Collaborative Research: Teaching Inquiry-oriented Mathematics: Establishing Supports

改善数学教学和学习是提高对科学、技术、工程和数学职业感兴趣的本科生的成功和坚持的优先事项。这个合作项目（包括弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学，佛罗里达州立大学和北卡罗莱纳州立大学）的中心目标是发展对支持本科数学教学变革所需要的理解。特别是，该项目将设计、调查和评估一个支持系统，以支持有兴趣实施以学生为中心的课程创新的数学教师。这些课程创新已被证明可以支持概念学习收益，缩小成绩差距，并提高STEM的保留率。然而，研究也发现，仅仅发展和传播课程创新并不能支持有意义的教学变革。通过开发和研究一个支持教学变革的系统，该项目将解决将课程创新规模化所需要的这个特别重要（而且经常缺失）的组成部分。通过支持教学变革，从而支持以研究为基础的课程创新的传播，该项目将对本科STEM教育产生广泛影响。这些影响包括：改善STEM学生的教学，从而拓宽本科生追求STEM职业的渠道；推进已被证明对STEM领域的女性和少数民族学生特别有益的教学实践和指导；开发基础设施和模式，用于支持其他本科STEM领域的教学变革和专业发展。该项目将研究以下问题：该计划如何更好地支持本科数学教学改进？更具体地说，教学支持、教师和教学之间的关系是什么，它们对有效地通知教学变化很重要？为此，该项目将设计、调查和评估一个支持对教学变革感兴趣的数学家的系统。教学支持模式将由三个相互关联的部分组成：课程支持材料、暑期研讨会和在线教师工作组。这些支持将使用基于设计的研究开发，包括设计、现场测试、分析和精炼的迭代周期。然后，该项目将在我们模型的上下文中调查教师的变化。本调查将集中于支持者、教师和他们的教学实践之间的关系和相互作用。最后，为了评估项目的教学支持模式，本项目将评估学生的学习情况，并制定一项探究性教学的措施。除了评估支持模式的有效性外，该项目还将使用评估工具来确定支持和指导对学生学习产生积极影响的方面。

Improving mathematics instruction and learning is a priority for increasing the success and persistence of undergraduate students interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The central goal of this collaborative project (including Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Florida State University and North Carolina State University) is to develop an understanding of what is needed to support instructional change in undergraduate mathematics. In particular, the project will design, investigate, and evaluate a system of supports for mathematics instructors interested in implementing student-centered curricular innovations. Such curricular innovations have been shown to support conceptual learning gains, diminish the achievement gap, and improve STEM retention rates. However, research has also found that simply developing and disseminating curricular innovations fails to support meaningful instructional change. By developing and researching a system of supports for instructional change, the project will address this particularly important (and often missing) component needed for taking curricular innovations to scale. By supporting instructional change, and therefore supporting the propagation of research-based curricular innovations, the project will have broad impacts on undergraduate STEM education. These impacts include: improving instruction for STEM students, thus broadening the pipeline for undergraduate students pursuing STEM careers; advancing teaching practices and instruction that have been shown to be particularly beneficial for women and minority students in STEM; and, developing an infrastructure and model that can be used to support instructional change and professional development in other undergraduate STEM areas. The project will research the following question: How can the program better support instructional improvement in undergraduate mathematics? More specifically, what are the relationships among instructional supports, instructors, and instruction that are important for informing effective instructional change? To do this, the project will design, investigate, and evaluate a system of supports for mathematicians interested in instructional change. The instructional support model will consist of three interrelated components: curricular support materials, summer workshops, and online instructor work groups. These supports will be developed using design-based research including iterative cycles of designing, field-testing, analyzing, and refining. The project will then investigate instructor change in the context of our model. This investigation will focus on the relationships and interactions between the supports, the instructors, and their instructional practices. Finally, in order to evaluate the program's instructional support model, the project will assess student learning and develop a measure for inquiry-oriented instruction. In addition to assessing the efficacy of the support model, the project will use the evaluation tools to identify aspects of the supports and instruction that have a positive impact on students' learning.