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

该项目在爱达荷州建立了一个全州范围内的数学教师和教师领导的教师研究联盟，他们将与两所大学的教师教育工作者在专业发展和校本研究方面的专业知识合作。本研究着重探讨了提高学生数学成绩的两种研究型策略。第一，明确关注概念，将学生的注意力集中到数学概念的意义上，同时在不同的表达内容的方式之间建立联系。第二部分，“学生奋斗的机会”，通过与同学一起解决问题，帮助学生理解可理解的新概念，强调克服困惑的方法，激发个人的理解，建立毅力，并促进对挑战的开放态度。这项工作建立在先前关于如何对这两种教学策略进行排序以促进中学生数学学习的调查基础上，并将采用一项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适应教学策略。该项目在建立对农村有效数学教学的科学理解方面有五个关键特点。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建立真正的社区。第二，对教师的专业学习和教学支持促进了在6-8年级数学课堂的关键环境中有效教学实践的采用和实施。第三，项目中心通过全州教师-研究员联盟结构分担责任和自主权。第四，该项目大规模研究了农村教师的两种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促进的现场专业发展。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结果，包括教师的信念和教学实践，以及学生参与和学习数学的增长。实验采用随机分组的方法，将初中生数学教师（N = 90名教师，2万名学生）分配到专业发展条件下，并对抽样、专业发展质量和课堂教学改进周期进行控制。传播将覆盖地方、州和全国教师教育社区，材料和研究结果将支持未来采用以资产为基础、以教师为中心的研究与发展伙伴关系。该项目由探索研究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。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。

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.