Supporting Playful Learning in Elementary Mathematics Classrooms

先前的研究表明，游戏是探索、理解和学习的重要工具，因为游戏涉及许多与复杂的数学学科参与相同的特征。尽管有研究广泛地记录了玩耍的价值，但很少有研究直接涉及如何支持玩耍或在数学课堂上玩耍的价值。本项目的目的是通过一项为期四年的纵向研究来调查小学早期数学教育中的游戏，该研究记录了教师的学习情况，并将教师实践与多年来对儿童的深入定性分析联系起来。研究人员将连续三年与幼儿园教师合作。教师将经历专业发展，他们将作为学习者参与游戏，并学习如何设计包含游戏的任务。随后，教师将在幼儿园课堂上实施策略。教师将实施这一模式三年，每年该项目都会增加新的幼儿园教师。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高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，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。纵向设计还将支持与年级水平相关的游戏。教师将参加暑期专业发展和年级视频俱乐部，教师将观察和注释他们的实践视频。同样，这个项目将通过跟踪一群连续三年在教室里玩耍的孩子来探索孩子们的经历，并通过对比幼儿园里连续几年的老师的经历来探索孩子们的经历。在此过程中，本项目将使用定性方法进行三个深入的研究：1)幼儿园教师如何学会将游戏融入他们的教学，以及他们的教学如何随着时间的推移而变化；2)不同年级、不同内容对游戏整合任务的影响；3)孩子与数学的关系如何通过在他们早期的小学生涯中体验有趣的数学学习而改变。在探索性分析中，研究人员将采用定性方法，包括视频、视频俱乐部、课堂观察和教师访谈，以及分析方法，包括紧急编码和编码方案，这些方法来自于高质量数学教学的研究。通过该项目收集的数据将深入了解儿童在小学前三年的参与轨迹，并阐明如何改变儿童与数学学科的关系。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Previous research has shown that play is an important vehicle for exploration, understanding, and learning because play involves many of the same features as sophisticated disciplinary engagement in mathematics. Despite work documenting the value of play broadly, little research has directly addressed how play could be supported or the value of doing so in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this project is to investigate play in early elementary math education through a four-year longitudinal study that documents teacher learning and connects teacher practice with in-depth qualitative analyses of children over multiple years. The researchers will partner with kindergarten teachers for three consecutive years. Teachers will experience professional development where they will engage in play as learners and learn how to design tasks that incorporate play. Subsequently, the teachers will implement strategies in their kindergarten classrooms. The teachers will implement this model for three years, and each year the project will add new kindergarten teachers. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) 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. The longitudinal design will also support looking at play in relation to grade level. Teachers will participate in summer professional development as well as grade-specific video clubs where teachers will observe and annotate videos of their practice. Similarly, this project will explore children’s experiences over time by following a cohort of children in classrooms that integrate play for three consecutive years, and in relation to teachers’ experience by contrasting kindergarteners over consecutive years. In so doing, this project will develop three in-depth accounts using qualitative methods: 1) How kindergarten teachers learn to integrate play into their instruction and how their teaching changes over time; 2) How the task of integrating play changes with respect to different grades and different content; and 3) How the relationship that children develop with mathematics might be transformed by experiencing playful mathematics learning over their early elementary careers. In this exploratory analysis, the researchers will employ qualitative methods, including video, video club, and in-class observations and teacher interviews and analytic methods including emergent coding, and coding schemes from research on high-quality mathematics teaching. The data collected through this project will offer insight into children’s trajectories of participation across the first three years of elementary school and shed light on how children’s relationship with the discipline of mathematics could be transformed.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.