Teacher capacity to adopt and use student-centered instruction in secondary math classrooms

Abstract

Dispositions associated with math skills, including creative problem solving, analysis, reflection, and persistence, are valued in a variety of professional contexts (Durksen, Bobis, Anderson, Skilling and Martin, 2014, World Economic Forum, 2018). Math achievement on international math assessments show that U.S. students do not perform as well as many of their counterparts in industrialized countries and lack the ability to use or transfer their math learning (NCTM, 2018). One factor is a traditional approach to math instruction more often utilized by secondary math teachers than student-centered methods of math instruction. Changing the way math is taught has the potential to improve student learning outcomes in math. Achieving widespread change to the way mathematics is taught in middle and high schools will require the use of professional development to achieve changes in math teachers' behaviors and practices in the classroom. This instrumental case study was designed to explore and understand how and why teachers make choices about instructional methods and how those choices are impacted by a variety of factors related to teacher capacity to undertake change. The Theory of Margin and adult learning theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Literature from math achievement and methods of instruction in secondary math classrooms, student-centered instruction, resistance to changing instruction, and the role of professional development in changing classroom instructional methods in the context of adult learning informed the design of the study. The study revealed that leveraging teachers' experience, content expertise and collaborative relationships can support professional learning designed to address the process of changing instructional methods to improve math achievement. The study also revealed how circumstances associated with the COVID-19 pandemic impacted instructional change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)