(Vanderbuilt University, USA)

Creating Systems for Improving the Quality of Mathematics Teaching and Learning on a Large Scale

Research on the teaching and learning of mathematics has made significant progress in recent years.  However, this work has had only limited impact on classroom instruction in many countries including the US.  I report on an investigation in which we collaborated with mathematics teachers, school leaders, and the leaders in several large urban school systems for eight years to investigate what it takes to support improvements in the quality of instruction and thus students’ learning on a large scale.  Our findings from this work take the form of an empirically-grounded theory of action (ToA) for instructional improvement at scale that spans from the classroom to system instructional leadership and encompasses: curriculum materials and assessments; pull-out teacher professional development; school-based teacher collaborative meetings; coaches’ practices in providing job-embedded support teachers’ learning; school leaders’ practices as instructional leaders in mathematics; and system leaders’ practices in supporting the development of school-level capacity for instructional improvement.  In outlining the various facets of the ToA, I will also outline a series of a smaller, embedded studies that we conducted to investigate specific conjectures about supporting school leaders’ and coaches’ development of more effective instructional leadership practices.