Understanding the Role of Rehearsals in Mathematics Language Routine Studio

• In Event: Innovations and Advances in Mathematics Instruction

Abstract

Objective
Mathematics Studio is a practice-based professional learning (PL) model that offers a predictable cycle of activity that is highly adaptable, including the use of rehearsals. In our instance, rehearsals served as an approximation of teaching during Studio to support decomposing complex practices (Grossman et al., 2009), here, mathematics language routines (MLRs, Zwiers et al., 2017), before a Studio lesson, to support both Studio teachers and non-Studio teachers, to make sense of MLRs and how they are enacted in a classroom. This poster examines teacher learning opportunities within these rehearsals. Our research question was: How did middle and high school teachers use approximations of practice around MLRs to decompose and refine their practice during mathematics Studio?

Perspective
Grossman et al.’s (2009) foundational work advocated for pedagogies of enactment in teacher education and additional studies provide insights approximations of teaching (Author, 2023; Lampert & Graziani, 2009; Kazemi, et al., 2018). Our work focuses on approximations of teaching as learning opportunities, because they reduce teaching complexity to support teachers’ learning practice responsive to students’ reasoning and participation. Approximations of practice are opportunities to enact practice, such as rehearsing a mathematics routine with adults who serve as the learners and know the routine’s sequence of activities (Author, 2023; Campbell & Baldinger, 2022). Approximations provide teachers the chance to open up their instruction to colleagues, with all teachers able to learn from practice (Kazemi et al., 2018).

Method & Data Sources
Using data collected from two cycles of Studio during the 2024-25 school year with 13 teacher participants, we qualitatively analyzed video data and transcripts. Using a priori coding (Saldaña, 2021), we first identified instances of rehearsals during the Studio. For each Studio cycle, we then coded for Grossman et al.’s (2009) three components of a representation of practice: representation, decomposition, and approximation. We then used open-coding to code the approximations more specifically, examining the pre-briefs and debriefs, to understand how participating teachers decomposed and refined their practice during mathematics Studio.

Results
Teachers used approximations of practice to decompose and refine their practice around MLRs within mathematics Studio. Approximations allowed teachers to practice their routines and to get feedback from their peer teachers before using them with their students in Studio. For example, Mr. Lewis, through an approximation of practice prior to his lesson around the routine Compare and Connect, reconsidered revealing the problem to his students immediately because of his discussion with his peer teachers and decomposing his practice. Other teachers were similarly able to consider modifications to their own instruction by observing their peers conduct approximations or by engaging in approximations. Engaging in an interactive approximation in Studio gave teachers a chance to consider pedagogical moves they could engage with in their classrooms with less complexity and with support from their peers.

Scholarly Significance
There are currently very few studies that attend to approximations of practice with practicing teachers. This work provides an added dimension of focusing on both Studio and approximations to consider multilingual learners, both limitedly studied.

Authors

• Zandra de Araujo, University of Florida

• Amber Grace Candela, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Samuel Otten, University of Missouri