Collaborative Research: Developing and Exploring Mathematical Modeling Curricula for Preservice K-8 Teachers

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With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this Exploration & Design project aims to serve the national interest by developing, implementing, and testing creative approaches for adoption of education research into disciplinary teaching. The project will develop curricula that bring recent advances in STEM knowledge of mathematical modeling into undergraduate elementary teacher education. Mathematical modeling is the process of using mathematics to make sense of real-world, authentic problems and it provides powerful learning opportunities for all students. Although modeling is of growing importance, few preservice K-8 teachers have knowledge of what modeling is or have experienced it firsthand. It is important for them to experience modeling as learners before they can integrate modeling into teaching. This project aims to address this need through the design, enactment, and refinement of mathematical modeling modules for preservice teachers. The project will use design-theory methodology to examine multiple facets of the teaching and learning of modeling beyond content knowledge. This collaborative project will involve Montana State University and Marquette University, and various undergraduate courses at each institution. The project will gather data from various sources, including classroom video data, and preservice teachers' constructed models and journals. The project team will use this data to document, through a Decision Modeling Process, how preservice teachers move through the modeling cycle, noting specific choices, actions, and dispositions. This information will then be used to refine the developed instructional modules and provide written and video annotations for these modules. Based on this analysis, the project seeks to address: 1) how teacher educators can support preservice teachers' understanding of the attributes of mathematical modeling; 2) how preservice teachers' understanding of modeling develops across modules; and 3) factors that support preservice teachers' motivation to engage in mathematical modeling and its related practices. The modules and corresponding videos and annotations developed by the project will be accessible online and will be shared with mathematics teacher educators through outlets such as webinars and conferences. Through dissemination of the modules, mathematics teacher educators will have visible resources to aid in integrating mathematical modeling into a range of existing courses, including undergraduate mathematical modeling courses, preservice teacher methods courses, and undergraduate mathematics courses for teachers. More broadly, this project has potential to benefit society by improving the preparation of undergraduate students, who will become multi-disciplinary teachers in a STEM field. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This project is in the IUSE: EHR Engaged Student Learning track, through which the funding program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.