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1. It is art: Teacher scaffolding and student problem posing during math walks at an art museum

   Sayed, J; Milton, S; Sager, M; Walkington, C (November 2024, Proceedings of the forty-sixth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   This study investigates the interactions between informal educators and adolescents during math walk activities at an art museum. “Math walks” are activities where students notice and wonder about mathematics in the world around them, often creating their own “math walk stops” where they ask and answer mathematical questions. Drawing upon theories of informal math learning, scaffolding, and problem-posing, our research aims to enhance understanding of math walk implementation. Through video content, interaction analysis and artifact analysis of participants’ iPad photos, we explore students’ mathematical learning processes and the role of adult facilitators in guiding these activities. Results from a three-day summer camp are given, and findings offer implications for designing effective informal math education programs and fostering meaningful student engagement with mathematics in real-world contexts. 

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2. Students’ Attitudes towards Mathematics during Math Walks

   Milton, S.; Sager, M.T.; Walkington, C.; Petrosino, A.J.; Sherard, M.K.; Dhingra, K. (June 2023, Prcoeedings of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences)

   Math walks are informal learning activities where students create mathematical meaning from their everyday surroundings. In this qualitative study, we observed 5th–8th-grade students (N = 52) across three urban informal learning sites (a community center, a zoo, and an aviation museum) as they created their own math walks exploring geometric concepts. In a post-survey questionnaire, students described their attitudes toward math using affective language motivated by three psychological factors: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Implications for informal math learning are discussed. 

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3. Student-created math walks in informal learning spaces

   Walkington, C. (January 2022, .) Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2022)

   Chinn, C. (Ed.)

   Math walks are a form of inquiry learning where students can observe and create mathematical meaning from their everyday surroundings. Here we report on a study of 5th and 6th graders in an informal learning setting where they create and present their own math walks covering concepts of ratio, scale, and proportion. The students may have developed more positive attitudes towards math and were able to meaningfully engage with powerful math ideas. 

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4. Impact of prompts on students’ mathematical problem posing

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2023.101087  

   Cai, Jinfa; Ran, Hua; Hwang, Stephen; Ma, Yue; Han, Jaepil; Muirhead, Faith (December 2023, The Journal of Mathematical Behavior)

   This study used three pairs of problem-posing tasks to examine the impact of different prompts on students’ problem posing. Two kinds of prompts were involved. The first asked students to pose 2–3 different mathematical problems without specifying other requirements for the problems, whereas the second kind of prompt did specify additional requirements. A total of 2124 students’ responses were analyzed to examine the impact of the prompts along multiple dimensions. In response to problem-posing prompts with more specific requirements, students tended to engage in more in-depth mathematical thinking and posed much more linguistically and semantically complex problems with more relationships or steps required to solve them. The findings from this study not only contribute to our understanding of problem-posing processes but also have direct implications for teaching mathematics through problem posing. 

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5. Perspectives on Algebra I tutoring experiences with students with learning disabilities.

   Hord, C. & (January 2020, Learning disabilities)

   null (Ed.)

   The researchers conducted a qualitative analysis of the perceptions of school personnel and pre-service teachers about an Algebra I tutoring program for students with learning disabilities. The researchers surveyed and interviewed the participants about the effectiveness of the program for the mathematics learning of the students with LD at the school and as a learning experience for the pre-service teachers. The school personnel indicated there was a mutually beneficial relationship between the tutors and the school. The perceptions of the tutors revealed considerations about the challenges they face as Algebra I tutors of students with learning disabilities including remembering Algebra I content, posing strategic questions to students, dealing with students’ math anxiety, and conveying Algebra I content accessibly. The tutors reported positive experiences in the program including learning from field experience and, in particular, learning to promote the progress and learning of students with learning disabilities using gestures and strategic questioning. 

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