Adapting Problem-Solving Cycles in Professional Development with Foundational Mathematics Course Coordinators: A Potential Gateway for Instructional Change

与基础数学课程协调员一起调整专业发展中的问题解决周期：教学变革的潜在途径

• 批准号: 2225351
• 负责人: Kimberly Rogers
• 金额: $ 35万
• 依托单位: Bowling Green State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-11-01 至 2025-10-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2225351&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Adapting; Problem; Solving; Cycles; Professional

Undergraduate mathematics courses are required foundational courses for almost all STEM majors, since science, technology, and engineering are all built on mathematical underpinnings. Therefore, effective mathematics instruction at the undergraduate level opens the door to these fields, making it possible for students to pursue studies in scientific and technical areas. Unfortunately, students typically cite ineffective or uninspiring classroom instruction in foundational mathematics courses as prominent obstacles to their degree progress and, as a result, may be discouraged from seeking STEM degrees. It has long been known that using student-centered instructional approaches (e.g., less time spent lecturing and increased use of active-learning strategies) improves student learning outcomes and persistence in math courses. However, because undergraduate foundational mathematics courses are often taught by instructors with little background or training in active-learning strategies, a critical need to provide mathematics faculty professional development to improve instructional practices in these courses remains. The objectives of this project are to develop the PI’s expertise about faculty Professional Development (PD) design; to create, iteratively implement, and examine how PD cycles affect foundational math instructors’ teaching practices and perspectives; and to contribute to theory about supporting meaningful instructional change in foundational mathematics courses. By supporting instructional change, the project should have broad impacts on undergraduate STEM education including the following: improving instruction for students taking foundational mathematics courses, thus positively impacting STEM major’s persistence and involvement in the STEM workforce; and developing an infrastructure and model that can be used to support instructional change and PD in other undergraduate STEM areas.To inform theory about the key components and factors in faculty PD that support instructional change, this project plans to design, analyze, and refine cycles of PD with foundational mathematics course coordinators in a community of practice around active learning strategies. During pre-existing, bi-weekly Foundational Mathematics Committee meetings, the PI will facilitate PD opportunities with all foundational mathematics course coordinators in her mathematics department. The PD will include iterative Problem-Solving Cycles (where each ‘cycle’ is a series of interconnected meetings organized around a rich mathematical task, enabling instructors to share a common learning, planning, and teaching experience) and a community of practice approach with Core Reflection practices to develop a system of supports with and for the course coordinators. Through the adoption of this design-based research approach (i.e., designing, field-testing, analyzing, & refining), the participating coordinators, the PI, and research team members will collaborate to inform PD design and theory development regarding the key components and factors in the faculty PD program that support instructional change. These results will enable the participating course coordinators to improve their own classroom use of pedagogical strategies that have been proven effective, and to influence instructional innovation among the other instructors of their courses. This project is significant because the theory informed by this PD program will allow other institutions to increase faculty participation in teaching-related PD that has similar impacts on undergraduate mathematics learning outcomes. The project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.

本科数学课程几乎是所有STEM专业的必修基础课程，因为科学，技术和工程都是建立在数学基础之上的。因此，在本科阶段有效的数学教学打开了通往这些领域的大门，使学生有可能在科学和技术领域进行研究。不幸的是，学生通常会将基础数学课程中无效或缺乏启发性的课堂教学作为他们学位进展的突出障碍，因此可能会不鼓励他们寻求STEM学位。众所周知，使用以学生为中心的教学方法（例如，更少的时间花在讲课上，更多地使用主动学习策略）提高了学生的学习成果和对数学课程的坚持。然而，由于本科基础数学课程往往是由教师讲授的背景或培训很少的主动学习策略，迫切需要提供数学教师的专业发展，以改善这些课程的教学实践。该项目的目标是发展PI的专业知识教师专业发展（PD）的设计;创建，迭代实施，并检查PD周期如何影响基础数学教师的教学实践和观点;并有助于理论支持有意义的教学变化基础数学课程。通过支持教学变革，该项目应对本科STEM教育产生广泛影响，包括：改善基础数学课程学生的教学，从而积极影响STEM专业的持续性和参与STEM劳动力;并开发一个基础设施和模型，可用于支持其他本科STEM领域的教学变革和PD。和教师PD支持教学变革的因素，本项目计划设计，分析和完善PD周期与基础数学课程协调员在实践社区围绕主动学习策略。在预先存在的，双周一次的基础数学委员会会议，PI将促进PD的机会与所有基础数学课程协调员在她的数学系。PD将包括迭代的问题解决周期（每个“周期”是围绕丰富的数学任务组织的一系列相互关联的会议，使教师能够分享共同的学习，规划和教学经验）和实践方法的社区与核心反思实践，以开发支持系统并为课程协调员提供支持。通过采用这种以设计为基础的研究方法（即，设计，实地测试，分析，提炼），参与协调员，PI和研究团队成员将合作，以告知PD设计和理论发展的关键组成部分和因素，在教师PD计划，支持教学变革。这些结果将使参与课程协调员，以改善他们自己的课堂上使用的教学策略，已被证明是有效的，并影响他们的课程的其他教师之间的教学创新。这个项目是重要的，因为这个PD计划告知的理论将允许其他机构增加教师参与教学相关的PD，对本科数学学习成果有类似的影响。该项目由NSF的EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research（ECR：BCSER）项目提供支持，该项目旨在培养研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Gamification and a Leaderboard-Based Mathematics Game

游戏化和基于排行榜的数学游戏

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
• 作者: Rogers, Kimberly C;Gao, Fei;Grey, Camryn
• 通讯作者: Grey, Camryn