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1. Cultivating Multicultural Dispositions: Assessing the Impact of a Multicultural Education Course on Preservice Teachers at an HBCU

   https://doi.org/10.57125/fed.2024.09.25.20  

   Shivers, Ayanna; Uribe-Zarain, Ximena (September 2024, Futurity Education)

   This research examined the impact of a multicultural education course on the cultivation of critical dispositions and cultural competence among future educators at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The purpose of this study was to understand how this course affected students' self-awareness, recognition of personal biases, and broadening of worldviews. Using a mixed-methods approach, post-only quantitative data from the Multicultural Teacher Dispositions Scale (MTDS) and qualitative reflections from 23 preservice teachers selected through convenience sampling were combined in the study. The MTDS evaluates three dispositions of multiculturalism in preservice teachers: meekness, social awareness, and advocacy. The results revealed from moderate to strong endorsement of the meekness disposition, which means openness to diverse perspectives and self-reflection. The social awareness was moderately endorsed, with students recognising systemic inequities and valuing diverse viewpoints in education. The advocacy disposition showed mixed results, highlighting areas for growth in challenging institutional biases and promoting inclusivity. The qualitative analysis identified three key themes in students' reflections: embracing discomfort, self-awareness and bias recognition, effective communication as well as cultural sensitivity. Participants reported broadened worldviews, greater appreciation for cultural diversity, and increased confidence in engaging with diverse backgrounds. The study provided empirical evidence for the effectiveness of structured multicultural education courses in enhancing critical dispositions and cultural competence among preservice teachers. It emphasises the importance of incorporating opportunities for self-reflection, exploration of diverse perspectives, and addressing personal biases and discomfort within teacher preparation programs. These findings are crucial for teacher education programs at HBCUs preparing culturally competent educators for increasingly diverse classrooms. The study also suggests a need for on-going research on strategies to cultivate multicultural dispositions and to study the long-term impact of multicultural education courses on teaching practices. 

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2. A Sociocultural Perspective on Beginning Teachers Enacting Reasoning and Proving Practices

   Weingarden, M.; Buchbinder, O. (January 2022, Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education)

   Karunakaran, S. S.; Higgins, A. (Ed.)

   The critical role of teachers in supporting student engagement with reasoning and proving has long been recognized (Nardi & Knuth, 2017; NCTM, 2014). While some studies examined how prospective secondary teachers (PSTs) develop dispositions and teaching practices that promote student engagement with reasoning and proving (e.g., Buchbinder & McCrone, 2020; Conner, 2007), very little is known about long-term development of proof-related practices of beginning teachers and what factors affect this development (Stylianides et al., 2017). During the supervised teaching experiences, interns often encounter tensions between balancing their commitments to the university and cooperating teacher, while also developing their own teaching styles (Bieda et al., 2015; Smagorinsky et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2008). Our study examines how sociocultural contexts of the teacher preparation program and of the internship school, supported or inhibited proof-related teaching practices of beginning secondary mathematics teachers. In particular, this study aims to understand the observed gap between proof-related teaching practices of one such teacher, Olive, in two settings: as a PST in a capstone course Mathematical Reasoning and Proving for Secondary Teachers (Buchbinder & McCrone, 2020) and as an intern in a high-school classroom. We utilize activity theory (Leont’ev, 1979) and Engeström’s (1987) model of an activity system to examine how the various components of the system: teacher (subject), teaching (object), the tasks (tools), the curriculum and the expected teaching style (rules), the cooperating teacher (community) and their involvement during the teaching (division of labor) interact with each other and affect the opportunities provided to students to engage with reasoning and proving (outcome). The analysis of four lessons from each setting, lesson plans, reflections and interviews, showed that as a PST, Olive engaged students with reasoning and proving through productive proof-related teaching practices and rich tasks that involved conjecturing, justifying, proving and evaluating arguments. In a sharp contrast, as an intern, Olive had to follow her school’s rigid curriculum and expectations, and to adhere to her cooperating teacher’s teaching style. As a result, in her lessons as an intern students received limited opportunities for reasoning and proving. Olive expressed dissatisfaction with this type of teaching and her desire to enact more proof-oriented practices. Our results show that the sociocultural components of the activity system (rules, community and division of labor), which were backgrounded in Olive’s teaching experience as a PST but prominent in her internship experience, influenced the outcome of engaging students with reasoning and proving. We discuss the importance of these sociocultural aspects as we examine how Olive navigated the tensions between the proof-related teaching practices she adopted in the capstone course and her teaching style during the internship. We highlight the importance of teacher educators considering the sociocultural aspects of teaching in supporting beginning teachers developing proof-related teaching practices. 

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3. Impacting Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies by Decreasing Bias Through Simulation Experiences

   https://doi.org/10.3280/exioa2-2022oa15077  

   Christensen, Rhonda; Knezek, Gerald (January 2022, EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN LEARNING AND TEACHING)

   Simulated teaching environments have been used for more than two decades and are likely to continue to expand to meet the demands of teacher development programs. In this study, the self-reported changes in culturally-responsive teaching perceptions of ten classroom teachers serving more than six hundred students are reported. This paper includes first year findings from a program designed to use artificial-intelligence (AI) based algorithms to reduce implicit bias in teaching. Findings from this study include significant pre-post increases for self-efficacy related to culturally responsive teaching as well as instructional self-efficacy. These findings add credibility to the contention that a key innovation of using simulation programs for teacher professional development is that it provides teachers and teacher trainees many learning trials with simulated students, thereby increasing teacher confidence and competence, and which in turn will improve student learning. Findings set the stage for measuring the impact on student perceptions of learning and cultural engagement intended to support teachers in recognizing and ameliorating their own implicit biases. 

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4. A values-aligned intervention fosters growth mindset–supportive teaching and reduces inequality in educational outcomes

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210704120  

   Hecht, Cameron A.; Bryan, Christopher J.; Yeager, David S. (June 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Group-based educational disparities are smaller in classrooms where teachers express a belief that students can improve their abilities. However, a scalable method for motivating teachers to adopt such growth mindset–supportive teaching practices has remained elusive. In part, this is because teachers often already face overwhelming demands on their time and attention and have reason to be skeptical of the professional development advice they receive from researchers and other experts. We designed an intervention that overcame these obstacles and successfully motivated high-school teachers to adopt specific practices that support students’ growth mindsets. The intervention used the values-alignment approach. This approach motivates behavioral change by framing a desired behavior as aligned with a core value—one that is an important criterion for status and admiration in the relevant social reference group. First, using qualitative interviews and a nationally representative survey of teachers, we identified a relevant core value: inspiring students’ enthusiastic engagement with learning. Next, we designed a ~45-min, self-administered, online intervention that persuaded teachers to view growth mindset–supportive practices as a way to foster such student engagement and thus live up to that value. We randomly assigned 155 teachers (5,393 students) to receive the intervention and 164 teachers (6,167 students) to receive a control module. The growth mindset–supportive teaching intervention successfully promoted teachers’ adoption of the suggested practices, overcoming major barriers to changing teachers’ classroom practices that other scalable approaches have failed to surmount. The intervention also substantially improved student achievement in socioeconomically disadvantaged classes, reducing inequality in educational outcomes. 

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5. Variation in Engagement Behaviors among Student-Centered Pedagogies

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3641554.3701894  

   Campbell, Patricia B; Kussmaul, Clif; Mayfield, Chris; Hu, Helen H; Campbell-Mortman, Seth (February 2025, ACM)

   Numerous studies have shown that active learning and student-centered pedagogies lead to better student outcomes, such as higher grades, enhanced self-efficacy, and an increased sense of belonging. These outcomes are closely linked to higher levels of student engagement. To better understand the relationship between student engagement and pedagogical approach, our research documents what actually happens in CS1 classes that implement active learning. This paper presents a case study of two instructors, at different undergraduate institutions, teaching with Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) and Interactive Lectures. Using structured classroom observations and student surveys, we measure the engagement of the same students in different class periods taught by the same instructor. Our study investigates the differences and similarities in self-reported and observed student behaviors, as well as observed instructor behaviors. We examine how instructor behavior impacts student behavior. The results show significant differences in observed instructor and student behaviors based on the pedagogical approach. In class periods where instructors spoke more, students were more inclined to watch or listen rather than actively work or discuss, coupled with higher levels of student distraction. Our results provide insight into how specific teaching practices can lead to more engaging classrooms and better student outcomes. 

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