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全州范围的数学教师和教师领导者教师-研究者联盟，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具有专长。本研究主要探讨了两种提高学生数学成绩的研究性策略。第一，明确注意概念，提请学生注意具体的意义，数学思想，同时使不同的方式之间的联系，以代表内容。第二，学生的机会奋斗，帮助学生通过支持与同龄人解决问题，突出如何克服困惑，刺激个人意义的形成，建立毅力，促进开放的挑战，理解可理解的新概念。这项工作建立在先前的调查，如何这两个教学策略可以排序，以促进学生学习中年级数学，本研究将采用一项实验研究设计，比较两种有前途的专业发展模式的结果，以支持农村教师采用和适应课堂教学策略。在农村环境中学习。首先，该项目将农村教师聚集在一起，围绕改善学生学习的共同工作培养真正的社区。第二，教师的专业学习和教学支持，促进通过和实施有效的教学实践中的关键设置6-8年级数学教室。第三，项目中心通过全州范围的教师-研究人员联盟结构分担责任和自主权。第四，该项目研究了两个高质量的数学专业发展结构的规模为农村教师：在一个远程专业发展促进了集中的专家，并在人的专业发展促进了当地教师领导。最后，嵌套混合方法的研究设计比较了两种专业发展方法在一系列的成果，包括教师的信念和教学实践，以及在他们的学生的参与和学习数学的增长。实验包括随机分配的中年级数学教师（N = 90名教师，20,000名学生）的专业发展条件，控制程序的抽样，专业发展的质量，并以课堂为基础的教学改进的周期。传播将达到地方，州和国家教师教育社区，材料和调查结果将支持未来采用基于资产，以教师为中心的研究和发展伙伴关系。该项目由发现研究preK-12计划（DRK-12）支持，该计划旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。该奖项反映了NSF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。