ECR Projects

Explore past and current fundamental STEM education research projects across the three research areas that NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program funds, as well as across ECR funding types. Other search filters draw from both NSF's data and the ECR Hub's hand coding of award abstracts.

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A Study of Elements of Teacher Preparation Programs that Interact with Candidates' Characteristics to Support Novice Elementary Teachers to Enact Ambitious Mathematics Instruction

Effective Years: 2015-2020

Preparing large numbers of elementary teachers to enact high-quality or ambitious mathematics instruction is a central policy challenge in the U.S. While several studies have tried to identify linkages between features of teacher preparation and student achievement outcomes, few large-scale studies have addressed the relationship between teacher preparation and ambitious mathematics instruction, a more proximal outcome. To meet the need for ambitious mathematics instruction, a more robust research base is needed regarding how to support beginning teachers in enacting such instruction. To that end, this NSF EHR Core Research Level II study will investigate how teacher preparation programs support elementary candidates in developing ambitious mathematics instruction and factors that are associated with how graduates of these programs enact mathematics instruction as first- and second-year teachers. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) in a mixed-methods research design will be applied to examine how elementary candidates' characteristics (i.e., their teaching identity, beliefs, and knowledge with regard to teaching mathematics) interact with their opportunities to learn (OTL) in mathematics methods courses and student teaching experiences to influence their enactment of ambitious mathematics instruction as first- and second-year teachers. The study will also explore how novice teachers' characteristics interact with resources and expectations in their schools to influence their mathematics instruction as teachers of record. The study results will inform the design of university-based teacher preparation programs, including the selection of elementary candidates with particular characteristics, the content of mathematics methods courses, and desirable characteristics of student teaching assignments. This work is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning and participation.

This study will feature surveys of 150 elementary candidates from a purposively sampled set of six teacher preparation programs in three states during their final year of preparation and their first two years of teaching. The Mathematics Scan (M-Scan) classroom observation instrument will be used to observe these graduates multiple times as they teach mathematics as first- and second-year teachers. M-Scan measures ambitious mathematics instruction by assessing teachers' use of mathematical tasks, discourse, representations, and coherence. In addition, this study will feature interviews with elementary preparation program directors and mathematics methods instructors at each university; and it will feature surveys of teacher educators, practicing teachers, mathematics instructional coaches, and principals who work with the novice teacher study participants. The study's primary outcome is to measure novices' enactment of ambitious mathematics instruction by using the four M-Scan constructs: mathematical tasks, discourse, representations, and coherence. Each construct represents its own dependent variable. Multiple regression will be used to study the main outcome as a function of several independent variables (including individual teacher characteristics, OTL in mathematics methods courses and student teaching, and resources and expectations in novice teachers' schools) and interactions among these variables. All models will include a vector of controls for teacher attributes (e.g., the teacher's ACT/SAT score, selectivity of undergraduate institution, undergraduate grade point average) and school attributes (e.g., student race/ethnicity, student eligibility for free/reduced lunch, school size, urbanicity, curriculum policy, professional development offerings). This project will contribute to building the knowledge base for designing high-quality teacher preparation and induction programs that support elementary candidates and novice teachers with a range of background experiences, beliefs, and knowledge. This includes understanding factors that inhibit or promote the development of ambitious mathematics instruction to ensure that new elementary teachers are able to provide all students with instruction that supports their deep conceptual understanding of mathematical content.