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1. Fostering expansive noticing practices through video-based professional development in college mathematics

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-025-01744-6  

   Santagata, Rossella; Fuentes_Acevedo, Patricia; Kimmerling, Christina; Pelayo, Roberto; Pantano, Alessandra; Tschönhens, Franziska (October 2025, ZDM – Mathematics Education)

   Abstract Marginalized groups remain underrepresented in college mathematics majors and experience lower outcomes and persistence, highlighting the need for equity-focused professional development (PD). Recent work on teacher noticing identifies competencies of equitable teachers, informing PD design centered on noticing for equity. This study presents a video-based PD, developed by mathematics and education scholars, for college instructional teams. The PD addresses both student thinking and equity-focused noticing, encouraging participants to examine their beliefs and visions of equitable instruction. Ten mathematics faculty and student assistants participated in the study. Through a pre/post-test design, findings demonstrate that PD can be designed to integrate attention to both student mathematical thinking and participation, fostering expansive noticing practices that include students’ historical selves and imagined futures. They also suggest that video-based noticing activities can support the development of beliefs and vision of high-quality mathematics instruction. A study byproduct is a framework to document multidimensional noticing that captures dimensions such as student agency, shared authority, and the socio-emotional and relational aspects of learning. 

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2. Tasks to Foster Mathematical Creativity in Calculus I

   El Turkey, H.; Karakok, G.; Tang, G.; Regier, P.; Savić, M.; Cilli-Turner, E. (January 2020, Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education)

   null; Z. Reed, A. Higgins (Ed.)

   Fostering students’ mathematical creativity necessitates certain instructional actions - one of which is designing and implementing tasks that foster creativity. Drawing on the literature on mathematical creativity, we describe existing research-based features of tasks for eliciting student creativity, or creativity-based tasks, and provide suggestions for implementation of such tasks. Based on these features, we analyzed two instructors’ first experiences designing and implementing creativity-based tasks in Calculus I. Both instructors’ frequent use of the multiple- solutions feature suggests that this feature could be an entry-point for designing and implementing creativity-based tasks for other instructors seeking to foster creativity. 

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3. WORKING TOWARD A MATHEMATICS LITERACY THAT ENGAGES CREATIVITY, IMAGINATION AND A MATHEMATICAL IDENTITY

   Shaw, A; Lawler, B; Crombie, W; McKlin, T; Brown, T; Richards, T (July 2024, The 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-15))

   This paper aims to introduce a new paradigm for mathematics literacy. By integrating computational thinking and coding into curricular units from The Algebra Project, we engaged middle school students in creativity, imagination, and self-expression in the mathematics classroom. We refined instruments to measure the development of student voice, agency, and belongingness. In the context of the mathematics classroom, there is potential for an earned insurgency to arise when these attributes of mathematical identity are amplified, leading students to engage in a learning community that rejects the repressive logic of the current racialized, classed, and otherwise oppressive mathematics education 

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4. Black adolescents’ motivation to resist the false dichotomy between mathematics achievement and racial identity

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00219-9  

   Wilson, Melody; Matthews, Jamaal Sharif (December 2024, npj Science of Learning)

   Abstract This study investigates the racial-mathematical identity profiles of Black American adolescents. Survey data were collected in five schools across one U.S. urban school district at two time points (spring 2018 [n = 197] and spring 2019 [n = 210]). Based on extant research regarding psychological response patterns to racialized school stress, we investigated the existence of an identity negotiation pattern in which students were motivated to resist negative stereotypes about Black people by achieving well in mathematics. We conducted a latent profile analysis combining students’ self-beliefs across five indicators: racial centrality, racial public regard, mathematics attainment value, mathematics mastery experiences, and resistance motivation. Three distinct racial-mathematical identity profiles emerged: (1) Mathematics Devalued/Ambivalent, (2) Moderately Math Attained, and (3) Resistors. We found associations between profile membership and students’ gender, negative math emotions, and their receipt of cultural and critical mathematics instruction. We also found an association between the identity profiles and school type (academically selective “magnet” schools vs. open-enrollment neighborhood schools), but not in the direction that might be assumed. Moreover, we found that certain school environment factors (i.e., racial stereotyping and cultural and critical mathematics instruction) were significantly different in racially diverse magnet schools than in the neighborhood schools. Overall, our data reveal the existence of a highly motivated Resistor profile among Black students, that is predicted by cultural and critical mathematics instruction but underrepresented within this district’s selective magnet schools. 

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5. I on the Prize: Inquiry Approaches in Undergraduate Mathematics

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-019-00085-6  

   Laursen, Sandra L; Rasmussen, Chris (February 2019, International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education)

   In the United States (US) and elsewhere across the world, undergraduate mathematics instructors are increasingly aware of the value of inquiry-based instruction. In this research commentary, we describe the intellectual origins and development of two major strands of inquiry in US higher education, offer an explanation for apparent differences in these strands, and argue that they be united under a common vision of Inquiry-Based Mathematics Education (IBME). Central to this common vision are four pillars of IBME: student engagement in meaningful mathematics, student collaboration for sensemaking, instructor inquiry into student thinking, and equitable instructional practice to include all in rigorous mathematical learning and mathematical identity building. We conclude this commentary with a call for a four-pronged agenda for research and practice focused on learning trajectories, transferable skills, equity, and a systems approach. 

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