Equipping Instructors for Data-Driven Instructional Change

• In Event: Equity-Focused Mathematics Instruction: What We Can Learn From Classroom Observational Systems

Abstract

Mathematics educators are increasingly moved towards sociopolitical perspectives (Inglis & Foster, 2018), often towards the goal of humanizing mathematics (Gutiérrez, 2017). As Bensimon (2007) described, equity-minded instructors are cognizant of the effect of systemic racism on minoritized students, particularly Black and Latinx students. But how do teachers develop such a mindset? What tools can support them? Here we describe the Equitable Participation Tool (blinded) which can provide concrete data toward this end.

The Equitable Participation Tool is an observation tool that provides data to support instructors in becoming more equity-minded by illuminating patterns of inequity in students’ classroom participation. The tool focuses on verbal participation, as it is known to be consequential for student learning (Banes et al., 2019) and identity development (Nasir, 2002). As instructors build greater awareness of inequities, they can take concrete steps to teach more equitably (Authors, 2019). Additionally, drawing attention to classroom-based inequities is a first step to larger conversations about structural oppression.

The primary data sources used in this analysis were video recordings from classroom observations and a student survey to capture classroom demographics. The unit of analysis is a participation sequence, which is a chain of utterances between a student and instructor. Participation sequences are typically coded along several discourse dimensions to capture the nature of student verbal engagement in the classroom.

The data for this paper come from a larger study focusing on professional development in gateway mathematics for inquiry and equity at a community college in Southern California. Ms. Garcia, who had been teaching for eight years at the community college, agreed to participate in this study. Her College Algebra classroom was observed, virtually, four times during the Fall 2020 semester. Each class met for about an hour and 35 minutes.

There were a total of 423 participation sequences coded over four days of observing Ms. Garcia’s class. As seen in Figure 1, about 50% of all student contributions came from only five out of the 38 students. Of the five dominant students, three of them self-identified as women. While this may appear to counter deficit narratives about women in math (e.g., Leyva, 2017), most of the women minimally participated or were left out of the classroom discourse. In fact, the five students that did not participate during the observation period self-identified as women. Supplemental qualitative analyses are needed to further unpack these participation patterns.

The Equitable Participation Tool outputs quantitative data that capture a snapshot of student participation patterns. While many observational tools capture general discourse patterns or the presence of specified instructional practices within a lesson, the Equitable Participation Tool goes a step further by providing data that can be disaggregated by relevant social markers. When used in conjunction with qualitative analyses, this tool can highlight instances of inequity that can occur within the classroom environment. While the Equitable Participation Tool is not meant to evaluate instructional performance, it does provide actionable data that can support instructor’s professional development.

Authors

• Amelia Stone-Johnstone, California State University - Fullerton

• Daniel Reinholz, San Diego State University