Mathematics Education

Self-regulated learning (SRL) environments provide the context for students to have more control over their own learning and have the potential to greatly benefit students. However, more research is needed to understand how teachers approach their interactions with students in these settings and how teachers actualize effective teaching practices in SRL environments. This study was focused on responsive teaching as one type of effective practice. The researchers utilized teachers’ use of questioning as an indicator of responsiveness. Using content analysis, the researchers documented instances of questioning teachers used to build dialogic interaction. Focus was placed on understanding the extent to which teachers’ questions were responsive to students’ thinking within a blended SRL context. Findings suggest that teachers’ use of responsive questioning varied by person and context and were impacted by several factors: the teacher’s understanding of the goals and affordances of an SRL environment, classroom context and teaching approach, and lesson format (e.g., large group vs. individual). Based on the findings, the authors suggest that teachers’ understanding of SRL impacts the extent to which they use responsive teaching to interact with student’s self-paced instruction. In particular, teachers’ focus on conceptual (rather than procedural) goals in the SRL environment supports student thinking and agency.

This preliminary study explored how many representations of standard videos, animations/comics, and 360 videos are being used in mathematics methods courses to teach future teachers. Drawing on knowledge from prior studies on standard videos, this study aimed to address the gaps in literature to encompass other representations that are being utilized and obtained. Analyses show that standard videos are the primary medium being used to teach future teachers in math methods, followed by animations/comics, and then 360 videos. Findings suggest that teacher educators are more likely to use a medium that they are more familiar with than a medium with greater perceived usefulness. Further, findings indicate that teacher educators perceived usefulness and frequency of use as not related to their level of familiarity with all representation types, suggesting more factors are at play.

This article reports findings from an exploratory study investigating the effects of robotics professional development sessions in underserved middle schools in the southeastern United States. Eleven middle-level science and mathematics teachers from a high-needs school district received year-long training in robotics technology and instructional integration. Teacher-participants were evaluated on their problem-solving abilities, critical thinking strategies, robotics knowledge, content knowledge, and instructional design through teaching observations and pre/post robotics teaching competency surveys. Student performance was measured by comparing student-participants’ mathematics score growth on a standardized test against nationally normed control group samples. Results from teacher-participants (N = 11) indicated that they significantly improved their robotics teaching competencies and demonstrated measurable gains in numerous teaching performance indicators. Results from student-participants (N = 291) revealed they experienced mathematics growth at a higher percentage than their control group counterparts at each grade level. Sixth graders improved at a year change rate higher than the control sample to match the national norm mean on the posttest. Seventh graders experienced a year change rate and posttest mean far exceeding the control group that approached the national norm. Eighth graders improved at a year change rate that exceeded the control group but was beneath the national norm.

This manuscript focuses on the role of data analytics in mediating how teachers make sense of racial and gender inequity in patterns of student participation in their classrooms. Five middle school mathematics teachers participated in a year-long professional development program, centered on data analytics generated by the EQUIP observation tool. Through the authors’ analyses, they documented six distinct teacher logics used to make sense of the data. The articles discussed how these logics were mediated by particular features of the given data visualizations. It closes with recommendations for the future study of the design of data visualizations and a discussion of implication for mathematics teacher education.