NSF Grant for up to $4.5 Million Will Help ASU
Faculty
Foster Student Learning of Math
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding up to $4.5 million to
Arizona State University’s Center for Research on Education in Science,
Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (CRESMET) to
develop new ways to help middle and high school mathematics teachers
improve student learning.
The grant is awarded through the NSF’s Teacher Professional Continuum
program, which aims to bolster the recruitment, preparation and retention
of effective teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
It has an initial two-year award of $1.7 million and a pending $2.7
million based on progress and NSF funding levels.
“We are bringing rigorous university research to bear on what matters
most in the mathematics classroom,” said Marilyn Carlson, CRESMET director
and principal investigator on the NSF grant. “We want to learn how we can
deepen teachers’ understanding of the mathematics they teach, plus give
them practical strategies to help their students develop the mental skills
to solve tough mathematical problems.”
Working with several hundred teachers in nine Arizona middle and high
schools (in the Gilbert and Glendale school districts initially), ASU
researchers will deliver a new graduate course on teaching
pre-calculus-level mathematics. Teachers will be able to take the ASU
course tuition-free in their own schools at times convenient for their
schedules.
Then the teachers will work together in a professional learning
community to discuss what they learned in the course. They will also
develop lessons, test them in their classrooms, and – through use of
videos made by the ASU researchers – observe.
The project arises from a decade of mathematics education research by
Carlson, an ASU associate professor of mathematics and statistics. The
graduate course is the first of a series of combined mathematics and
science courses that CRESMET is creating for secondary school
teachers.
This first course in pre-calculus will focus on a strand of algebra
concepts that underlies all of high school mathematics. Research by
Carlson and others has shown that teachers can promote their students’
success only when they themselves have strong problem solving abilities, a
deep understanding of the important ideas in mathematics and how they
connect to one another, and clear knowledge of the process by which
students acquire those ideas and learn to reason effectively.
Professional learning communities are a potent strategy for school
change and improvement that researchers have been developing and refining
since the late 1980s. In professional learning communities, a school
provides structured time during working hours for teachers to reflect on
the effectiveness of their instruction. Working together, teachers in
these communities explore their disciplines, plan instruction, observe
each other’s classrooms, and examine such “classroom artifacts” as student
work and videos to uncover what is and isn’t working.
Research shows that learning communities significantly help teachers to
adapt and improve instruction for better student learning. An innovation
of the CRESMET project is to organize professional learning communities
among teachers taking a graduate course together. This intensive support
gives teachers a way to efficiently translate their new knowledge into
teaching methods that promote improved student learning and
achievement.
Joining Carlson on the project are Irene Bloom, Glen Hurlbert, Henry
Kierstead, Yang Kuang, Sharon Lohr, Michael Oehrtman, and Michelle Zandieh
from the ASU math department; Alfinio Flores from the College of
Education; and Hillary Burns and Nora Ramirez of CRESMET.
Media contact:
Skip Derra, (480)
965-4823
skip.derra@asu.edu
Source:
Marilyn Carlson, (480) 965-6168
Kristine
Wilcox, (480) 965-6170
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