Professional Development Focused on Children

1
Professional Development Focused on Childrens
Algebraic Reasoning in Elementary School

• Research Article Discussion led by
• Gwenanne Salkind David Van Vleet

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Background

• Authors
• Jacobs, Franke, Carpenter, Levi, Battey
• Algebra
• Algebra is the gatekeeper
• Transition from arithmetic to algebra
• Algebraic reasoning
• Professional Development
• Little evidence of the effects of PD

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Purpose

• To investigate the effects of using algebraic
  reasoning as the centerpiece of professional
  development for teachers in Grades 1-5 in an
  urban, low-performing school district

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The Authors describe

• Their conceptualization of algebraic reasoning
• Their approach to professional development

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Relational Thinking

• Relational thinking represents a fundamental
  shift from an arithmetic focus (calculating
  answers) to an algebraic focus (examining
  relations) (p. 260).
• What do the authors mean by this?
• What is relational thinking?

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Relational Thinking

• Understanding the Equal Sign7 5 ? 6
• Using Number Relations to Simplify
  Calculations(9 x 57) 57 ?
• Generalizations0 b b

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Professional Development

• What was the researchers approach to
  professional development?
• What were the goals of the professional
  development?
• What were the researchers beliefs about
  effective professional development?
• What was the structure of the professional
  development?

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Professional Development

• Sustained, ongoing
• Connected to teachers work with their students
• Focused on student thinking
• Explored the mathematics
• Created classroom tools (index cards)
• Counter-storytelling
• On-site support

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Measures

• What measures did the researchers use to evaluate
  the professional development?

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Measures

• Student Measures
• Written mathematics tests
• Relational-thinking interviews
• Teacher Measures
• Survey of students experience with with
  algebraic-reasoning tasks
• Written mathematics tests
• Interviews to assess teachers knowledge of
  student thinking

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What were the findings?

• Teacher Measures
• Survey of students experience with
  algebraic-reasoning tasks
• Written mathematics tests
• Interviews to assess teachers knowledge of
  student thinking

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What were the findings?

• Student Measures
• Written mathematics tests
• Equality subtest
• Targeted-computation subtest
• Solving-equations subtest
• Generalizations subtest
• Relational-thinking interviews

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Findings

• What findings make sense to you?
• What findings surprised you?

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Reflections

• What does this study contribute to the research
  on teaching and learning mathematics?
• What ideas can you take from this study as you
  plan your own research?

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Reference
Jacobs, V. R., Franke, M. L., Carpenter, T. P.,
Levi, L., Battey, D. (2007). Professional
development focused on childrens algebraic
reasoning in elementary school. Journal for
Research in Mathematics Education, 38(3),
258-288.