Professor awarded grant to research effective math teacher professional development
The project also investigates how research-practice partnerships can contribute to build capacity, support change towards more equitable outcomes.
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Professor Rossella Santagata was awarded a grant aimed at understanding how to design effective mathematics teacher professional development that is adaptive to local school contexts while examining how research-practice partnerships can contribute to build capacity and support positive change towards more equitable outcomes.
The three-year, $600,000 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation, “Reducing Inequalities in Opportunities to Learn Mathematics through Adaptive Teacher Professional Development” has two main goals: to understand how to design effective mathematics teacher professional development that is adaptive to local school contexts, drawing on Latinx children and community assets; and to examine how system level policies and practices can support or hinder improvement, and how research-practice partnerships might contribute to build capacity and support change towards more equitable outcomes. The grant will begin in July 2022. |
Professor Rossella Santagata
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"Studies of math instruction in schools serving low-income students of color have repeatedly documented the lack of opportunities for children to engage in rigorous mathematics as sense makers and problem solvers," Santagata said. "Math lessons are instead characterized by rote memorization, highly procedural teaching, overly controlling classroom interaction routines, deficit-based assessments, and content that is disconnected from children's home lives."
Scholarship on children’s development of mathematics understanding and on asset-based, culturally responsive mathematics teaching offers promising directions for reducing inequalities in Latinx students’ opportunities to learn, according to Santagata. "Research is needed to better understand how to design effective teacher professional development that is both informed by research evidence and adaptive to local school contexts," she said.
The project builds on a three-year research-practice partnership with the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), the UCI Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice, and a local school district. Initial seed funding and graduate student support was provided by the UCI Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN) initiative to launch this partnership.
"Research-practice partnerships and design-based implementation research are particularly suited to study this issue because they merge research and practitioner knowledge and expertise to examine problems in depth and from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, co-design solutions and build capacity for continuous improvement," Santagata said.
"I'm excited to join this partnership that Dr. Santagata has taken the time and care to cultivate," Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio, who is co-PI on the grant, said. "Developing adaptive, asset-based, and culturally responsive PD is a potentially powerful lever in improving math education and academic outcomes among Latinx students."
The project will be structured into three phases: understanding the problem, conjecture mapping, and systematic inquiry. The participants will be two elementary schools serving approximately 700, majority low-income, K-6 Latinx students and their teachers.
Scholarship on children’s development of mathematics understanding and on asset-based, culturally responsive mathematics teaching offers promising directions for reducing inequalities in Latinx students’ opportunities to learn, according to Santagata. "Research is needed to better understand how to design effective teacher professional development that is both informed by research evidence and adaptive to local school contexts," she said.
The project builds on a three-year research-practice partnership with the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), the UCI Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice, and a local school district. Initial seed funding and graduate student support was provided by the UCI Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN) initiative to launch this partnership.
"Research-practice partnerships and design-based implementation research are particularly suited to study this issue because they merge research and practitioner knowledge and expertise to examine problems in depth and from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, co-design solutions and build capacity for continuous improvement," Santagata said.
"I'm excited to join this partnership that Dr. Santagata has taken the time and care to cultivate," Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio, who is co-PI on the grant, said. "Developing adaptive, asset-based, and culturally responsive PD is a potentially powerful lever in improving math education and academic outcomes among Latinx students."
The project will be structured into three phases: understanding the problem, conjecture mapping, and systematic inquiry. The participants will be two elementary schools serving approximately 700, majority low-income, K-6 Latinx students and their teachers.
