Setting the Stage for Mathematics Success
Pathway Overview
This pathway is all about setting the stage for students’ success. By the end of this Pathway the goal is for you to be able to assess your current mathematics classrooms and the decisions that you make in order to determine needed changes to ensure that all students are provided with opportunities for success that build off their assets and build positive mathematics self-efficacy.
Throughout the pathway we will look at how we teach mathematics, including the decisions we make about how we approach our instruction and the impact that our decisions have on student learning. Then look at cognitive rigor and how we can get all of our students ready for success when presented with rigorous learning opportunities.
As part of our study we will engage in a careful and thoughtful examination of implicit bias in education and how these biases can affect students’ success in mathematics. Here we will see the connection between implicit bias, our decisions, creating an asset-based approach, and being ready for rigor and the need for these connections to set the stage for fostering success in mathematics.
Learning Objectives
Objective 1: Participants will be able to describe the connection between the decisions they make and the impact their decisions have on students’ learning.
Objective 2: Participants will examine how historic and current methods of mathematics instruction can often lead to minority and historically marginalized students internalizing deficit ideologies.
Objective 3: Participants will be able to explain the difference between deficit based and asset-based approaches to teaching and learning.
Objective 4: Participants will be able to create a learning space that prepares all students for cognitively rigorous mathematics work by making connections between rigor and culturally responsive teaching.
Objective 5: Participants will understand the impact that implicit bias has on students and be able to identify potential areas in their own classroom where implicit bias may influence a variety of decisions including discretionary decisions in micro-moments.
Impact on Classroom Practice and Student Learning
As a result of completing this pathway, participants will be able to assess their current mathematics classrooms and the decisions that they make to determine needed changes to ensure that all students are provided with opportunities for success that build on their assets and build positive mathematics self-efficacy.
