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Principal Investigator: Beth Herbel-Eisenmann
Graduate Students: Lorraine Males, Sam Otten
Funding: National Science Foundation
The objectives of the proposed project are to examine: the nature of mathematical
discourse in middle school mathematics classrooms; the ways in which middle school
mathematics teacherís beliefs impact the discourse when working to enact reform-oriented
instruction; and how this information can be used to incorporate practitioner research using
concepts and tools of discourse analysis to improve mathematics instruction.
The significance of this work comes in understanding how classroom discourse can affect
the learning environment and engage students in learning mathematics in the ways proposed by
the Standards. The focus of those documents has been to promote conceptual understanding and
sense making instead of the procedural emphasis that often takes precedence in more traditional
mathematics teaching. The Standards vision can only be achieved if some of the discourse
patterns in current mathematics instruction are changed from a transmission model of
communication to one that supports inquiry.
The research plan is to conduct six to nine case studies of the discourse in middle school
mathematics classrooms. These case studies will highlight classroom discourse patterns -the
form, function, and meaning. In addition, we will capture the process of teachers engaging in
practitioner research projects in which they choose an aspect of their discourse to change and
study the affects of that change on the classroom learning environment. The project will also
examine how the combination of tools and concepts from discourse analysis and practitioner
research projects affect teacher beliefs. Having teachers choose their focus of inquiry helps them
invest and own the research process and enables them to understand, change and test out new
ideas. It also allows them to gather evidence that can potentially change their beliefs.
The educational goal of this project is to design a long-term professional development
program that will continue beyond this funding with other cohorts of teachers. The research case
studies and other data will be used to write case studies for both undergraduate methods courses
and to be used as part of a long-term professional development program. In addition, these cases
will be made available to other teacher educators. The university-researchers and teacher-
researchers will collaboratively develop the courses and workshops that comprise the professional
development program.
The work I propose moves beyond current work and offers a different approach to
professional development (i.e., practitioner research) and different theoretical perspectives (i.e.,
tools and concepts of discourse analysis) for improving mathematics teaching and learning. The
proposed work will focus on teachers who would like to examine their instructional practice (or
ìenacted beliefsî) at a fine-grained level. The research and educational activities proposed make
use of current advances in the study of and development of mathematics teaching and teachers. In
addition, these activities offer a new perspective to be brought to the mathematics classroomó
that of discourse tools and concepts as a mechanism of inquiry.
As discussed above, the intellectual merits of the proposed work lie in its ability to: a)
offer insight into changes in teacher beliefs and classroom practices, b) provide frameworks and
methodologies for studying classroom discourse, and c) uncover ways of helping teachers focus
more centrally on the role of mathematics in classroom discourse. The broader impacts include:
a) graduate students and teacher researchers will do research in a collaborative environment,
disseminate findings to broad audiences, and be involved in planning the professional
development program and coursework; b) case studies will be written and made available to other
mathematics teacher educators; c) a long-term professional development program will continue
with other cohorts of mathematics teachers; and d) similar case studies and activities will be used
in undergraduate methods courses.
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