Turning to the Evidence: What Teachers Learn About Using Classroom Records and Artifacts in Mathematics Instruction

Education Development Center, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

In this project, the researchers propose to examine how teachers use student created artifacts of mathematics learning in their own professional development. The conceptual framing for the proposal comes from two strands of work. The first strand involves theory and research about the conceptual systems teachers use to understand student thinking. Several investigators have recently described cognitive schemata for mathematics education as "lenses" through which educators perceive, organize, and enact their practice. The researchers posit that two lenses are particularly relevant to the way teachers identify and interpret evidence of student thinking from classroom artifacts and records: a "mathematical content" lens and a "mathematical epistemology" one. The second conceptual strand comes from theories of the situated nature of practice, which emphasize that knowledge itself is a function of the contexts in which it develops. Although practice-based professional development seeks to narrow the distance between the learning teachers do in professional development settings and tasks of classroom practice, the differences between the two contexts can nonetheless be significant. The project will investigate two overarching questions: (1) what do teachers learn by participating in professional development that uses classroom records and artifacts? and (2) what aspects of their learning do teachers apply to their classroom practice? The study will investigate teachers' learning as they participate in either one of two professional development programs that focus on analysis of classroom artifacts, Fostering Algebraic Thinking Toolkit (TK) or VideoCases for Mathematics Professional Development (VCM). Four sites have been selected, two TK and two VCM seminars. Comparisons to teachers not in the treatment will be included. Seminars will meet monthly for three semesters. Data bearing on questions about teachers' learning in the seminars will include: pre/post measures of teachers' algebra understanding, pre/post interviews focusing on teachers' analysis of student work samples, video records and field notes of seminar sessions, and embedded assessments of teachers' analyses of student thinking. Data about the application to classroom practice will include videotaped pre/post classroom observations of all teachers in the study (observations include briefings with teachers before and after the lesson) and monthly observations of a sample of target teachers. A comparison on some of these measures will be made with teachers who do not participate in the professional development programs. Data analysis will involve a combination of cross-case analyses and quantitative comparisons, where appropriate.