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 teachers' 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.
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. University researchers and teacher researchers will collaboratively develop the courses and workshops that comprise the professional development program.
