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1. FOURTH-GRADE STUDENTS’ SENSEMAKING OF WORD PROBLEMS

   Matney, G. (January 2021, Proceedings for the 48th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning)

   null (Ed.)

   The purpose of this study was to investigate fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of a word problem. Sensemaking occurs when students connect their understanding of a situation with existing knowledge. We investigated students’ sensemaking about a word problem by comparing students’ strategy use. Inductive analysis was used to find themes about student sensemaking. Students exhibited one of three levels of sensemaking. Some problem-solving strategies, as a result of students’ sensemaking, led to a greater frequency of correct results. 

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2. Fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of word problems

   Matney, G.; Bostic, J.; Fox, M.; Sondergeld, T.; & Stone, G. (April 2021, Proceedings for the 48th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning)

   H. Marchionda; S. Bateiha (Ed.)

   The purpose of this study was to investigate fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of a word problem. Sensemaking occurs when students connect their understanding of a situation with existing knowledge. We investigated students’ sensemaking about a word problem by comparing students’ strategy use. Inductive analysis was used to find themes about student sensemaking. Students exhibited one of three levels of sensemaking. Some problem-solving strategies, as a result of students’ sensemaking, led to a greater frequency of correct results. 

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3. Fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of word problems. I

   Matney, G.; Bostic, J.; Fox, M.; Sondergeld, T.; Stone, G. (March 2021, Research Council on Mathematics Learning)

   Marchionda, H; & Bateiha, S. (Ed.)

   The purpose of this study was to investigate fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of a word problem. Sensemaking occurs when students connect their understanding of a situation with existing knowledge. We investigated students’ sensemaking about a word problem by comparing students’ strategy use. Inductive analysis was used to find themes about student sensemaking. Students exhibited one of three levels of sensemaking. Some problem-solving strategies, as a result of students’ sensemaking, led to a greater frequency of correct results. 

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4. Fourth-grade students’ sensemaking during multi-step problem solving.

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2022.100933  

   Matney, G.; Bostic, J.; Fox, M.; Hicks, T.; May, T.; Stone, G. (March 2022, The Journal of mathematical behavior)

   The purpose of this study was to investigate fourth-grade students’ sensemaking of a word problem. Sensemaking occurs when students connect their understanding of situations with existing knowledge. We investigated students’ sensemaking through inductive task analysis of their strategies and solutions to a problem that involved determining the difference between two quantities and number of groups within the task. This analysis provided useful themes about students’ strategy use across the sensemaking domains. Students exhibited three levels of sensemaking and many different strategies for solving the problem. Some strategies were more helpful to students in achieving a correct result to the problem. Findings suggest that sensemaking about problems involving differences and number of groups is difficult for many fourth-grade students. Among students who did make sense of the problem, those who used efficient strategies with more familiar operations tended to do better than those who used less efficient strategies or algorithms. 

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5. A Study of Teacher Sensemaking about Productive Student Talk in Science Classrooms

   Vande Zande, D. & (January 2021, National Association for Research in Science Teaching Annual Meeting 2021)

   null (Ed.)

   One way to support teachers' learning to facilitate the recent reform vision (NRC, 2012) in their classrooms is through professional development (PD). We explored a biology teacher’s (Monica) sensemaking during the PD that focused on facilitating productive science classroom discourse to understand her responses to the PD in terms of teaching science by engaging students in productive talk in science classrooms. Using both video and interview data, we analyzed the process of her sensemaking about facilitating (productive) talk during the PD and the meaning she was making of productive talk. Our analysis indicated that Monica participated in sensemaking mostly about her students' participation in talk. Throughout the PD conversations, she rarely focused on what she could do (or could have done) to facilitate student talk without the PD facilitators' pressing. This is supported by our analysis of the interviews with Monica, which showed that the sense that she was making about productive talk mostly focuses on students' contributions to the talk and their accountability to reasoning, scientific knowledge, and sensemaking. These findings provide implications for facilitating teachers’ sensemaking around new instructional practices and reforms within PD contexts. 

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