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Two broad categories of instructional practices, (a) explicitly attending to concepts and (b) fostering students’ opportunities to struggle, have been consistently linked to improving students’ mathematical learning and achievement. In this article, we describe an effort to build these practices into a framework that is useful for a diverse set of professional development (PD) offerings. We describe three examples of how the framework is used to support teacher learning and classroom instructional practice: a state-mandated course, lesson studies, and a large-scale teacher–researcher alliance. Initial findings suggest that consistently emphasizing this framework provides both content and structural guidance during PD development and gives coherence and focus to teachers’ PD experiences.
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Lischka, A. E.; Dyer, E. B.; Jones, R. S.; Lovett, J.; Strayer, J; Drown, S. (Ed.)
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Olanoff, D.; Johnson, K.; Spitzer, S. M. (Ed.)Mathematics education needs measures that can be used to research and/or evaluate the impact of professional development for constructs that are broadly relevant to the field. To address this need we developed the Priorities for Mathematics Instruction (PMI) survey consisting of two scales focused on the constructs of Explicit Attention to Concepts (EAC) and Student Opportunities to Struggle (SOS) – which have been linked to increased student understanding and achievement. We identified the most critical assumptions that underlie the proposed interpretation and use of the scale scores and then examined the related validity evidence. We found the evidence for each assumption supports the proposed interpretation and use of the scale scores.more » « less
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Olanoff, D. (Ed.)The perspectives in mathematics education and special education are in tension when it comes to productive struggle. This study describes how struggle surfaced for the students and teacher/researcher in teaching experiments using learning trajectories with three students with diverse cognitive profiles. The students’ activity helps to illustrate the relationships between struggle and mathematics learning. I share how students’ struggle led to my own challenge in navigating tensions between mathematics education and special education. I consider how my focus on productive struggle without attending to cognitive difference reflected ableist thinking. Finally, I suggest implications of these observations for reframing productive struggle.more » « less
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Sacristán, A. I.; Cortés-Zavala, J. C.; Ruiz-Arias, P. M. (Ed.)One of the most intransigent problems in mathematics education is the culturally-influenced divide between classroom practice and educational research. This paper describes our explicit attempt to bridge that divide by translating research on instructional practices linked to improving students’ mathematics achievement into a brief guide outlining constructs, features, strategies, routines, and tools for use in a teacher-researcher alliance. We outline the design and development process, share the guide itself, and summarize data addressing the utility of the guide for a research and professional development project in which 100 U.S. Grades 6-8 teachers are collaborating to improve middle grades modeling and problem solving achievement.more » « less
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