This study adds to our understanding of science and mathematics teacher leadership in rural schools. Through In Vivo and Concept coding of teacher interviews, we investigated 20 secondary science and mathematics teachers' perceptions of rural teacher leadership during their participation in a three‐year professional development program. As the teachers developed as teacher leaders, they broadened their focus from improving their own students' learning to sharing new knowledge learned through the program with other teachers both informally and formally. We compared our program components to the Teacher Leader Model Standards and added an emphasis on the importance of disciplinary content knowledge. We also identified patterns in science and mathematics teacher leadership that are contextually connected to teachers' instruction in rural high poverty schools. Rural teacher leadership included the importance of building strong teacher–student relationships, providing new academic opportunities for students, encouraging students' success, and building community connections.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10333494
- Editor(s):
- Olanoff, D; Johnson, K.; Spitzer, S
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Psychology of Mathematics Education North American
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 111-112
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Background/Context: Schools are increasingly using scripted curricula that limit teacher autonomy. These limitations are exacerbated when scripted curricula are enacted in fully standardized, asynchronous online course environments with no mechanisms for student–teacher communication.
Purpose: This study extends understanding of how teacher discretion, identity, and the relationship between those two components shape students’ educational experiences online.
Research Design: Within a sequential mixed method design, we identified spaces for teacher discretion using critical discourse analysis. By coding lesson transcripts, we developed a typology of common strategies: friendly, directive, personalized, and procedural. We used the resulting typology to run statistical models examining associations among teacher identity, discretionary acts, and student achievement. Lastly, we turned back to the qualitative data to confirm findings, test hypotheses, and provide nuance.
Findings: Teachers presenting as Black were significantly more likely to use a procedural approach and significantly less likely to use friendly strategies. Students scored higher on their end-of-lesson quiz when their teacher used personalized strategies, such as sharing relevant personal experiences, and scored lower when teachers used friendly or directive strategies.
Conclusions: Findings have implications for understanding and enacting equitable educational practices in asynchronous, scripted online environments. The isolation of discretionary acts feasible within the virtual learning environment studied contributes nuance to knowledge of the mechanisms through which teacher discretion might result in more favorable learning outcomes for students belonging to minoritized groups.
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null (Ed.)The Game Play and Design Framework is a project-based instructional method to engage teachers and students with mathematics content by utilizing technology as a vehicle for game play and creation. In the authors’ prior work, they created a technology tool and game editing platform, the Wearable Learning Cloud Platform (WLCP), which enables teachers and students to play, create, and experience technology-augmented learning activities. This paper describes a 14-week Game Play and Design professional development program in which middle school teachers played, designed, tested, and implemented mathematics games in the classroom with their own students. Examples are included of teacher-created games, feedback from the students’ experience designing games, and evidence of student learning gains from playing teacher-created games. This work provides a pedagogical approach for educators and students that utilizes the benefits of mobile technologies and collaborative learning through games to develop students’ higher-level thinking in STEM classrooms.more » « less
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null (Ed.)The Game Play and Design Framework is a project-based instructional method to engage teachers and students with mathematics content by utilizing technology as a vehicle for game play and creation. In the authors’ prior work, they created a technology tool and game editing platform, the Wearable Learning Cloud Platform (WLCP), which enables teachers and students to play, create, and experience technology-augmented learning activities. This paper describes a 14-week Game Play and Design professional development program in which middle school teachers played, designed, tested, and implemented mathematics games in the classroom with their own students. Examples are included of teacher-created games, feedback from the students’ experience designing games, and evidence of student learning gains from playing teacher-created games. This work provides a pedagogical approach for educators and students that utilizes the benefits of mobile technologies and collaborative learning through games to develop students’ higher-level thinking in STEM classrooms.more » « less
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Abstract Background What and how teachers learn through teaching without external guidance has long been of interest to researchers. Yet limited research has been conducted to investigate how learning through teaching occurs. The microgenetic approach (Siegler and Crowley, American Psychologist 46:606–620, 1991) has been useful in identifying the process of student learning. Using this approach, we investigated the development of teacher knowledge through teaching as well as which factors hinder or promote such development.
Results Our findings suggest that teachers developed various components of teacher knowledge through teaching without external professional guidance. Further, we found that the extent to which teachers gained content-free or content-specific knowledge through teaching depended on their robust understanding of the concept being taught (i.e., content knowledge), the cognitive demand of the tasks used in teaching, and the lesson structure chosen (i.e., student centered vs. teacher centered).
Conclusions In this study, we explored teacher learning through teaching and identified the sources leading to such learning. Our findings underscore the importance of teachers’ robust understanding of the content being taught, the tasks used in teaching, and a lesson structure that promotes teachers’ learning through teaching on their own.
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