Math for All is an intensive professional learning program that helps teachers of grades K–5 personalize high-quality, standards-based mathematics education to better meet the needs of a wide range of learners, including those with disabilities. Math for All was developed by Education Development Center in collaboration with Bank Street College of Education and with funding from the National Science Foundation. A research grant from the Institute of Education Sciences allowed us to establish Math for All’s promise for positively impacting teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and classroom practices, and students’ performance on mathematics achievement tests. Currently, funding from the U. S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research Program is supporting our research on the broad-scale implementation of Math for All in a variety of settings and with diverse high-need populations across three different states.
Unlike other mathematics professional learning programs that focus on mathematics content or teaching strategies, Math for All focuses on helping teachers better understand how individual students learn mathematics and supporting teachers in using this understanding to plan more accessible mathematics lessons. This video illustrates the core features of Math for All that are designed to help teachers do this. These include (1) using a neurodevelopmental framework to help teachers better understand the demands of mathematical activities and individual students’ learning profiles, and (2) asking teachers to plan adaptations to mathematics lesson by focusing on one student (a “focal child”) whom they have questions about regarding mathematics. Interviews with Math for All teachers and facilitators illustrate how these strategies have led to critical changes in teachers' beliefs and classroom practices, as well as improved mathematics outcomes, not just for the focal student, but for many students.
Mathematics, PD Models, Broadening Participation
EDC
Department of Education (ED)
Related Content for Math for All: Understanding How Diverse Students Learn
Discussion from the 2022 STEM For All Video Showcase (27 posts)
Andrea Brothman
Co-Presenter Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
May 9, 2022 | 03:48 p.m.
INTRODUCTION
The Math for All team wants to hear your thoughts and questions as they relate to making elementary mathematics accessible to all learners and supporting teachers in doing that. We'll be exploring this together, from various angles, throughout the week. We'll be sharing a few topics in advance to get your wheels turning.
Join as many conversations that interest you as we learn together. Thank you in advance for your questions, comments!
Andrea Brothman
Co-Presenter Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
May 9, 2022 | 03:54 p.m.
TUESDAY May 10, 2022
Let's kick of the first discussion about your wonderings.
What did the video make you think about? What did you notice? What questions do you have for the students and teachers you heard from? What insights did you gain?
Myriam Steinback
Facilitator Consultant
May 10, 2022 | 01:07 p.m.
Thank you for sharing your work! This video is both enlightening and sweet - hearing the students' voices illustrates the effectiveness of your program: their apprehensions, their delight in math, their self-confidence. The teachers feel empowered to help their students learn. I wonder about the neuro-developmental lenses that you focus on - would you say more about that? In the video, you point to a focus student - is that a student the teacher is focusing on in a particular day? How is s/he assessing their engagement?
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Andrea Brothman
Co-Presenter Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
May 10, 2022 | 01:43 p.m.
Hi Miriam. Thanks for your comments and questions!
The neurodevelopmental framework isa key component of our professional development and the organizing structure through which we deepen our understanding of learning and learners. Participants take a deep dive into one lens at a each workshop; they watch video case-studies of children engaged in math tasks, consider the cognitive demands of the tasks they see, and discuss adaptations that could have supported the child. They then analyze the cognitive demands of math lesson they plan teach and design adaptations to meet the needs of a focal student they select - a child they are curious to learn more about. They go through this Lesson Adaptation Cycle 5 times over the course of two years, each year refining their ability to articulate the demands of the task and design adaptations with a focal student in mind. They assess the impact of the adaptations through careful observation of the student at work and reflection on how the child navigated the task.
We too appreciate hearing those student voices!
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Myriam Steinback
Myriam Steinback
Facilitator Consultant
May 10, 2022 | 05:46 p.m.
Thank you for elaborating, Andrea. The fact that they go through that cycle 5 times is wonderful. That, together with enactment and observation, will teach them so much about the child, their thinking and understanding, and about whether their design is what they want it to be.
David Kung
Facilitator Director of Policy
May 10, 2022 | 11:07 p.m.
"I would love if there were more punk and spark in our math classes."
What a wonderful quote!
I'm curious how you see this work as related to the now-classical CGI work done at Wisconsin back in the 80's and 90's.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Babette Moeller
Lead Presenter Distinguished Scholar
May 11, 2022 | 06:59 a.m.
Thanks for your comment and question, David! Math for All's approach to professional learning is similar to cognitively-guided instruction (CGI) in that we are focusing teachers on figuring out who their students are as learners and helping them to use that knowledge to guide instruction. Like CGI, Math for All does not prescribe specific instructional strategies, but rather supports teachers in using their professional judgement in making decisions about how to adapt instruction to meet individual students' strengths, challenges, and interests. However, the neurodevelopmental framework of learning that is core to Math for All and which teachers use to understand individual students' learning profiles, is broader than CGI's focus on mathematical thinking. In addition to cognition, the neurodevelopmental framework also focuses on social and emotional aspects of learning which can exert an important influence on children's performance in the mathematics classroom.
Howard Spode
Higher Ed Faculty
May 10, 2022 | 11:33 p.m.
I don't recall needing, or getting, personalized help when I was studying math (in the last millennium). But I can see that for many students personalized attention would be the difference between success and failure. I loved the comment in the film when the student said the because his teacher believed in him, he began to believe in himself. Teachers are so very important!
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Andrea Brothman
Co-Presenter Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
May 11, 2022 | 09:08 a.m.
Absolutely agree. Knowing there is someone who is working both with and for you is powerful for the student - and the teacher as well!
Howard Spode
Higher Ed Faculty
May 10, 2022 | 11:33 p.m.
I don't recall needing, or getting, personalized help when I was studying math (in the last millennium). But I can see that for many students personalized attention would be the difference between success and failure. I loved the comment in the film when the student said the because his teacher believed in him, he began to believe in himself. Teachers are so very important!
Noelani Ogasawara Morris
Facilitator Demonstration Teacher
May 11, 2022 | 12:19 a.m.
Math identity plays such a huge role in the confidence that students have when engaging in mathematics. Hearing the voices of the students and understanding what they need and want is so valuable in supporting student growth. Is this PD a program that you bring to schools as part of your PD structure where teachers are supported to work together, almost like a lesson study, to understand the needs of specific focal students? As a practitioner of CGI, I am also curious like David, how this connects and is related to CGI?
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Andrea Brothman
Co-Presenter Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
May 11, 2022 | 11:13 a.m.
Thanks for you comments and questions. Yes, one's understanding oneself as a math learner has tremendous impact! And yes, Math for All is a professional development program that we bring to schools.
Math for All's approach to professional learning is similar to cognitively-guided instruction (CGI) in that we are focusing teachers on figuring out who their students are as learners and helping them to use that knowledge to guide instruction. Like CGI, Math for All does not prescribe specific instructional strategies, but rather supports teachers in using their professional judgement in making decisions about how to adapt instruction to meet individual students' strengths, challenges, and interests. However, the neurodevelopmental framework of learning that is core to Math for All and which teachers use to understand individual students' learning profiles, is broader than CGI's focus on mathematical thinking. In addition to cognition, the neurodevelopmental framework also focuses on social and emotional aspects of learning which can exert an important influence on children's performance in the mathematics classroom.
Noelani Ogasawara Morris
Facilitator Demonstration Teacher
May 11, 2022 | 12:58 p.m.
Thank you for your reply! I look forward to digging deeper into your PD to see how this might support the neurodiverse learners in our community. Do you provide parent support and education as well? I find that with CGI, many parents sometimes feel uncomfortable with the broad ways that children display their thinking that is so different from the ways they were taught.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Nesta Marshall
Co-Presenter Instructor-Advisor-Co-program director
May 11, 2022 | 05:36 p.m.
Yes, it is of great import that parents are included as collaborators or co-constructors in our work with their children. We certainly would like to support parents in this effort. To this end, providing workshops for parents is in our "things to do" bucket!
Nesta Marshall
Co-Presenter Instructor-Advisor-Co-program director
May 11, 2022 | 02:58 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022
Something to consider:
Students show up to our classrooms with strengths or assets. There are also challenges that they possess. How do YOU identify your students' strengths and challenges?
Our Math for All team is eager to hear your thoughts. Please share them with us.
One of the components of Math for All that I love is the emphasis on students’ strengths and assets, and that this is explicit and infused throughout the materials and the lesson adaptation process. It’s so important to help students recognize their strengths as mathematicians and also to help them learn to self-advocate—which are closely related to their identities as mathematicians (the links are to blogs we’ve written on those topics, in case that's of interest; we also have blogs on other topics, as well as a sign-up to receive our newsletter).
We’d love to learn from you and hear your thoughts (or more of your thoughts!) related to helping students understand their strengths and advocate for themselves.
What’s something you do, or can think of doing, to help students recognize and own their strengths as mathematicians? What are ways to empower students to speak up for themselves and tell us what they need as mathematics learners?
Karen Rothschild
Higher Ed Faculty
May 13, 2022 | 08:19 a.m.
Good morning from Math for All
A major goal of ours is for teachers to adapt the lessons in their math programs with their particular students' strengths and challenges in mind. We ask teachers to learn to make changes in lesson tasks that leverage students' strengths and remove challenges without changing the mathematical goals of the lesson. In order to do that, teachers must feel competent and empowered to go off script from their books in order to serve students. How can we help teachers feel that empowered? How can administrators help?
Gavin Creaden
K-12 Administrator
May 13, 2022 | 11:58 a.m.
From an Equity perspective, EVERY child deserves the opportunity to live "Punk and Spark" within their math learning experiences!
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Karen Rothschild
Higher Ed Faculty
May 13, 2022 | 12:57 p.m.
We couldn't agree more! Adaptations can provide Punk and Spark" as well as access to serious goals for more students. What do you do for Punk and Spark in your classrooms?
Matt McLeod
Co-Presenter Project Director
May 14, 2022 | 08:25 a.m.
Good Morning! Welcome to day 5!
A big component of Math for All, and we believe a crucial aspect of mathematics instruction, is to DO the task or lesson before asking students to do it. This allows for a true(r) understanding of what we call the demands of the task - what are we asking the students to know and do in the task or lesson. So, here's a problem for you to try:
A long time ago, in a made-up land, a leader held a competition. The challenge was to travel a road with a basket of apples. This road had 3 toll bridges. At each bridge, the price to cross the bridge is 1/2 of the apples in the basket plus one more apple. The winner would have exactly 7 apples in their basket after crossing the final bridge. How many apples should be in the basket at the beginning of the trip?
This problem is rich with opportunity for exploration, especially in algebraic thinking. While I tried to solve this problem, I had to do many things, some of which might not be labeled "mathematical". I had to read and understand the context and the question. I had to remember a lot of important details. I had to write. I had to organize my work so I could look back and understand it. I sought patterns among the numbers I tried, so I could work backwards from the end result.
As you worked the problem, what did you need to do and know to answer the question?
The goal in Math for All, as Karen stated, is to adapt the materials without undermining the mathematical goals of the lesson. So, given the list of demands this problem presents, how would you adapt the problem to provide access to a student who has challenges with these demands?
I loved hearing the students' voices and their candid responses to your questions and prompts. Listening to students' perspectives can shed so much light on our classroom practices. I hadn't heard of your program before watching this video so am interested in learning more. Thank you for sharing.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Babette Moeller
Lead Presenter Distinguished Scholar
May 15, 2022 | 08:17 a.m.
Thank you for your comments, Leanne! Listening to students' voices and understanding the whole child when making instructional decisions for teaching mathematics is a key principle in Math for All. You can find more information about our program on the Math for All website, and please reach out if you have additional questions. I greatly enjoyed seeing your video too. Incorporating students' voices in the design of mathematics assessment tasks is such important work!
Babette Moeller
Lead Presenter Distinguished Scholar
May 15, 2022 | 08:20 a.m.
For some educators, “differentiated instruction” conjures up visions of having to create different lessons for every student in their classroom. This can feel like an overwhelming task. Math for All makes differentiating instruction more manageable by equipping teachers with tools to plan and implement adaptations to math lessons to meet the needs of one or more focal students (i.e., students whom they have questions about regarding mathematics). These adaptations tend to improve instruction for many students.
If you are a teacher, have you tried the focal child approach? How did it work for you, the focal student, and other students in your classroom?
If you are an administrator, how can you support teachers in adopting a focal student approach?
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Latrenda Knighten
Latrenda Knighten
Mathematics Content Trainer
May 16, 2022 | 12:05 a.m.
This video was so refreshing to watch! I thoroughly enjoyed watching the students voice their thoughts about learning mathematics and successfully articulate what they need/want to make math meaningful. This project sounds like a wonderful way to promote student identity and agency in mathematics.
Thanks for your work with students.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Babette Moeller
Babette Moeller
Lead Presenter Distinguished Scholar
May 16, 2022 | 06:37 a.m.
Thank you, Latrenda!
Our work focuses on helping teachers to listen to students' voices and to better understand how they can support individual students to help them be successful in mathematics. Empowering students to self-advocate is an important aspect of this work. It not only benefits the students, it also helps their teachers.
1
Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available
Found helpful:
Latrenda Knighten
Teresa Duncan
Co-Presenter Director of Research
May 16, 2022 | 07:38 a.m.
Hello all! I am Teresa Duncan, co-PI and Director of Research for the Math for All project. Ask me anything about our research design! Some items that might pique your interest:
We are measuring impact at the student level (mathematics achievement at grades 4 and 5) and at the teacher level (beliefs, dispositions, and self-reported instructional practices).
Data sources are teacher surveys, teacher instructional logs, and facilitator interviews. We are also conducting a cost analysis.
We had to pivot to a quasi-experimental design from a randomized controlled trial because of the pandemic – there are pros and cons to both designs.
Our design involves delivering the MFA PD either in grades K-2 or 3-5. The grade band at the school that is not receiving the PD serves as the comparison group. This approach has helped with recruitment and is an efficient use of our resources.
I’m happy to provide more details and/or answer any questions you might have about the project evaluation!
Babette Moeller
Lead Presenter Distinguished Scholar
May 17, 2022 | 07:36 a.m.
Key features of Math for All's approach to professional learning are:
Introducing teachers to a neurodevelopmental framework to better understand student learning
Fostering the collaboration between general education, special education, and bilingual education teachers
Engaging teachers in a process of collaborative lesson planning to strengthen their ability to adapt mathematics lessons based on individual students' learning profiles and without undermining the rigor of the mathematics
Focusing teachers' lesson planning on one focal student at the margin, rather than on average students
Our research and feedback from teachers suggest that Math for All's approach is effective in impacting teachers' beliefs and classroom practices.
How does our approach compare to the professional learning that you may have experienced or are leading? What elements of professional learning have you found to be effective for supporting teachers in making high quality mathematics accessible to all students?
Andrea Brothman
Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
INTRODUCTION
The Math for All team wants to hear your thoughts and questions as they relate to making elementary mathematics accessible to all learners and supporting teachers in doing that. We'll be exploring this together, from various angles, throughout the week. We'll be sharing a few topics in advance to get your wheels turning.
Join as many conversations that interest you as we learn together. Thank you in advance for your questions, comments!
Andrea Brothman
Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
TUESDAY May 10, 2022
Let's kick of the first discussion about your wonderings.
What did the video make you think about? What did you notice? What questions do you have for the students and teachers you heard from? What insights did you gain?
Myriam Steinback
Consultant
Thank you for sharing your work! This video is both enlightening and sweet - hearing the students' voices illustrates the effectiveness of your program: their apprehensions, their delight in math, their self-confidence. The teachers feel empowered to help their students learn. I wonder about the neuro-developmental lenses that you focus on - would you say more about that? In the video, you point to a focus student - is that a student the teacher is focusing on in a particular day? How is s/he assessing their engagement?
Babette Moeller
Andrea Brothman
Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
Hi Miriam. Thanks for your comments and questions!
The neurodevelopmental framework isa key component of our professional development and the organizing structure through which we deepen our understanding of learning and learners. Participants take a deep dive into one lens at a each workshop; they watch video case-studies of children engaged in math tasks, consider the cognitive demands of the tasks they see, and discuss adaptations that could have supported the child. They then analyze the cognitive demands of math lesson they plan teach and design adaptations to meet the needs of a focal student they select - a child they are curious to learn more about. They go through this Lesson Adaptation Cycle 5 times over the course of two years, each year refining their ability to articulate the demands of the task and design adaptations with a focal student in mind. They assess the impact of the adaptations through careful observation of the student at work and reflection on how the child navigated the task.
We too appreciate hearing those student voices!
Myriam Steinback
Myriam Steinback
Consultant
Thank you for elaborating, Andrea. The fact that they go through that cycle 5 times is wonderful. That, together with enactment and observation, will teach them so much about the child, their thinking and understanding, and about whether their design is what they want it to be.
David Kung
Director of Policy
"I would love if there were more punk and spark in our math classes."
What a wonderful quote!
I'm curious how you see this work as related to the now-classical CGI work done at Wisconsin back in the 80's and 90's.
Babette Moeller
Babette Moeller
Distinguished Scholar
Thanks for your comment and question, David! Math for All's approach to professional learning is similar to cognitively-guided instruction (CGI) in that we are focusing teachers on figuring out who their students are as learners and helping them to use that knowledge to guide instruction. Like CGI, Math for All does not prescribe specific instructional strategies, but rather supports teachers in using their professional judgement in making decisions about how to adapt instruction to meet individual students' strengths, challenges, and interests. However, the neurodevelopmental framework of learning that is core to Math for All and which teachers use to understand individual students' learning profiles, is broader than CGI's focus on mathematical thinking. In addition to cognition, the neurodevelopmental framework also focuses on social and emotional aspects of learning which can exert an important influence on children's performance in the mathematics classroom.
Howard Spode
I don't recall needing, or getting, personalized help when I was studying math (in the last millennium). But I can see that for many students personalized attention would be the difference between success and failure. I loved the comment in the film when the student said the because his teacher believed in him, he began to believe in himself. Teachers are so very important!
Babette Moeller
Andrea Brothman
Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
Absolutely agree. Knowing there is someone who is working both with and for you is powerful for the student - and the teacher as well!
Howard Spode
I don't recall needing, or getting, personalized help when I was studying math (in the last millennium). But I can see that for many students personalized attention would be the difference between success and failure. I loved the comment in the film when the student said the because his teacher believed in him, he began to believe in himself. Teachers are so very important!
Noelani Ogasawara Morris
Demonstration Teacher
Math identity plays such a huge role in the confidence that students have when engaging in mathematics. Hearing the voices of the students and understanding what they need and want is so valuable in supporting student growth. Is this PD a program that you bring to schools as part of your PD structure where teachers are supported to work together, almost like a lesson study, to understand the needs of specific focal students? As a practitioner of CGI, I am also curious like David, how this connects and is related to CGI?
Babette Moeller
Andrea Brothman
Senior Curriculum and Instructional Design Associate
Thanks for you comments and questions. Yes, one's understanding oneself as a math learner has tremendous impact! And yes, Math for All is a professional development program that we bring to schools.
Math for All's approach to professional learning is similar to cognitively-guided instruction (CGI) in that we are focusing teachers on figuring out who their students are as learners and helping them to use that knowledge to guide instruction. Like CGI, Math for All does not prescribe specific instructional strategies, but rather supports teachers in using their professional judgement in making decisions about how to adapt instruction to meet individual students' strengths, challenges, and interests. However, the neurodevelopmental framework of learning that is core to Math for All and which teachers use to understand individual students' learning profiles, is broader than CGI's focus on mathematical thinking. In addition to cognition, the neurodevelopmental framework also focuses on social and emotional aspects of learning which can exert an important influence on children's performance in the mathematics classroom.
Noelani Ogasawara Morris
Demonstration Teacher
Thank you for your reply! I look forward to digging deeper into your PD to see how this might support the neurodiverse learners in our community. Do you provide parent support and education as well? I find that with CGI, many parents sometimes feel uncomfortable with the broad ways that children display their thinking that is so different from the ways they were taught.
Babette Moeller
Nesta Marshall
Instructor-Advisor-Co-program director
Yes, it is of great import that parents are included as collaborators or co-constructors in our work with their children. We certainly would like to support parents in this effort. To this end, providing workshops for parents is in our "things to do" bucket!
Nesta Marshall
Instructor-Advisor-Co-program director
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022
Something to consider:
Students show up to our classrooms with strengths or assets. There are also challenges that they possess. How do YOU identify your students' strengths and challenges?
Our Math for All team is eager to hear your thoughts. Please share them with us.
Peter Tierney-Fife
Senior Curriculum/Instructional Design Associate
One of the components of Math for All that I love is the emphasis on students’ strengths and assets, and that this is explicit and infused throughout the materials and the lesson adaptation process. It’s so important to help students recognize their strengths as mathematicians and also to help them learn to self-advocate—which are closely related to their identities as mathematicians (the links are to blogs we’ve written on those topics, in case that's of interest; we also have blogs on other topics, as well as a sign-up to receive our newsletter).
We’d love to learn from you and hear your thoughts (or more of your thoughts!) related to helping students understand their strengths and advocate for themselves.
What’s something you do, or can think of doing, to help students recognize and own their strengths as mathematicians? What are ways to empower students to speak up for themselves and tell us what they need as mathematics learners?
Karen Rothschild
Good morning from Math for All
A major goal of ours is for teachers to adapt the lessons in their math programs with their particular students' strengths and challenges in mind. We ask teachers to learn to make changes in lesson tasks that leverage students' strengths and remove challenges without changing the mathematical goals of the lesson. In order to do that, teachers must feel competent and empowered to go off script from their books in order to serve students. How can we help teachers feel that empowered? How can administrators help?
Gavin Creaden
From an Equity perspective, EVERY child deserves the opportunity to live "Punk and Spark" within their math learning experiences!
Babette Moeller
Karen Rothschild
We couldn't agree more! Adaptations can provide Punk and Spark" as well as access to serious goals for more students. What do you do for Punk and Spark in your classrooms?
Matt McLeod
Project Director
Good Morning! Welcome to day 5!
A big component of Math for All, and we believe a crucial aspect of mathematics instruction, is to DO the task or lesson before asking students to do it. This allows for a true(r) understanding of what we call the demands of the task - what are we asking the students to know and do in the task or lesson. So, here's a problem for you to try:
This problem is rich with opportunity for exploration, especially in algebraic thinking. While I tried to solve this problem, I had to do many things, some of which might not be labeled "mathematical". I had to read and understand the context and the question. I had to remember a lot of important details. I had to write. I had to organize my work so I could look back and understand it. I sought patterns among the numbers I tried, so I could work backwards from the end result.
As you worked the problem, what did you need to do and know to answer the question?
The goal in Math for All, as Karen stated, is to adapt the materials without undermining the mathematical goals of the lesson. So, given the list of demands this problem presents, how would you adapt the problem to provide access to a student who has challenges with these demands?
Leanne Ketterlin Geller
I loved hearing the students' voices and their candid responses to your questions and prompts. Listening to students' perspectives can shed so much light on our classroom practices. I hadn't heard of your program before watching this video so am interested in learning more. Thank you for sharing.
Babette Moeller
Babette Moeller
Distinguished Scholar
Thank you for your comments, Leanne! Listening to students' voices and understanding the whole child when making instructional decisions for teaching mathematics is a key principle in Math for All. You can find more information about our program on the Math for All website, and please reach out if you have additional questions. I greatly enjoyed seeing your video too. Incorporating students' voices in the design of mathematics assessment tasks is such important work!
Babette Moeller
Distinguished Scholar
For some educators, “differentiated instruction” conjures up visions of having to create different lessons for every student in their classroom. This can feel like an overwhelming task. Math for All makes differentiating instruction more manageable by equipping teachers with tools to plan and implement adaptations to math lessons to meet the needs of one or more focal students (i.e., students whom they have questions about regarding mathematics). These adaptations tend to improve instruction for many students.
If you are a teacher, have you tried the focal child approach? How did it work for you, the focal student, and other students in your classroom?
If you are an administrator, how can you support teachers in adopting a focal student approach?
Latrenda Knighten
Latrenda Knighten
This video was so refreshing to watch! I thoroughly enjoyed watching the students voice their thoughts about learning mathematics and successfully articulate what they need/want to make math meaningful. This project sounds like a wonderful way to promote student identity and agency in mathematics.
Thanks for your work with students.
Babette Moeller
Babette Moeller
Distinguished Scholar
Thank you, Latrenda!
Our work focuses on helping teachers to listen to students' voices and to better understand how they can support individual students to help them be successful in mathematics. Empowering students to self-advocate is an important aspect of this work. It not only benefits the students, it also helps their teachers.
Latrenda Knighten
Teresa Duncan
Director of Research
Hello all! I am Teresa Duncan, co-PI and Director of Research for the Math for All project. Ask me anything about our research design! Some items that might pique your interest:
I’m happy to provide more details and/or answer any questions you might have about the project evaluation!
Babette Moeller
Distinguished Scholar
Key features of Math for All's approach to professional learning are:
Our research and feedback from teachers suggest that Math for All's approach is effective in impacting teachers' beliefs and classroom practices.
How does our approach compare to the professional learning that you may have experienced or are leading? What elements of professional learning have you found to be effective for supporting teachers in making high quality mathematics accessible to all students?
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.