Common Core State Standards For Mathematical Practice

The new Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice (CCSSMP) describe a set of important expertise that math educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students (CCSS, 2010). One of the eight CCSSMPs - MP3 asks students to “construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.” However, this particular standard poses challenges to classroom teachers on how to forester students’ argumentation skills as they are the main weaknesses of US students’ learning. Research show that in math classrooms, students experience difficulty when explaining and justifying their thinking (Arbaugh, Brown, Lynch, & McGraw, 2004). Research on teachers’ knowledge indicates that many of the difficulties students have in learning

According to Boaler (1999) and Walker (2012), in math classrooms, students are not learning alone, but instead as a math learning community (MLC) where they can share their own strategy with peers and give responses to their peers’ strategies. Research show that strategy sharing is a student centered discussion when students share their problem solving strategies and give explanations and reasoning during their presentations (Wood, Williams, & McNeal, 2006). Students can benefit from strategy sharing in two ways. First, students can learn how to listen to peer solutions. “Students have to listen and learn from each other as well as the teacher. That’s the only way for them to learn during the time spent solving problems in a group”(Cazden, 2001, p.89). From listening to their peers, students not only learn how to solve a problem using a correct strategy, but also learn how to think critically as to whether others’ ideas are correct or not. Second, students can develop their talking skills mathematically and socially through sharing mathematical ideas in public (Lampert, Rittenhouse, & Crumbaugh, 1996). Current research evidence also indicates that students who are given opportunities

Data will be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively at an ongoing basis and a report will be written in summer 2018. The graduates in EDME 503 in spring 2018 will engage in learning and analyzing their student MC activity data as their action research project. To answer research question 1, students’ MC worksheets will be analyzed using the MC rubrics developed by Wu, et al. (2009). The MC scores will be compared using the One-Way within Subjects ANOVA to identify the students’ progress in argumentations. Research question 2 will be answered by using One-Between-One-Within Subjects ANOVA to compare the difference in student learning outcomes in argumentations between various diverse groups. To answer research question 3, teachers’ knowledge in questionnaires and video lessons will be used. The graduates will be guided to analyze their peers’ video lessons using the moment-by-moment approach (Powell, et al., 2003) to identify how the teachers apply MC activities in their math instruction; teachers’ knowledge on learning and applying MC activities in their pre- and post-questionnaires will be compared using paired