Page 120 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews
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Chapter 4
based standardized national Dutch mathematics tests given at the end of grade 3 (about 9 year old). These tests, designed to monitor math progress, are given twice a year (Janssen et al., 2005). Children at every mathematics level have educational needs. Therefore, the researchers randomly selected three low math achieving, three average math achieving and three high math achieving children per group to make sure all mathematics levels were represented. Teachers were asked to conduct dynamic math interviews with three children in their group during professional development and with six from the selected children during practice sessions. The sample was treated in accordance with institutional guidelines as well as APA ethical standards. Schools, parents, and children were informed about the procedures, duration and purpose of the research. They were also given the name of a contact in the event they had additional questions. Both schools and parents gave active, informed participation consent.
Design
To obtain a robust baseline, measurements of teacher factors were taken on three occasions -- the start and end of the first school year and the beginning of the second school year (T1, T2, T3). The fourth measurement was taken after the intervention period, at the end of the second school year (T4). The 2-year research project design is shown in Figure 1. In this quasi-experimental design, all teachers were followed in their school setting for two years and all teachers underwent the same procedure.
The effect of the dynamic math interview teacher professional development program was measured via a pretest-posttest design. The intervention consisted of the professional development program and a practice period where each participating teacher conducted dynamic math interviews with six children at different mathematics achievement levels. The effect was determined by comparing teacher factors regarding mathematics teaching before and after the intervention.
 




























































































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