12:57 p.m., Oct. 28, 2010----Tonya Gau Bartell, assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware, and faculty from five other institutions, have received a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a five-year research project aimed at improving preK-8 mathematics teaching and student learning in increasingly diverse public schools throughout the country.

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The Teachers Empowered to Enhance CHange in Mathematics (TEACH MATH) project is designed to increase a teacher's ability to teach math by guiding them to incorporate and build upon their students' socio-linguistic, cultural, and mathematical backgrounds in instruction.

"The population of students is changing and so is the nature of what it means to be a teacher in today's world," said Bartell. "The knowledge and skills that we have need to change with that."

Researchers have created instructional modules, which offer lessons and activities, teaching suggestions and research-based information to help prepare pre-service teachers before they enter a public school.

The research project will then follow pre-service teachers into the workforce and document the effectiveness of these modules. Researchers also hope to create an innovative model of structured support and mentoring for new teachers, while at the same time fostering teacher collaboration within schools.

Bartell says the inspiration for these instructional modules stems from the inequities that exist in education and also the need for teachers to focus on children's mathematical thinking.

"Right now, we don't educate all kids in our schools and there are a number of kids who are falling through the cracks," said Bartell. "While these tend to be minority students from high-poverty families, many of the elementary school teachers we see are still white, middle class females. With these modules, we're trying to reach all kids by seeing their communities as places full of knowledge and resources we can draw on."

The TEACH MATH project is a collaboration between University of Delaware, Iowa State University, University of Arizona, Queens College-The City University of New York (CUNY), University of Washington-Tacoma, and Washington State University Tri-Cities.

Researchers will begin piloting the instructional modules in mathematics methods courses for pre-service teachers in the spring.

"It's really about helping teachers connect with all of their students," said Bartell. "It's about recognizing the multiple funds of knowledge that kids bring to school and thinking about how we can build on those skills in such a way that they can be successful in math."

Article by Cassandra Kramer