| NSF Org: |
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 21, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 24, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 1908165 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Michael Steele
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $116,722.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $116,722.00 |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI US 48824-2600 (517)355-5040 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
426 Auditorium Road, Room 2 East Lansing MI US 48824-2600 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| NSF Program(s): | Discovery Research K-12 |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
One important aspect of any mathematics curriculum is its coherence, or the mathematical connections across lessons. This coherence links lessons and activities so that mathematical ideas, representations, practices, skills, and ways of thinking build upon each other to help students construct mathematical meaning and enhance their learning. When teachers relied predominantly on published curriculum materials, curricular coherence was largely provided by the curriculum authors. However, many of today's teachers are no longer given a foundational textbook or single set of resources. Further, teachers have unprecedented access via the internet and social media to lessons and activities produced by many different curriculum developers (including other teachers). As a result, the important task of building curricular coherence becomes the responsibility of the classroom teacher. And yet, very little is known about how teachers think about curricular coherence or how their decisions about lessons and activities reflect the coherent mathematical story they hope to students will learn in their classrooms. This project will investigate the factors that influence curriculum coherence and how teachers in Grades 3-5 respond to these factors as they make decisions about their mathematics curriculum. A national survey of 300 Grades 3-5 teachers will be conducted in in the first phase of the project and the work will continue with small groups of four case study teachers in each of four different districts across four states. Case study participants will work with project researchers to co-develop a set of tools for supporting curriculum coherence. The structure of the project and the selection of case study participants will facilitate the collaborative co-development of tools across institutions and across geographic and curricular contexts, supporting the use of the tools across a wide range of contexts. The outcomes of this study will contribute to broader impacts by developing understandings of curriculum coherence that are robust across a range of curricular, policy, and district/school contexts, with implications that support the participation of students in diverse mathematics classrooms. The survey findings and the coherence toolkit co-developed with teachers will be disseminated widely through conference presentations, including teacher-oriented conferences, through journal publications, and through making survey data available to other researchers.
The research objectives of this study are to explore 1) patterns of Grade 3-5 teacher curricular resource use across a range of curriculum contexts, 2) teacher decisions about curriculum coherence, and 3) how curriculum toolkits co-developed with teachers might support teachers in making decisions related to curriculum coherence. Given the potential variation among and within states and districts in terms of contextual factors impacting curriculum use, teachers will be surveyed about their contexts, available resources, and curricular decision-making. Survey data will be analyzed using primarily descriptive analyses. Following the survey, in-depth case studies of teacher curricular resource use in contexts that vary along two dimensions (autonomy to select curricular resources and the complexity of curricular influences, including the number of resources available) will be developed. Case study data, including interviews, video-recorded co-design groups, and curriculum use artifacts, will be analyzed using methods of discourse analysis, thematic analysis, and document analysis and synthesized within and across cases. By selecting cases along these dimensions, a set of tools will be co-developed to support teachers as they navigate diverse curricular contexts to enact a coherent curriculum for students.
The DRK-12 Program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project surveyed 524 elementary teachers from 46 states about their mathematics curricular decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic (Giorgio-Doherty et al., 2021). Building on findings from this study, we designed protocols for individual and focus group interviews with teachers from the same school to further explore the complexity of teachers’ curricular use revealed in the survey. Here, we report findings from these interviews. The research questions guiding our study were: (1) How do teachers create coherence across their curricular resources? (2) How and why do teachers select or evaluate and adapt curricular materials to teach mathematics? and (3) How do teachers perceive their curricular autonomy? We found most teachers were using multiple curricular materials (some mandated and some not, ranging up to 11 different sources of materials) to plan and teach mathematics. We found teachers frequently focused on content (e.g., connections to key concepts, standards, or lesson objectives) as the key focus of creating coherence between materials for students and for lesson planning. Content coherence also seemed to drive differentiation. Most teachers reported differentiating more than usual to address larger learning gaps across students in their classes due to the pandemic. Teachers stated a preference for curricular materials (like IXL) which allowed them to find tasks on particula content and assign students practice problems related to that content at grade level and above/below. Teachers varied in how they responded to different solution strategies presented by different materials. Some teachers provided coherence by directing students to rewrite directions, so they use the same solution strategy as in prior lessons from other materials; other teachers felt students experienced better connections to content as they made sense of different solution strategies from different materials. Several teachers used TeachersPayTeachers (TPT), with some reporting materials on TPT engage students better than materials from their primary curriculum, do not need modifications, or better meet their instructional preferences. We found teachers who reported high levels of enjoyment and confidence in teaching mathematics made the most adaptations to curricular materials and most often designed their own. Many teachers reported adapting curriculum to be more engaging to students. This included adding visuals or enlarging text size and creating opportunities for problem-based and hands-on learning. Some reported adapting or creating materials to make connections to the world or be more culturally relevant. Overall, teachers reported high levels of curricular autonomy for all curricular materials, including mandated materials (median score of 7 out of 10) and non-mandated or suggested materials (all scoring 10 out of 10).
Last Modified: 12/27/2023
Modified by: Sandra Crespo
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