Understanding How Mathematics Teachers Take Up Instructional Nudges

• In Event: Innovations and Advances in Mathematics Instruction

Abstract

Purpose
Researchers have been exploring incremental professional development (PD) encouraging modest enhancements to teachers’ current practice (Authors, Year; Cortina & Višňovská, 2023; Litke, 2020; Star, 2016). The idea is to provide small suggestions teachers can quickly incorporate into instruction which we call instructional nudges. One goal of PD is to improve practice by having teachers incorporate what they learn from the PD into existing instruction. We refer to teachers’ incorporation of these practices as uptake. One purpose of our study is to understand which nudges had high-uptake and what factors impacted teachers’ uptake of a nudge.

Theoretical framework
In designing nudges, we drew upon practicality theory and its three potentially overlapping dimensions—instrumentality, congruence, and cost (Doyle & Ponder, 1977). We ensured each nudge had a clearly articulated teacher action (instrumentality), was aligned with a teacher’s current instructional context (congruence), and tried to ensure the expected benefit from implementing exceeded the effort it would take to enact it (cost) (Doyle & Ponder, 1977).

Methods
We implement an incremental PD with 47 Algebra teachers. We designed 18 nudges that varied regarding whether they were intended to impact curriculum materials or teachers’ actions. We collected video observations, student pre/post tests, student surveys, teacher surveys and teacher interviews. We provided the nudges to the teachers through a learning management system.

Evidence
We collected individual, semi-structured interviews of each teacher that were video recorded over Zoom. During the interview, each participant interacted with a heat map (Figure 1) and placed each nudge on the continuum with respect to their affinity (e.g., hate or love) and the number of times tried, asking them to think-aloud as they placed each nudge. We coded the interview data for each teacher individually regarding the factors they considered in whether they tried a nudge and factors that impacted implementation. We then searched for patterns across both sets of factors, shedding light on factors that impacted overall nudge uptake.

Results
Our preliminary findings indicate teachers heavily considered the amount of preparation necessary in deciding to take up nudges, which relates to the cost dimension of practicality theory (Doyle & Ponder, 1977). The nudges most often enacted were ones teachers could implement by asking students a question or changing the modality of the lesson. Teachers were less likely to implement nudges when they had to prepare materials or modify a task. Nudges that align with teachers’ goals and current practices seemed to have higher uptake, which relates to the congruence dimension (Doyle & Ponder, 1977). If teachers were not already implementing group work in their classrooms, they were less likely to try a nudge related to group work.

Scholarly Significance
If we want teachers to take up what is in a PD session, we need to understand teachers' perspective on what impacts uptake. Our findings provide important insights for the design and development of PD and suggest the need for further research into features impacting teachers’ uptake of incremental PD in their practice.

Authors

• Sarah Ann Roberts, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Royce Olarte, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Evelyn Margarita Vera-Flandez, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Hyeyeon Han, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Grace Rincon Garcia, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Vincent Robinson, University of California - Santa Barbara