Supporting Playful Learning in Elementary Mathematics Classrooms

以前的研究表明，游戏是探索、理解和学习的重要工具，因为游戏涉及许多与数学中复杂的学科参与相同的特征。尽管人们广泛地记录了游戏的价值，但很少有研究直接讨论如何支持游戏，或者在数学课堂上支持游戏的价值。这个项目的目的是通过一项为期四年的纵向研究来调查早期小学数学教育中的游戏，该研究记录了教师的学习，并将教师实践与多年来对儿童的深入定性分析联系起来。研究人员将连续三年与幼儿园教师合作。教师将体验专业发展，他们将作为学习者参与游戏，并学习如何设计包含游戏的任务。随后，教师将在他们的幼儿园课堂上实施策略。教师将实施这一模式三年，该项目每年都会增加新的幼儿园教师。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努力的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验证明。纵向设计还将支持与年级水平相关的打法。教师将参加暑期专业发展以及特定年级的视频俱乐部，在那里教师将观察和注释他们练习的视频。同样，这个项目将通过连续三年跟踪一组在整合游戏的教室中的儿童来探索儿童随着时间的推移的经验，并通过连续几年对比幼儿园教师的经验来探索教师的经验。在这样做的过程中，这个项目将用定性的方法开发三个深入的描述：1)幼儿园教师如何学习将游戏融入到他们的教学中，以及他们的教学如何随着时间的推移而变化；2)整合游戏的任务如何随着不同的年级和不同的内容而变化；以及3)儿童与数学的关系可能会通过在他们早期的小学生涯中经历玩耍的数学学习而发生变化。在探索性分析中，研究者将采用定性的方法，包括视频、视频俱乐部、课堂观察和教师访谈，以及分析方法，包括紧急编码，以及研究高质量数学教学的编码方案。通过这个项目收集的数据将提供对儿童在小学头三年的参与轨迹的洞察，并阐明如何改变儿童与数学学科的关系。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。

Previous research has shown that play is an important vehicle for exploration, understanding, and learning because play involves many of the same features as sophisticated disciplinary engagement in mathematics. Despite work documenting the value of play broadly, little research has directly addressed how play could be supported or the value of doing so in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this project is to investigate play in early elementary math education through a four-year longitudinal study that documents teacher learning and connects teacher practice with in-depth qualitative analyses of children over multiple years. The researchers will partner with kindergarten teachers for three consecutive years. Teachers will experience professional development where they will engage in play as learners and learn how to design tasks that incorporate play. Subsequently, the teachers will implement strategies in their kindergarten classrooms. The teachers will implement this model for three years, and each year the project will add new kindergarten teachers. 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. The longitudinal design will also support looking at play in relation to grade level. Teachers will participate in summer professional development as well as grade-specific video clubs where teachers will observe and annotate videos of their practice. Similarly, this project will explore children’s experiences over time by following a cohort of children in classrooms that integrate play for three consecutive years, and in relation to teachers’ experience by contrasting kindergarteners over consecutive years. In so doing, this project will develop three in-depth accounts using qualitative methods: 1) How kindergarten teachers learn to integrate play into their instruction and how their teaching changes over time; 2) How the task of integrating play changes with respect to different grades and different content; and 3) How the relationship that children develop with mathematics might be transformed by experiencing playful mathematics learning over their early elementary careers. In this exploratory analysis, the researchers will employ qualitative methods, including video, video club, and in-class observations and teacher interviews and analytic methods including emergent coding, and coding schemes from research on high-quality mathematics teaching. The data collected through this project will offer insight into children’s trajectories of participation across the first three years of elementary school and shed light on how children’s relationship with the discipline of mathematics could be transformed.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.