The impact of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy-based professional development on teachers' instructional practices.

摘要

This study analyzes the instructional practices of eight teachers across three school years at high schools (and one middle school) with high percentages of Black and/or Hispanic students and high percentages of low socioeconomic students. These eight teachers participated in a professional development project, known as Centering the Teaching of Mathematics on Urban Youth (CTMUY), meant to engage teachers in learning about culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy (CureMap, Rubel, 2012). The purpose of this dissertation is to understand what impact, if any, participation in CTMUY had on teachers' instructional practices in relation to CureMap.;This study is a mixed methods study, with quantitative methods used to highlight shifts in teachers' instructional practices and qualitative methods to further explain such shifts in practice. By analyzing Classroom Observation Instruments (COIs) and Activity Code sheets (ACS), this paper explored shifts in alignment with features of CureMap along all three of its dimensions: teaching for understanding, centering instruction on students, and being critical with and or about mathematics. Findings suggest that some dimensions of CureMap are easier for teachers to align their practices with than others. These results may indicate that some aspect of the professional development model, based in culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy (CureMap), assisted some teachers in shifting their practices in ways that align more closely with this pedagogical framework.