Seven-Year Itch: Sustaining and Scaling a Cognitively Guided Instruction Initiative

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Equity at the Heart of Professional Growth: Strategies for Sustainability, and Culturally Responsive Practices (Table 24)

Abstract

Deficit thinking and implicit racial attitudes impact how teachers teach math. This quality improvement project explores the problem of practice of sustaining and scaling a large cognitively guided instruction (CGI) initiative within a low-income urban school district through a university-school district partnership to inform next steps. In this model, teacher-leaders facilitate and coach professional learning in mathematics for elementary and early childhood educators, using an asset-based approach with students and teachers. Drawing from Cobb et al.’s Theory of Action (2018) and Lave and Wenger’s Community of Practice (1991), learning is shown as shifts in participation at all levels of the system. The necessary elements for sustaining and scaling this reform initiative are highlighted, including elements of support, choice and relationships.

Author

• Elizabeth A. Ward, Vanderbilt University