Fifth Faculty Seminars of Fall 2019-2020 Term

Abstract:

For the first years of schooling, students mostly deal with numbers and operations.  Their math experiences start to shape their learning processes related to numbers and operations. Lack of students' mathematical achievement in secondary schools can be rooted in early math experiences during elementary school years. Therefore, teaching numbers and operations in early years of schooling need to be improved through the development of learning trajectories composed of learning objectives, learning progressions/paths, and learning activities. With the utilization of the learning trajectories related to numbers and operations, students can better develop mathematical competencies in that specific area. Therefore, this study aims to develop number sense of first graders through developing a mathematics learning trajectory on "numbers and operations" through design-based research. The research process involved a preparation phase and two iterations of implementation phase. For the first iteration, two first-grade teachers with 23 students in each classroom are the participants of the study in the 2017-2018 school year. The second iteration includes two different first grade students with 18 students in each classroom from the same school in the 2018-2019 school year. The design team comprises three math educators, four research assistants as Ph.D. candidates, and two teachers for each iteration. In this talk, I will mention the structure of the design-based research and give specific examples for learning trajectories. Besides, I will mention the particular theoretical and practical outcomes of design-based research.