Investigating Productive Use of High-Leverage Student Mathematical Thinking (Collaborative Research: Van Zoest)

The project will examine how secondary mathematics teachers respond to and use students' thinking during whole class discussion. An ongoing challenge for teachers is making the best use of students' emerging mathematical ideas during whole class discussion. Teachers need to draw on the ideas students have developed in order to create opportunities for learning about significant mathematical concepts. This study will create tasks specifically designed to generate opportunities for teachers to build on students' thinking and then use classroom observation and analysis of classroom video to develop tools to support teachers in leading whole class discussion.

The project focuses on the teaching practice of building on student thinking, a practice in which teachers engage students in making sense of their peers' mathematical ideas in ways that help the whole class move forward in their mathematical understanding. This study examines how teachers incorporate this practice into mathematics discussions in secondary classrooms by designing tasks that generate opportunities for teachers to build on students' thinking and by studying teachers' orchestration of whole class discussions around student responses to these tasks. The project engages teacher-researchers in exploring the building practice. The teacher-researchers will use the project-designed tasks in their classrooms and then engage in a cycle of analysis of their own teaching with the research team. Data collection and analysis will rely on video analysis of classrooms, teachers' reflections on task enactment, and data collected during research team meetings convened with teacher-researchers to analyze practice.