The Epistemic Foundations of Mathematics Teachers' Data Use: What Do the Data Say?

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations of Data Use

Abstract

The authors investigate how mathematics teacher workgroups use student assessment data to inform instruction. Videotaped conversations of mathematics educators analyzing data, supplemented by interviews and artifacts, were collected as part of a four-year design-based research study in two large urban districts. We identify epistemic foundations that undergird educators’ data use, with consequential implications for student learning. Educators make epistemic assumptions about the ontological status of data (what data represent), which lead to different epistemic practices around how data are used. These practices lead to different designs for future instruction, which influence students’ learning opportunities. By identifying the ways in which educators make sense of data, the authors provide recommendations to inform educators’ professional learning opportunities.

Author

• Brette Garner, University of Denver