Evidence of Teacher Change after Participating in TRIAD’s Learning Trajectories-based Professional Development and after Implementing Learning Trajectory-based Mathematics Instruction

Authors

  • Julie Sarama University of Denver
  • Douglas H Clements University of Denver
  • Mary Elaine Spitler

Keywords:

learning trajectories, in-service teacher growth, child as teacher, teacher as learner, teacher learning trajectory

Abstract

Increased attention has been given to learning trajectories (LT) as structural frameworks for educational instruction. The purpose of this study was to explore preschool teachers’ descriptions of self-change, seven years after the start of their participation in LT-based professional development and instruction. This study was part of a larger study to test the effects of a model for scaling up educational interventions also based on LT. We used grounded theory methodology to study teachers’ descriptions of self-change. The dominant change was teachers’ newly acquired awareness of the mathematical capabilities of preschoolers. Teachers’ ability to notice these capabilities was scaffolded by their knowledge and use of LT in implementing the mathematics curriculum, but change occurred as the teachers noticed, listened to, and elicited talk from the children. In brief, teachers learned from the children. Teachers appeared to be on their own trajectories of learning, as they began to build mental models of their children’s mathematical thinking. Together, these trajectories may provide a theory of teacher learning.

Author Biography

Douglas H Clements, University of Denver

Douglas H. Clements is the Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning, Executive Director of the Marsico Institute for Early Learning and Literacy, and Professor at the University of Denver. Previously a kindergarten teacher for five years and a preschool teacher for one year, he has conducted research and published widely in the areas of the learning and teaching of early mathematics and computer applications in mathematics education. His most recent interests are in creating, using, and evaluating a research-based curriculum and in taking successful curricula to scale using technologies and learning trajectories. He has published over 128 refereed research studies, 22 books, 86 chapters, and 300 additional publications. His latest books detail research-based learning trajectories in early mathematics education: Early childhood mathematics education research:  Learning trajectories for young children and a companion book, Learning and teaching early math: The learning trajectories approach (Routledge). Dr. Clements has directed over 35 funded projects. Currently, Dr. Clements is Principal Investigator on two large-scale research projects. The first, Longitudinal Study of a Successful Scaling Up Project: Extending TRIAD, follows students the original large-scale TRIAD project from pre-K to fifth grade. The second, Evaluating the Efficacy of Learning Trajectories in Early Mathematics, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to evaluate the specific benefits of using learning trajectories. The NSF has funded three recent research projects. Clements is PI on the first, Using Rule Space and Poset-based Adaptive Testing Methodologies to Identify Ability Patterns in Early Mathematics and Create a Comprehensive Mathematics Ability Test, which will develop a computer-adaptive assessment for early mathematics. Clements is co-PI on the second, Early Childhood Education in the Context of Mathematics, Science, and Literacy, developing an interdisciplinary preschool curriculum. The third, developing better ways of assessing and teaching geometric measurement, is Learning Trajectories to Support the Growth of Measurement Knowledge: Pre-K through Middle School. Another recent project, just funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation and the Gates Foundation, Scalable Professional Development in Early Mathematics: The Learning and Teaching with Learning Trajectories Tool, is updating and disseminate a professional development software application empirically supported in previous projects. Additional information can be found at  http://du.academia.edu/DouglasClements, http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Douglas_Clements/, and http://portfolio.du.edu/dclemen9

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Published

2017-12-12

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 3 (2017): SPECIAL ISSUE: EARLY CHILDHOOD MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

Section

Special Issue Article