The Influence of Social Media on Lesson Preparation and Practices

• In Event: Studying Early Career Elementary Teachers’ Instruction at Scale: Factors Related to Planning and Teaching Mathematics

Abstract

Objective: This paper examines how ECTs’ engagement in social media shapes their enactment of ambitious mathematics instruction.

Perspective: Teachers’ formal and informal planning processes are influenced by social process as well as networks. (Author et al., 2016; Author et al., 2017a). Social media is frequently used by teachers for the purposes of teaching and procuring standards aligned resources (Opfer, Kaufman, & Thompson, 2016). In this study, we focus on Pinterest, a personalized social media platform, because it is one of the most frequently used virtual resource pools (VRPs) (Author et al., 2017b). The rich data from Pinterest can provide valuable insights into what teachers are thinking, how they change their practices, and who they learn from as they do so. In essence, the Pinterest community and those linked VRPs become the context in which teacher knowing and learning are situated, as well as the tool that teachers utilize on a daily basis for instruction.

Data and Methods: We collected Pinterest data in sampled districts during the 2016-2017 school year in which we believe there will be variation in the use of social media and virtual networks. Using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), we analyzed Pinterest pins for those teachers with Pinterest accounts in our model of changes in ECTs’ planning and enactment of ambitious mathematics instruction. We attended to how activity in Pinterest interacted with face-to-face interactions with colleagues. We illustrate this in Model 1 below:

[Model 1]

TEACH(time 2)js = β1Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching time 1js
+ β2Colleagues’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching time 1js
+ β3Colleagues’ Mathematics Instructional Practices (norms) time 1-2 js
+ β4Cognitive Cognitive Process Demand of Material Accessed on Pinterest js
+ β5Colleagues’ Mathematics Instructional Practices (norms) time 1-2 js
x Cognitive Process Demand of Material Accessed on Pinterest js
+ β6TEACH(time 1)js + ’z js + qs +  js (1)

In this model, the outcome variable is measured by a math-specific observational instrument. β4 would be positive if the cognitive process demand of materials accessed on Pinterest translated into ambitious instruction, and β5 would be positive if the effect of materials accessed on Pinterest depended on whether it was reinforced by collegial norms. Thus, the model measures the impact of virtual resources and provides a glimpse into the virtual worlds of teachers and its interaction with face-to-face experiences that affect teaching.

Findings: Preliminary results with simple model on 27 teachers show that virtual resource quality has a statistically significant effect on ambitious instruction, controlling for prior behavior, activity type, and district effects. Specifically, as ECTs increase in the median quality of instructional resources accessed online, their ability to support students in making sense of mathematical concepts, as observed within the classroom, decreases.

Significance: This study demonstrates a relevant social mechanism influencing teachers’ lesson planning and teaching practices. Findings will contribute to a general absence of understanding on teachers’ practice outside of formal school settings and the role of teachers’ physical and virtual networks.

Authors

• Sihua Hu, Northwestern University

• Kaitlin T Torphy, Michigan State University

• Yuqing Liu, Michigan State University