Building Opportunities for Collaboration, Engagement and Belonging: Early Findings from a Digital Math Intervention (Poster 1)

• In Event: Harnessing Digital Strategies to Advance Middle-Grades Math Learning: Insights From a Researcher-Practitioner Partnership Collaboratory

Abstract

Objectives
This poster will present initial findings from a study of a middle-grades digital math intervention, Amplify Desmos Math, focused on collaboration and discourse in a large urban district, including evidence on how the intervention facilitates teacher strategies to build student engagement and belonging.

Theoretical framework
While math engagement and enjoyment are predictive of achievement (Barbieri & Miller-Cotto, 2021; Mulvey et al., 2022), Black and Brown students’ interest in and engagement with math declines significantly during the middle grades (Del Toro & Wang, 2023). Dominant pedagogical approaches emphasizing independent problem-solving and correctness can impede Black and Brown students’ engagement and belonging in math classrooms (Boaler, 2015, Radford, 2016). In contrast, strategies that support student agency to navigate mathematical concepts through problem-based activities and discourse strengthen engagement (Fredericks, et al., 2018; Liu, et al., 2017).

During the pandemic, educators in this large diverse urban district rapidly adopted a range of digital math supports. Many adopted tools supported asynchronous, individual use and provided individualized procedural support to students with minimal opportunities for social interaction or discourse. In contrast, Amplify Desmos Math is designed for synchronous, in-classroom use and provides structured opportunities for collaboration, math discourse, and elevating varied examples of student thinking. Professional learning and coaching within the intervention emphasize strategies to foster student agency in articulating foundational mathematical concepts. While research suggests that use of digital tools in math classes can support learning (Bray & Tangney, 2017), little is known about how digital interventions that center social interaction and discourse support belonging and engagement in math classrooms.

Data and Methods
We conducted 31 classroom observations, focus groups with 37 students, and interviews with 5 teachers in 4 case study schools serving majority Black and Brown students, selected from among 29 schools using Amplify Desmos Math for their relatively high usage and responsiveness to platform coaches. Observers recorded instances of teachers using digital intervention features; the content of classroom math discourse; and evidence of student engagement. We used the comparative case study approach (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2017) to develop profiles of each school.

Results
We observed moderate to high levels of student engagement with the class material and participation in math discourse. Teachers in case study schools used platform features to support collaboration and discourse (pausing lessons, anonymizing student names, and sharing student work via “snapshot” function) more frequently than teachers in other participating schools. Teachers attributed accelerated adoption of collaborative platform features to support from coaches. Teachers and students reported that sharing anonymized examples of student work supported engagement and students’ sense of belonging; students reported that seeing their own work and other students’ solutions using similar strategies displayed strengthened their math self-concept and enhanced their willingness to contribute to class discussions.

Significance
As schools accelerate their adoption of digital math supports, this research offers early evidence that digital interventions designed to facilitate collaboration and discourse can support math belonging and engagement among Black and Brown students and suggests that coaching supports can enhance teachers’ integration of digital collaborative tools.

Authors

• Sara McAlister, New York University

• Erika Abarca Millán, New York University

• Anna Poole, New York City Department of Education