Collaborative Research: Community and Teacher Teams Investigate Equitable Noticing and Dispositions

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

The project will examine how teachers can engage a broad range of learners in rigorous mathematical activity. A significant component of this work is designing and investigating a process of mathematics teachers' learning to attend to students' mathematical reasoning and participation in their learning. A particular focus of the work will be investigating how teachers' pay attention to student engagement in their classrooms from an equity perspective. The three goals of the project include exploring the relation between teachers' backgrounds, classroom noticing, and instruction; investigating a professional development model for teachers; and designing tools to support other mathematics teachers in learning to notice their students? strengths. The project will involve community leaders as participants in the professional development in order to relate student engagement in the mathematics classroom to students? communities and cultures. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Teacher noticing is a central component of mathematics teaching. The study is situated in sociocultural theories of learning and development that connect patterns of noticing in the classroom to participation in social and cultural communities. The goal of the study is to extend this framework to noticing for equity in the mathematics classroom using a community-based design approach. The study includes three research questions. (1) What is the relation between the dispositions, noticing practices, and mathematics instruction of secondary mathematics teachers? (2) What activities, tools and frameworks support teachers in learning to notice for equity? (3) How can a community-based design model enhance the conceptualization of noticing for equity and the development of tools/frameworks for teacher learning? The project will include the design of a professional development for two cohorts of secondary teachers in collaboration with community leaders. The project will also develop tools for research that can be used in other projects that investigate teacher noticing for equity in mathematics. Data collected will include teacher interviews, video documentation of teacher and community leader interactions in professional development (including summer design charrettes), other documents and artifacts from the design of tools and resources, and other qualitative data. Multiple frameworks will be used for data analysis.