2013 Conference Proceedings - University of Nevada, Las Vegas

expected to learn and the inquiry approach used to present them. The team developed an initialobservation protocol to pilot. The protocol, based on UDL guidelines (http://www.udlcenter.org/),was designed to enable the team to identify which components of the existing curricula addressthe needs of struggling students, including those receiving special education services.One mathematics education faculty member and one special education faculty member wereon each observation team. Student materials were provided to observers. There was somevariation in how the protocol was used during the observation. The mathematics education teammembers less familiar with the UDL framework did not take observation notes directly into thecells of the framework. Rather, these observers transferred their notes into the framework afterthe observation, with the intent of matching notes to cell descriptors.The second phase of the project started with team discussions about the outcomes ofobservations in the first phase. Team members noted that the UDL framework narrowed thefocus of the observations and were concerned that the pre-determined categories of the protocolcould limit what was recorded, and thus, potentially important aspects of the classroom eventsmight not emerge. Since this was a new collaboration, and one across areas of scholarship, it wasimportant that the focus not be restricted prematurely. The revised observation plan and protocolwas semi-structured, allowing researchers to develop a broader understanding of the classroomsbefore targeting particular aspects of the mathematics classes related to how teachers use theexisting curricula to meet the needs of struggling students.The classroom observations during phase two were of two types. Early in the school year,classrooms were observed holistically using the revised protocol that enabled the researchers tostudy interventions enacted through the interactions among materials, teachers, and learners(Slovin, 2010). Three two-consecutive-day observation cycles were conducted in the first twomonths of the school year. Observing on two consecutive days enabled team members to followstudents’ development of a topic over time better than observing once a week. Grounded theory(Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss, A., & Corbin, J., 1998) was used to analyze the data, lookingfor emerging themes that indicated affordances at a whole-group level. The second type ofobservation was conducted in the spring semester and involved several case studies on theapplication of identified instructional strategies to individual struggling students.The third phase of the project was based on the outcomes of the first two phases.Recommendations to the existing curricula to support mathematics learning and teaching withProceedings of the 40 th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning 2013 200