Designing Instruction Based on Learning Progressions: Teachers' Use of Diagnostic Assessments to Support Struggling Students

• In Event: 35.049 - Teachers' Use of Learning Progressions for Formative Assessment: Implications for Professional Development and Further Research

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper, we describe a qualitative study to examine teachers’ use of diagnostic assessment results to design instruction for struggling students in mathematics. The content of the diagnostic assessment is based on a learning progression to support students’ algebra readiness.

Theoretical Framework
To support struggling students, teachers need accurate and timely performance data from which to make instructional decisions (Martinez, Stecher, & Borko, 2009). To be instructionally relevant, these data should align with theories of learning in the domain (Leighton & Gierl, 2007). In mathematics, these theories of learning are increasingly being articulated as learning progressions. Learning progressions convey students’ development of understanding with sufficient granularity to inform instructional practices (Gierl, Alves, & Majeau, 2010). Diagnostic assessments can be designed to align with learning progressions so as to communicate meaningful information about students’ location within the learning process as well as the misconceptions or errors that underlie students’ current understanding (Daro, Mosher, & Corcoran, 2011).
Although diagnostic assessment results that are aligned with learning progressions are intended to inform teachers’ instructional decision making, research is needed to understand how teachers use data generated from these assessment systems to support student learning. In this paper, we describe research conducted with middle school mathematics teachers who were implementing a diagnostic assessment system based on a learning progression to support students’ algebra readiness.

Methods
Case study methodology was used to better understand middle school mathematics teachers’ in situ interpretation of diagnostic assessment results to inform instruction. Prior to administering the diagnostic assessments, teachers participated in professional development designed to support their understanding of learning progressions and ability to decipher information on the diagnostic assessment reports. Comprehension surveys were administered to participants to verify their understanding of the professional development content. Next, teachers assigned, administered, and interpreted diagnostic assessments to students who were identified as struggling with algebra readiness content.

Data Sources
To understand how teachers interpreted and made decisions based on the results of the diagnostic assessments, the researchers conducted individual interviews with teachers, observed data team meetings, and examined teachers’ lesson planning materials. Findings from these data sources were triangulated to understand the variables that contribute to teachers’ decision-making based on the diagnostic assessment reports.

Results
The depth of teachers’ understanding of the learning progression, as well as their ability to translate the assessment results into actionable instructional approaches, contribute to teachers’ actions resulting from their interpretation of the diagnostic assessment results. Teachers’ understanding of instructional design principles emerge as a key indicator of the utility of the assessment results for designing instruction to support struggling students.

Significance
Because diagnostic assessments are intended to support teachers’ decision-making, understanding the variables that impact teachers’ use of the results allows us to improve the existing system, make recommendations for professional development, and contribute evidence about the consequences of implementing similar assessments.

Authors

• Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller, Southern Methodist University

• Pooja Shivraj, Southern Methodist University

• Deni L. Basaraba, Bethel School District 52