Leveraging professional learning and mathematics coaching to improve middle school students multiplicative reasoning skills
Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Over the past four years, Skyline Middle School (SMS) has implemented high-quality instructional materials and made numerous attempts to create a school-wide Response to Intervention (RtI) program to support students struggling with classroom mathematics instruction. Despite these efforts, students’ mathematics proficiency levels as measured by state standardized assessments continue to decline. In response to the declining proficiency levels in mathematics of students in grades 6-8 at SMS, the need to improve teachers’ teaching practices in mathematics classrooms is the focus of this Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP). The improvement goal of this ELP is to improve teacher practice around using questioning strategies and teachers’ knowledge of multiplicative reasoning for their use in number talks and then use number talks to improve students’ multiplicative reasoning skills. ☐ By improving teachers’ awareness of how multiplicative reasoning skills impact students’ understanding of mathematics and providing them with professional learning opportunities to strengthen their questioning strategies in the mathematics classroom, I sought to improve teachers’ teaching practices and then have them implement those changed practices during number talks that are implemented during RtI mathematics classes. To start to improve teachers’ awareness of how multiplicative reasoning skills impact students’ understanding of mathematics, I proposed the following three strategies: (a) implement a four-part PL program for mathematics teachers on multiplicative reasoning, effective questioning, and number talks, (b) develop curricular materials for four number talks that specifically focus on multiplication and multiplicative reasoning and then have the teachers implement those number talks during their RtI classes, and (c) provide coaching sessions for teachers after each number talk. ☐ Overall, improvements can be seen in the participant responses and teaching practices after participating in weekly targeted professional learning and individual coaching sessions. Findings show that more years of teaching experience does not necessarily impact teachers’ comfortability levels and competence with multiplicative reasoning, number talks, or posing purposeful questions. Further findings indicate that teachers can change their practice to positively impact student achievement with targeted PL, video analysis, ongoing coaching, and participants’ willingness to reflect on current teaching practices. I have found through this project that productive coaching is influenced by the teacher just as much as it is by the coach. The coach in this study responded to the needs of each teacher individually showing that there cannot be a one size fits all strategy to productive coaching. Having the participants actively engage in PL sessions each week that emphasized particular talk moves and types of questioning and watching the videos of their recorded number talks in tandem, likely led to these results. Watching the video recorded number talks highlighted for participants how often they asked gathering information questions and how quickly they asked for a response from students or provided one when one was not given quickly. This finding requires further research to identify the potential impact teachers’ responses could have on students’ mathematical understandings during whole group instruction.
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Keywords
Mathematics coaching, Middle school, Number talk, Professional learning