The Impact on Achievement of Teaching for Meaning among Middle School Mathematics Students

• In Event: Classroom Observation Across Grade Levels and Settings

Abstract

This proposal describes a study that attempts to answer the question of whether students taught by teachers who display higher levels of teaching for meaning than students taught by teachers displaying lowers levels of teaching for meaning perform as well or better on state mathematics tests. Observations, using a Teaching for Meaning Observation Form, of a purposive sample of 13 grades 7 and 8 middle school classrooms were used to explore the relationship between teaching for meaning and the growth of student mathematics performance from the spring of 2010 to the spring of 2011. Results of observations are reported, but analyses of student scores await student test results.

Authors

• Robert G. Smith, George Mason University

• Stephanie L. Knight, The Pennsylvania State University

• Venkata Subbaiah Patnam, George Mason University