Dissertation Proposal Announcement Ph.D. in Education Program: Sarah Cartmell, “Pedagogical Lessons from an Informal Math Learning Study: A Longitudinal Case Study”

This longitudinal case study follows the pedagogical growth of a middle school mathematics teacher. Data collection spans twenty-one years including participation in a three year long program and follow up interview. The teacher intern participated in the Informal Mathematics Learning (IML) project, an NSF funded, district wide program occurring in an urban community. The IML environment provided conditions to support collaboration and student engagement with mathematical tasks. Two cohorts of students were recruited for IML. Sessions for Cohort 1 students were led by researchers while the teacher-interns observed. Sessions for Cohort 2 were facilitated by pairs of teacher-interns. Following those sessions, there were debriefing discussions led by a researcher (Maher & Powell, 2003). Analysis follows the teacher intern as they observe Cohort 1; facilitate sessions for Cohort 2; and interview sessions before, directly after, and years after participation.

Video data were collected including interviews with teacher interns, task facilitations for both cohorts of students, and debriefing sessions throughout the duration of the IML study (Maher et al., 2005). Video data from the first cohort have been reported on, with video data from the second cohort primarily remaining in its raw form in storage. This means there is a significant opportunity to evaluate the teacher learning experience that has not yet been done. While results indicate teacher participants were better able to identify and describe student reasoning (Francisco & Maher, 2011), there is no analysis of the learning process itself. This investigation aims to identify components of the informal environment that influenced the teacher’s reported pedagogical practices and were sustainable in classroom environments.

Using microgenetic methods to trace the learning of the teacher intern, this study aims to identify growth and obstacles in facilitating problem-solving conditions. Broadly, microgenetic methods emphasize studying participants as they learn (Siegler, 2006). Using the video data from IML, analysis follows the teacher intern as they learn to facilitate collaborative problem-solving in task sessions. Results can add to the knowledge of learning processes for in-service educators and the design of professional development supporting collaboration and rich problem solving in the classroom