TEACH MATH is a five-year longitudinal multi-site research project with the primary goal to study ways to support pre-service and early career teachers in developing the knowledge, beliefs, dispositions, and practices needed to effectively plan, adapt, and implement mathematics instruction in culturally, linguistically, and socio-economically diverse schools. The six Co-Principal Investigators first developed and refined a set of instructional modules for methods courses designed to help future elementary math teachers focus on teaching math for understanding, take advantage of their pupils’ cultural funds of knowledge, and create inclusive and equitable learning experiences. The faculty researchers have followed a subset of those former students into their first few years of teaching in order to better understand the impact and effectiveness of their preparation.
RISE serves as external evaluator for the TEACH MATH project. RISE also supports the TEACH MATH project through data management and analysis of the TEACH MATH methods course dataset. These data were collected from a pre- and post-course survey. Additional evaluation items were embedded in the post-course survey. In addition, RISE has conducted annual interviews with the Co-PIs, completed a content analysis of course surveys and syllabi, analyzed the project’s website accessibility and usage, and conducted a pre- and post-conference survey of participants who already had or intended to implement the modules in their methods courses.
Funding
National Science Foundation DRK-12 Program through Michigan State University