MCA: The Neurophysiology of Teaching Secondary Mathematics for Transcendent Purpose and Cultural Relevance

该项目考察了教师在文化上支持的数学教学实践如何参与和塑造青少年的大脑网络，从而预测他们的数学身份、成就和目标感。研究者还将评估数学教师批判性意识如何发展的神经生理学。该项目综合了神经生物学、发育和文化视角，探讨中学数学课堂中青少年和教师的社会情感认知。该项目包括一个专业发展计划，该计划将使研究者能够从合作伙伴那里接受学科和研究方法的培训，最终创建一个基于资产的文化神经科学方法，该方法包括不同的和服务不足的青年的经验。该培训将与南加州大学情感神经科学、发展、学习和教育中心合作进行。该项目将在青少年思维和教师思维方面形成新的发现，以及这些信念如何使他们更好地支持学生。研究者将使用观察的方法，结合生理和神经成像的方法，检查在中学数学课堂上具体和抽象的处理机会，青少年叙述他们在这些课堂上的经历，以使内容有意义。本研究旨在(1)了解以超越为目的的数学教学的多重教学属性，观察数学教师在何时、在何种条件下运用这些多重教学技巧；(2)评估青少年学生回忆课堂经历时的心理生理和神经网络的作用，以及他们从中获得的数学意义；(3)通过教师解释他们为什么以及如何为超越目的教授数学来评估心理生理学和神经网络的作用。研究者将使用归属为中心的教学观察协议，研究者将使用状态空间网格分析来评估视频教室，以研究在二维空间中不同教学现象的共存。参与者将从俄亥俄州、纽约州的数学教室和代数项目中招募。观察和神经成像方法的结合可以阐明教师教学法和学生认知之间的联系，并解决有关教师如何最好地定位学生在数学和为自己识别和创建大图像信息的实际问题。该项目将允许研究者探索数学课堂和教师教学法的社会认知质量，以了解教师如何将具体处理，抽象思维和学生影响综合到高质量的数学教学中。该项目由职业中期发展计划资助，该计划为科学家和工程师提供机会，通过协同互利的伙伴关系推进和加强他们的研究计划。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 project examines how teachers’ culturally supportive mathematics instructional practices engage and shape adolescents’ brain networks in ways that predict their math identity, achievement, and sense of purpose over time. The investigator also will assess the neurophysiology of how critical consciousness develops in mathematics teachers. The project synthesizes neurobiological, developmental, and culturally situated perspectives to explore adolescents’ and teachers’ socio-emotional cognition in secondary mathematics classrooms. The project includes a professional development plan that will enable the investigator to receive disciplinary and research methodological training from a collaborating partner to ultimately create an asset-based cultural neuroscientific approach that is inclusive of the experiences of diverse and underserved youth. The training will be conducted in collaboration with the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education at the University of Southern California. The project will forge new discovery on adolescent thinking as well as teacher thinking and how those beliefs position them to better support students. The investigator will use observational methods to examine concrete and abstract processing opportunities in secondary math classrooms in conjunction with physiological and neuroimaging methods of adolescents recounting their experience of these classes to make meaning of the content. The research aims to (1) understand the multiple instructional attributes of teaching mathematics for transcendent purpose, and observe when and under what conditions mathematics teachers are leveraging those multiple instructional techniques; (2) assess the psychophysiology and neural networks at play when adolescent students recall their experiences of these classes and the meaning of mathematics they derived from them; and (3) assess the psychophysiology and neural networks at play through teachers’ explanations of why and how they teach mathematics for transcendent purpose. The investigator will use the Belonging-Centered Instruction observational protocol, the investigator will evaluate videoed classrooms using state space grid analysis to study the co-occurrence of distinct instructional phenomena within a two-dimensional space. Participants will be recruited from mathematics classrooms in Ohio, New York, and the Algebra Project. The combination of observational and neuroimaging methods can elucidate the link between teacher pedagogy and student cognition and address practical questions regarding how teachers can best position students to recognize and create big picture messages in math and for themselves. The project will allow the investigator to explore the social cognitive qualities of math classrooms and teacher pedagogy to understand how teachers synthesize concrete processing, abstract thought, and student affect into high-quality mathematics instruction. This project is funded by the Mid-Career Advancement program that supports opportunities for scientists and engineers to advance and enhance their research program through synergistic and mutually beneficial partnerships.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.