Phase III Accomplishments

During the academic school year 2017-2018 we:

• Conducted our second whole classroom design experiment with a classroom teacher from the Teacher Study Group and her 19 seventh grade pre-algebra students. (August 2017-December 2017). The actual experiment was 26 days long. However, it included administration of three written assessments to all students in the participating class and students in a comparison class; initial interviews to identify focal students in the participating class and matched students from the comparison class; and follow-up interviews with 6 focal students, 6 matched comparison students, and the classroom teacher.
• Presented three research sessions at the annual conference of the North American chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Indianapolis, October, 2017):
• A paper about student’s meanings for extensive quantitative unknowns from Phase I data.
• A discussant paper for the plenary session on psychology in mathematics education’s past, present, and future.
• A poster about exploring differentiation with middle school teachers
• Presented about differentiating instruction at the Indiana Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference (Indianapolis, November 2017); two graduate student team members, Amy, and the participating classroom teacher from the first whole classroom design experiment shared ideas about the challenges and successes of differentiating during the experiment.
• Continued analysis of the first design experiment from Phase III.
• Continued retrospective analysis of Phase I data (three papers are in progress).
• Published a paper from Phase I! Hackenberg, A. J., Jones, R., Eker, A., & Creager, M. (2017). “Approximate” multiplicative relationships between quantitative unknowns. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 48, 38-61.

During the academic school year 2016-2017 we:

• Presented about differentiating instruction at the Indiana Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference (Indianapolis, October 2016); three study group teachers presented about how they understand differentiation and designed a differentiated mathematics lesson.
• Conducted a whole classroom design experiment with a classroom teacher from the Teacher Study Group and her 23 eighth grade pre-algebra students (December 2016-March 2017). The actual experiment was 27 days long. However, it included administration of three written assessments to all students in the participating class and students in two comparison classes; initial interviews to identify focal students in the participating class and matched students from comparison classes; and follow-up interviews with 6 focal students, 6 matched comparison students, and the classroom teacher.
• Started analysis of the whole classroom design experiment.
• Continued retrospective analysis of Phase I data.
• Revised and resubmitted a paper to a journal (April 2017); we are currently revising another paper to resubmit to a journal.
• We are also currently revising a 2016 conference paper to submit to a journal.

Phase I and II Accomplishments

During the academic school year 2015-2016 we:

• Presented a paper about students’ meanings of division at the International Congress of Mathematics Education (Hamburg, Germany, July 2016).
• Held a Teacher Study Group with 15 middle school math teachers from around the state of Indiana. We kicked off the group with a 3-day workshop in July 2015, met for eight 2-hour monthly meetings during the school year, and concluded with a 1-day workshop in June 2016.
• Presented about differentiating instruction at the Indiana Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference (Indianapolis, October 2015); two study group teachers joined us in this presentation.
• Presented a paper about differentiating instruction from experiment 1 in Phase I at the annual Research Conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (San Francisco, April 2016).
• Revised two papers from 2015 presentations to encompass all three experiments from Phase I and submitted them to journals.
• Continued retrospective analysis of Phase I data. This analysis included developing portraits of all 22 students who participated in Phase I.
• Consulted virtually with Advisory Board members during spring 2016 in preparation for Phase III.

During the academic school year 2014-2015 we:

• Conducted one 18-session after school design experiment with a group of 6 cognitively diverse middle school students.
• Made three local presentations from the project at the Regional Conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Indianapolis, October 2014), the Curriculum & Instruction Research and Creative Activity Symposium (Bloomington, February 2015), and the Indiana Mathematics Education Research Symposium (Indianapolis, March 2015).
• Presented three papers from the project at the American Educational Research Association conference in Chicago (April 2015).
• Consulted virtually with Advisory Board members during summer 2015.
• Continued retrospective analysis of Year 1 and Year 2 data.

During the academic school year 2013-2014 we:

• Conducted two, 18-session, after school design experiments, each with a group of 9 cognitively diverse middle school students.
• Made three presentations from the project at the Indiana Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Indianapolis, October 2013), the Curriculum & Instruction Research and Creative Activity Symposium (Bloomington, February 2014), and the Research Conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (New Orleans, April 2014).
• Held a face-to-face Advisory Board meeting in June 2014 in Bloomington.
• Engaged in initial retrospective analysis of Year 1 data.