Improving Rural Middle Grades Mathematics Instruction through a Statewide Teacher-Researcher Alliance

通过全州教师-研究人员联盟改善农村中年级数学教学

• 批准号: 2300532
• 负责人: Joe Champion
• 金额: $ 274.35万
• 依托单位: Boise State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2300532&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Rural; Middle; Grades; Mathematics

This project establishes a statewide teacher-researcher alliance of mathematics teachers and teacher-leaders in Idaho, who will work with teacher educators at two universities with expertise in professional development and school-based research. The research focuses on two research-based strategies for improving students’ mathematics achievement. The first, Explicit Attention to Concepts, draws students’ attention specifically to the meaning of mathematical ideas while making connections between different ways to represent the content. The second, Students’ Opportunities to Struggle, helps students make sense of graspable new concepts through supported problem solving with peers, highlighting ways to overcome confusion, stimulate personal sense-making, build perseverance, and promote openness to challenge. The work builds on prior investigations of how the two instructional strategies can be sequenced to promote student learning in middle grades mathematics, and an experimental research design will be used to compare outcomes of two promising professional development models for supporting rural teachers’ adoption and adaptation of instructional strategies for their classrooms.The project has five key features for building scientific understanding of effective mathematics instruction in rural settings. First, the project brings together rural teachers to foster authentic community around shared work of improving student learning. Second, professional learning and instructional support for teachers promote adoption and implementation of effective instructional practices in the crucial settings of grades 6-8 mathematics classrooms. Third, the project centers shared responsibility and autonomy through a statewide teacher-researcher alliance structure. Fourth, the project studies two high quality math professional development structures at scale for rural teachers: at-a-distance professional development facilitated by a centralized specialist, and in-person professional development facilitated by a local teacher-leader. Finally, the nested mixed methods research design compares the two professional development approaches across a range of outcomes including teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices, as well as growth in their students’ engagement and learning in mathematics. The experiment includes randomized assignment of middle grades mathematics teachers (N = 90 teachers, 20,000 students) to professional development conditions, with control procedures for sampling, quality of professional development, and cycles of classroom-based instructional improvement. Dissemination will reach local, state, and national teacher education communities, and materials and findings will support future adoption of assets-based, teacher-centered research and development partnerships. The project is supported by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), which 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.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.

该项目在爱达荷州建立了一个由数学教师和教师领导组成的全州教师-研究人员联盟，他们将与两所大学的教师教育工作者合作，在专业发展和校本研究方面拥有专业知识。该研究重点关注两种基于研究的提高学生数学成绩的策略。第一个是对概念的显式关注，吸引学生特别注意数学思想的含义，同时在表示内容的不同方式之间建立联系。第二个是“学生的奋斗机会”，通过与同伴一起解决问题，帮助学生理解可掌握的新概念，强调克服困惑、激发个人意义建构、培养毅力和促进接受挑战的开放态度的方法。这项工作建立在先前对如何对这两种教学策略进行排序以促进中年级数学学生学习的调查的基础上，并且将使用实验研究设计来比较两种有前景的专业发展模式的结果，以支持农村教师在课堂上采用和调整教学策略。该项目有五个关键特征，旨在建立对农村环境中有效数学教学的科学理解。首先，该项目将乡村教师聚集在一起，围绕改善学生学习的共同工作培育真正的社区。其次，对教师的专业学习和教学支持促进在 6-8 年级数学课堂的关键环境中采用和实施有效的教学实践。第三，该项目通过全州范围内的教师-研究人员联盟结构来共享责任和自主权。第四，该项目研究了农村教师的两种大规模高质量数学专业发展结构：由集中专家促进的远程专业发展，以及由当地教师领导者促进的面对面专业发展。最后，嵌套混合方法研究设计比较了两种专业发展方法的一系列成果，包括教师的信念和教学实践，以及学生数学参与和学习的增长。该实验包括根据专业发展条件随机分配中年级数学教师（N = 90 名教师，20,000 名学生），并采用抽样控制程序、专业发展质量和基于课堂的教学改进周期。传播将到达地方、州和国家教师教育社区，材料和研究结果将支持未来采用基于资产、以教师为中心的研究和开发伙伴关系。该项目得到 Discovery Research preK-12 计划 (DRK-12) 的支持，该计划旨在通过创新资源、模型和工具的研究和开发，显着增强 preK-12 学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 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工作的基础上，为拟议项目提供理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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。