Understanding How Math Teachers Make Sense of Student Work for Instruction

• In Event: 31.079 - Teaching, Discourse, and Noticing in Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

This qualitative study uses Dervin’s (1999) theory of individual sense-making as a way to understand how teachers examine student work in mathematics and understand the data that the work provides. Preliminary results from this study found that teachers had a range of different ways to separate and categorize student work, and more often than not teachers had some difficulty articulating their reasoning behind some of the categorizations. It also finds that teachers look beyond student work to make sense of the student work.

Authors

• Cecile Huynh Sam, The University of Pennsylvania

• Caroline Brayer Ebby, University of Pennsylvania