The Impact of Add+VantageMR Professional Development: A study on teacher implementation following professional development

Abstract

School districts in the United States spend a significant amount of human and financial resources on the design and facilitation of professional development experiences to impact teachers’ understanding of how students think about and learn mathematics. In turn, these professional development opportunities hopefully lead to changes in instructional practices positively impacting students’ feelings towards mathematics and their mathematics achievement. Empirical evidence to support components of effective professional development is mounting and has grown significantly in the past fifteen years (Desmoine, 2009). This study provides a lens into three teachers’ experiences implementing Math Recovery assessment and teaching practices after participating in Add+VantageMR® (AVMR) professional development. AVMR professional development focuses on student thinking, along with dynamic diagnostic assessment of students’ known strategies to inform teaching. Teaching is complex, therefore several areas of opportunity exist to apply learning from AVMR. This study utilized a case study approach (Yin, 2014) and examined three first grade classroom by analyzing a series of video-recorded mathematics lessons collected over four months. The study examined teachers’ planning for, enacting, and reflecting upon mathematics lessons in the area of early number and operations. Three rounds of coding were applied to provide valuable insights into the ways Math Recovery Guiding Principles of Classroom Teaching and Dimensions of Mathematizing manifested in each classroom. Findings from this study indicate teachers implement assessment and teaching practices promoted in Add+VantageMR® professional development when planning for, enacting and reflecting upon whole number mathematics lessons. Each participant’s journey implementing AVMR course ideas was different, and evidence of impact was identified regardless of years of experience and teachers’ participation in Course 1 or Course 2.