Exploring Early Career Teachers' Use of Supplemental Materials in Mathematics Instruction

• In Event: Early Career Elementary Teachers' Efforts to Plan and Enact Ambitious Mathematics Instruction

Abstract

Objectives. Instructional expectations associated with NCTM reform documents and Common Core mathematics standards (CCSSI, 2010; NCTM, 2014; 2020) are leading teachers to seek materials outside of assigned curriculum. Learning to choose appropriate supplemental materials—resources outside the school’s comprehensive curriculum that support standards implementation (Matewos et al., 2019)—is particularly important for early career teachers (ECTs) who often lack the necessary mathematical knowledge for teaching and experience to assess whether curricular materials need supplementation or recognize rigorous high-quality supplemental materials.
Theoretical Framework. Teachers' decision making when planning for instruction is affected by their objectives for students' learning, content knowledge, and knowledge of students' learning needs (Stein et al., 1996). Recent scholarship shows that teachers' planning is shaped by numerous factors associated not only with their students and subject matter, but also the curricular expectations communicated by the institutions where they work (Remillard & Heck, 2014).
Gueudet and Trouche (2009) use the term documentational genesis to describe the process where teachers make meaning from instructional materials and generate an evolved curriculum, which can take the form of lesson plans, worksheets, or tasks as inscribed for students; this is a complex, nuanced curriculum as it is "designed for specific students at a particular moment in time" (Remillard & Heck, 2014, p. 711). This process takes place in the socialized environment of schools; thus, school-based teacher colleagues often play a role in documentational genesis. To explicate ECTs’ incorporation of supplemental materials, we examine aspects of documentational genesis—namely factors connected to their knowledge of students and understanding of subject matter and curriculum demands—as shaped by the institutional demands of their schools and districts and the teacher colleagues with whom they plan.
Methods. This longitudinal study relies on qualitative data collected from 137 ECTs between 2014 and 2017. Each teacher was observed teaching mathematics during two back-to-back lessons (i.e., over two days) in both the fall and spring (four lessons total) of the same school year. Between lessons, ECTs were interviewed about their planning and enactment of mathematics, and the research team obtained copies of their lesson plans and supplemental materials. We carried out an inductive approach to data analysis (Miles et al., 2020).
Results. Our analyses of interview data, written lessons plans, and supplemental materials provided evidence of documental genesis; namely ECTs provided several rationales for why they chose to supplement curricular materials. They reported consistently benefitting from accessing their colleagues’ expertise through formal settings. Senior teachers helped ECTs understand curriculum gaps and identify supplemental materials to address the gaps. At the same time, in some cases ECTs reduced rigor with regard to the intent of the original curricular materials.
Significance. This study helps explain ECTs’ documental genesis, namely how teachers planned with colleagues and made decisions to supplement curricular materials. This is of particular importance for school districts that adopt comprehensive curricula and focus on fidelity to implementation as compared to adaptation.

Authors

• Kristen Bieda, Michigan State University

• Serena Jean Salloum, Ball State University

• Ellie Clark, Ball State University