Papers & Presentations

Below are some of our recent papers and presentations.

Papers:

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., Bailey, J., Foster, B., & Gates, M. (In progress). Teacher Habits of Mind and Student Achievement. This paper describes a case study of teachers and students of a large urban high school, focusing on the relationship between teacher knowledge and student achievement.

• Gates, M., Cordner, T., Kerins, B., Cuoco, A., Badertscher, E., & Burrill, G. (2016). Creating a Hybrid Immersive Mathematics Experience. Mathematics Teacher, 110(4), 288-297. This paper describes an online professional development project that used the paper and pencil assessment for pre- and post- measurements of teacher knowledge. The assessments were administered one year apart. Teachers showed growth on the assessment  in the area of focus of the professional development: using mathematical structure.

• Sword, S., Matsuura, R., Cuoco, A., Kang, J., & Gates, M. (2018). Leaning on Mathematical Habits of Mind. Mathematics Teacher, 111(4), 256–263. Two high school classroom situations illustrate how routinely promoting the two practices of experimenting and describing in increasingly precise language can support students’ modeling.

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., & Finkelstein, T. (2017). The Search for Hidden Structure. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 23(2), 90–97. Using excerpts from a 7th grade pre-algebra classroom, we describes ways in which teachers can support students in seeking and finding underlying mathematical structure.

• Askey, R., Matsuura, R., & Sword, S. (2015). The Inequality of Arithmetic and Geometric Means from Multiple Perspectives. Mathematics Teacher, 109(4), 314–318. This paper discusses the inequality of arithmetic and geometric means in three variables through multiple points of view: algebra, geometry, and calculus.

• Sword, S., Matsuura, R., Gates, M., Kang, J., Cuoco, A., & Stevens, G. (2015). Secondary Teachers’ Mathematical Habits of Mind: A Paper and Pencil Assessment. In C. Suurtamm (Ed.), Annual Perspectives in Mathematics Education: Assessment to Enhance Learning and Teaching (pp. 109–118). This chapter focuses on the paper and pencil assessment. We describe two assessment items to illustrate what we are measuring and how we are measuring it.

• Matsuura, R., & Sword, S. (2015). Illuminating coordinate geometry with algebraic symmetry. Mathematics Teacher, 108(6), 470-473. This paper describes how to use symmetric polynomials to prove that the medians of a triangle intersect at a single point. Our approach reveals underlying structure of this problem and sheds light on generalizing the concept to higher dimensions.

• Matsuura, R., & Xu, Y. (2014). Find the Distance: No Formula Necessary. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 19(9), 564–570. This paper describes an activity that involves finding the distance between two points in a coordinate plane. The activity emphasizes reasoning from repeated calculations, which is one of the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice.

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., Piecham, M., Stevens, G., & Cuoco, A. (2013). Mathematical habits of mind for teaching: Using language in algebra classrooms. The Mathematics Enthusiast, 10(3), 735–776. This paper focuses on the habit of using mathematical language. We examine how secondary teachers use this habit in their work, possible implications for student learning, and how the use of this habit relates to teachers' classroom use of other mathematical habits.

Presentation slides:

• Gates, G., & Sword, S. (2018, April). Secondary Teachers' Mathematical Habits of Mind. NCTM Research Conference. In this poster session, we shared ongoing work to develop a collection of instruments to assess secondary teachers' mathematical habits of mind.

• Badertscher, E., & Sword, S. (2018, April). Mathematics & Equity: Tackling the Hard Conversations. NCSM Annual Conference. In this presentation, we look at how growth on the paper and pencil assessment is related to students’ feelings about being class; in particular, students’ sense of teachers’ caring was strongly correlated with growth on pre and post scores of the paper and pencil assessment.

• Matsuura, M., Stevens, G., Sword, S., Gates, M., & Cuoco, A. (2017, January). Assessing Secondary Teachers’ Algebraic Habits of Mind. Joint Mathematics Meetings. In this presentation, we focused on the development of the paper and pencil assessment, sharing examples of problems and data from field tests. 

• Sword, S., Matsuura, R., Gates, M., Cuoco, A., & Stevens, G. (2016, June). Assessing Secondary Teachers' Mathematical Habits of Mind. DR K–12 PI Meeting. In this presentation, participants reviewed sample assessment items in small groups. We then shared validity and reliability data of the instrument. 

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., Gates, M., Cuoco, A., & Stevens, G. (2016, April). From the classroom to assessment and back again. NCSM Annual Conference. In this presentation, we described how classroom observations informed the development of the paper and pencil assessment. Participants discussed sample items, teacher response data, and how data can inform PD.

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., Gates, M., Cuoco, A., & Stevens, G. (2016, April). Assessing Secondary Teachers’ Mathematical Habits of Mind. NCTM Research Conference. In this presentation, we shared our ongoing work to develop the paper and pencil assessment. Participants worked through sample items, rubrics, and anonymous teacher responses. We also shared validity and reliability data.

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., Gates, M., Kang, J., Cuoco, A., & Stevens, G. (2015, April). Measuring Secondary Teachers’ Use of Standards for Mathematical Practice. NCSM Annual Conference. In this presentation, we described our paper and pencil assessment instrument. Participants engaged with items and rubrics from the assessment using anonymous teacher work.

• Sword, S., & Matsuura, R. (2014, August). Assessing Secondary Teachers’ Algebraic Habits of Mind. DR K–12 PI Meeting. In this presentation, we shared a video clip from an Algebra 1 classroom, which highlights a teacher providing opportunities for his students to develop/use MHoM. We also shared two items from our paper and pencil assessment.

• Matsuura, R., Sword, S., Cuoco, A., Stevens, G., Gates, M., & Kang, J. (2014, April). Assessing Secondary Teachers’ Mathematical Habits of Mind. NCSM Annual Conference. In this presentation, we shared our work developing research instruments to assess secondary teachers' MHoM. Participants worked with sample items from our paper and pencil assessment and with our observation protocol.

• Cuoco, A., Stevens, G., Gates, M., Piecham M., Matsuura, R., & Sword, S. (2013, June). Learning to Measure our Impact: Focus on Mathematics. MSPnet webinar. In this webinar session, we shared sample items from our paper and pencil assessment. We also shared our working definition of MHoM.

• Cuoco, A., Gates, M., Matsuura, R., Piecham, M., Stevens, G., & Sword, S. Assessing Secondary Teachers’ Algebraic Habits of Mind. (2013, April). NCTM Research Presession. In this presentation, participants worked on our paper and pencil assessment items designed to measure teachers' knowledge and classroom use of mathematical structure and language. We also discussed how classroom observations informed the development of assessment items.