家利益。课堂讨论是一种有价值的教学方法，它可以促进人们积极参与一个主题，探索关于一个主题的推理，以及考虑替代的想法或方法。本专案将调查教职前小学教师如何使用讨论教学法是否能改善课堂数学教学的品质。具体而言，它将采用一种由教师促进的小组讨论方法，即质量谈话（QT），供教师教育工作者在STEM方法课程和面向未来小学教师的课堂实地体验中使用。将QT纳入职前教师的教育中，有望帮助他们学习数学概念，以及如何在自己的课堂上使用有效的基于讨论的教学方法。这个为期五年的计划旨在：(1)提升教师教育工作者的专业视野，提升他们讨论型教学内容的知识和效能；(2)通过内容丰富的讨论和发展数学丰富的STEM教学法，提高职前教师的数学能力，提高他们的数学推理和理解能力。QT对职前教师教育的适应性将在该奖项的前四年通过一系列四种混合方法研究进行调查，重点是在第五年广泛传播。参与者（教师教育工作者和职前教师）将从宾夕法尼亚州立大学系统的六个校区和两种类型的教师准备环境（专业发展学校和传统）中抽取。研究结果和产品，包括QT工具箱，将通过出版物、演示、数据共享和专门的网站传播给实践者和研究人员。该项目有可能提供必要的研究方法，以培养教师教育工作者的专业视野，提高职前教师的讨论密集型数学能力和新兴的STEM教学法，从而改善小学数学教学。预期的项目成果包括提高教师教育工作者支持其他教育工作者改进教学实践的能力，改变教师教育模式和实践，以提高职前教师的数学理解和推理能力，并支持职前教师发展有效的STEM教学法。该项目旨在通过检查QT对教师教育的有效性，提供QT材料的在线访问，通过在不同环境中传播增加QT的可持续性，以及广泛传播研究结果，提高STEM教育界满足21世纪教学期望的能力，从而对社会产生积极影响。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划将为该项目提供共同资金，以表彰该项目与诺伊斯努力的更广泛的教师培养目标相一致。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。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by improving the education of undergraduate preservice elementary teachers. Classroom discussions are valuable teaching approaches that can promote active engagement with a topic, exploration of reasoning about a topic, and consideration of alternative ideas or approaches. This project will investigate whether teaching preservice elementary teachers how to use discussion-based pedagogy improves the quality of mathematics instruction in their classrooms. Specifically, it will adapt a small-group, teacher-facilitated discussion approach, known as Quality Talk (QT), for use by teacher educators in STEM methods courses and classroom-based field experiences for future elementary school teachers. Including QT in the education of preservice teachers is expected to help them learn mathematics concepts, as well as how to use effective discussion-based teaching approaches in their own classrooms. This five-year project aims to: (1) enhance the professional vision of teacher educators by bolstering their discussion-intensive pedagogical content knowledge and efficacy; and (2) increasing the mathematical proficiency of preservice teachers by increasing their mathematical reasoning and understanding through content-rich discussions and developing mathematics-rich STEM pedagogy. The adaptation of QT for preservice teacher education will be investigated through a series of four mixed methods studies in the first four years of the award, with a focus on broad dissemination in Year Five. Participants (teacher educators and preservice teachers) will be drawn from six Pennsylvania State system campuses and two types of teacher preparation settings (professional development school and traditional). Findings and products, including a QT Toolbox, will be disseminated to practitioners and researchers through publications, presentations, data sharing, and a dedicated website. The project has the potential to provide needed research regarding ways to foster teacher educators professional vision for advancing preservice teachers' discussion-intensive mathematical proficiency and emergent STEM pedagogy so that elementary mathematics instruction can be improved. Expected project outcomes include increasing the ability of teacher educators to support other educators in improving instructional practices, changing teacher education models and practices to advance preservice teachers' mathematical understandings and reasoning, and supporting preservice teachers' development of effective STEM pedagogy. The project aims to positively impact society by improving the STEM education community's capacity to meet 21st century pedagogical expectations by examining the effectiveness of QT for teacher education, providing online access to QT materials, increasing sustainability of QT through propagation to diverse settings, and disseminating findings widely. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program is providing co-funding for this project in recognition of its alignment with the broader teacher preparation goals of the Noyce effort.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.