Sustainability: Longitudinal Effects of an Early Mathematics Intervention Based on Learning Trajectories on Teachers' Practices

• In Event: 58.026 - Longitudinal Evaluation of a Scale-Up Model: Critical Components and Effects on Persistence and Sustainability

Abstract

Objectives

Because research suggests that the most critical feature of a high-quality educational environment is a knowledgeable and responsive adult and that high-quality professional development is essential to innovation, scaling up professional development has special challenges in preschool contexts, including the diverse workforce, the equally diverse knowledge of teachers, and the low level of mathematics content and pedagogical content knowledge of most preschool teachers. We evaluated the long-term effects the TRIAD model on teachers' practices, as well as whether teachers' practices mediated the effects of the intervention on students' outcomes.

Methods and Data sources

As above, with additional fidelity observations and surveys 6 years after the end of the intervention.

Results

The TRIAD intervention positively affected teachers' practices, supporting the paths from "TRIAD PD" to "Knowledge of Practices" and to “Teachers’ Beliefs” in Figure 2. The intervention based on children’s learning trajectories provided a coherent program of teaching and learning, which may have promoted the significant levels of high-quality practice found in this study (Wilson, Mojica, & Confrey, 2013).\

Teachers also demonstrated sustained levels of fidelity as long as six years after the end of the intervention. Notable is these teachers' encouragement and support for discussions of mathematics and their use of formative assessment. This supports the "Classroom Instruction” through “Students’ Cognitions” to "Students’ Learning”" path in Figure 2.

The classroom culture subscore assesses teachers’ general approach to mathematics education, indicated by “environment and interaction” variables such as responsiveness to students, use of “teachable moments,” and environmental signs of mathematics, as well as “personal attributes of the teacher” variables, including appearing knowledgeable and confident about mathematics as well as showing enjoyment in, curiosity about, as and enthusiasm for, teaching mathematics. The mediation of classroom culture on math scores is consistent with the literature supporting the connection between academic performance and general features of the classroom (Clarke & Clarke, 2004; Clements & Sarama, 2007; Fraivillig, Murphy, & Fuson, 1999). TRIAD teachers demonstrated increases in the target practices measured within this subscale as compared to control.

Further, teachers taught the curriculum with increasing fidelity over the following six years, seemingly internalizing the program (Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, & Fung, 2007). This supports the hypothesized path from "Students’ Learning" to "Teachers’ Beliefs”" in Figure 2 (the red arrow indicates that a future paper will focus on this path extensively). Further examinations of teacher beliefs and the mechanism of change in relation to changes in practices requires is need to confirm this relationship.

Scientific Significance

A coherent model of professional development, curriculum, instruction, and assessment based on LTs may provide the conditions for promoting high-quality instruction as well as sustainability in such practices (Clements & Sarama, 2014). This may be particularly beneficial in addressing the climate of low expectations in urban schools (Johnson & Fargo, 2010), as teachers increase their understanding of the capacities of all students to learn mathematics.

Authors

• Julie Sarama, University of Denver

• Douglas H. Clements, University of Denver

• Christopher B. Wolfe, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Mary Elaine Spitler, State University of New York