Education professors design frameworks to assist K-8 math teachers

Mathematics education professor Michelle Stephan and a group of Cato College of Education colleagues are among the architects of new instructional frameworks to guide math teachers in K-8 schools across North Carolina.

Recently, the State Board of Education approved revisions to the K-8 State Standards for Mathematics that will be introduced by teachers beginning fall 2018. In an effort to help implement these standards, teachers, higher educators, district leaders and other teacher leaders developed the instructional frameworks as part of the North Carolina Collaborative for Mathematics Learning.

The frameworks are designed to connect and sequence mathematical ideas to enable teachers to plan learning opportunities for students that promote a coherent understanding of mathematics.

“These frameworks are based upon research on learning progressions in mathematics and organize the standards at each grade level into clusters of related standards that can be integrated and taught effectively,” Stephan said.

Important considerations about how mathematics concepts connect and the progression of students’ thinking have been included.

Stephan, Luke Reinke, assistant professor in Reading and Elementary Education, and Drew Polly, professor in Reading and Elementary Education, worked as contributors to the project; Stephan was a co-principal investigator on the writing of the middle school instructional frameworks.

The project was completed during a six-month period in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction; the Tools for Teachers project; numerous classroom teachers, school-based and district leaders; and higher education faculty across the state.

Pacing guides are a historic tool used by North Carolina educators to make sense of implementing content standards, yet research has shown that teachers under time pressure often adapt instruction by dropping conceptual-based activities in favor of more teacher-directed activities. The instructional frameworks attend to both the complexities of teaching and research-based knowledge of students’ mathematical thinking to support teachers in making sense of the standards, guide instructional decisions, and attend to the needs of their students.

Regional meetings for district leaders are being held to work collaboratively on planning for implementation of the new standards. The meetings will provide an overview of the work, help teachers engage with the new instructional frameworks, share current implementation plans and provide opportunities for joint goal-setting and collaborative work time to consider implementation.