Bridging the Gap Between Content Knowledge and Practice: Improving Middle School Teachers' Content Knowledge and Classroom Practices

这个为期三年的项目重点是扩大SimCalc项目的规模，并强调将比例推理和论证的数学教学知识（MKT）作为教师课堂实践的一部分。SimCalc项目的初步发现表明，在没有明确教学策略指导的情况下，教师内容知识的增加并没有导致教师改变支持学生推理的方法。目前的研究是探索性的，将测试桥接专业发展（BPD）的假设，专业发展有助于连接内容知识和课堂实践，可以影响积极的教师变化，并了解BPD如何实现这一目标。这项探索性研究是一个更大的研究议程的第一个；未来的研究将包括大规模的随机化和另一个探索BPD对学生成绩的影响。

This three-year project focuses on scaling up the SimCalc project and emphasizes bridging mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) on proportional reasoning and argumentation as part of teachers' classroom practices. The preliminary findings from the SimCalc project suggest that the increase in teachers' content knowledge without explicit instruction in teaching strategies did not lead teachers to change their approach to supporting student reasoning. The current study is exploratory and will test the hypothesis that Bridging Professional Development (BPD), professional development that helps to bridge content knowledge and classroom practice, can effect positive teacher change and to understand how BPD can accomplish this. This exploratory study is the first of a larger research agenda; future studies will include a large-scale randomization and another that explores the impact of BPD on student achievement.