What Does an Inclusive Mathematics Classroom Look Like?

Contributed by:

Jonathan James Mon, Jan 10, 2022 07:49 PM UTC

The highlights are:

1. What is included in the classroom?
2. Why it is important in mathematics?
3. What are the issues?
4. Mini Deep-Dive
5. Focus on Bias
6. What can u do?

1. What Does an Inclusive
Mathematics Classroom
Look Like?
Carmel Schettino, Ph.D.
TCM @NCSSM 2017

2. 1. About Me
2. What is inclusion in the classroom?
3. Why is it important in mathematics?
4. What are the issues?
5. Mini-Deep-Dive (a little self-promotion)
6. Focus on Bias
7. What can you do?

3. INCLUSION?
1. Age
2. Class 6. Race
3. Gender 7. Religion
4. Ethnicity 8. Ability
5. Sexual
Orientation
3

4. NCTM THEMES
Algebra for All
4

5. PROPOSED CHANGES
Commitment to access & equity includes
developing socially, emotionally, and
academically safe environments for
mathematics teaching and learning—
environments in which students feel secure
and confident in engaging with one another
and with teachers Principles to Actions, 2014
5

6. THE REALITY
High-rigor course access is
not a reality across all of our
nation's schools.
2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection
Report, US Department of Education,
Office for Civil Rights
6

7. 7

8. 1995
Claudie Solar - Inclusive Four Dialectical Aspects:
Mathematics Pedagogy
Silence vs. Speech
Not “Multiculturalism” in the Passivity vs. Active Participation
Classroom Powerlessness vs. Empowerment
Omission vs. Inclusion
Stemmed from other
consciousness-raising pedagogies
like radical, critical, feminist
8

9. WHY MATH?
“Often, inequalities in achievement are perceived as the result
of a hierarchy of competence. When the very students who
have been given more opportunities to learn show higher
achievement than students provided fewer opportunities to
learn, they are perceived as more capable or having more
aptitude. This manner of talking about achievement gaps
without mentioning opportunity gaps that cause them invites a
focus on deficit models to “explain” low performance in terms
of factors such as cultural differences, poverty, low levels of
parental education, and so on.”
NCTM Principles to Action; Access & Equity, 2014
9

10. WHY MATH?
Further, research shows:
21% classtime teachers talking to students – demo methods
48% classtime students practicing methods working individually
15% classtime teachers questioning class in whole class format (Boaler)
IRE is method of discourse most commonly found in math classrooms
10

11. PROPOSED
CHANGES
From Andrew Stadel, Ignite talk NCTM, 2016 11

12. UNPRODUCTIVE
BELIEFS
Math innate
Students’ Abilitylevels
is a of
function of opportunity,
ability cannot be changed experience
by instruction &
effort
Equity is the same as equality.
Equity is attained by students receiving differentiated
Equity is only an issue for schools with significant racial & ethnic
supports
diversity
Equity
ELLs needs
need to be in ato be addressed
separate “track” for in all school settings
math
ELLs can learn math at grade level or beyond at the
same time that they are learning English.
N C T M , P r i n c i p l e s t o A c t i o n , E s s e n t i a l : A c c e s s & E q u i t y , p . 6 3 12

13. UNPRODUCTIVE
BELIEFS
Effective mathlearning
Mathematics instruction
is independent
leverages students’
of students’
culture
culture & does not
need to be considered by the teacher
Effective teaching practices open up greater opportunities for higher-
order
Students
thinking
fromand
low-SES
raise achievement
lack the characteristics
for all students
to achieve
including low-
SES.
The practice of isolating low-achieving students in low-level or
Tracking promotes
slower-paced students’
groups shouldachievement
be eliminated.by allowing students to be
placed in groups to make greatest gains in learning
All students are capable of solving challenging mathematics
Only
problems.
high-achieving students can reason and persevere in solving
challenging math problems
N C T M , P r i n c i p l e s t o A c t i o n , E s s e n t i a l : A c c e s s & E q u i t y , p . 6 3 13

14. PROPOSED CHANGES
Establish mathematics goals to focus learning.
Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving.
Use and connect mathematical representations.
Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse.
Pose purposeful questions.
Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding.
Support productive struggle in learning mathematics.
Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.
NCTM, Principles to Actions, Mathematical Teaching Practices, 2014

15. STUDENT VOICE
http://www.matific.com/us/en-us/blog/2015/07/23/interactive-technology-fills-learning-gaps-in-an-intervention-math-
classroom/
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/blended-flipped-learning/10-pros-cons-flipped-
classroom/ 15

16. STUDENT VOICE
Student voice can be seen as the different ways in which
classroom communication in different media move a
student through growth in their educational process as
well as attending to the multiplicities of identities that
students construct as they move through the process of
belonging to a community of practice.
Taylor and Robinson, Schettino
16

17. PROBLEMS WITH STUDENT VOICE WORK
Student voice…may not currently have the practical or
theoretical tools…to explain, or to contend with, the
multifarious ways in which power relations work within
school…processes. As a consequence, it may find itself
implicated in reproducing, rather than unsettling or
transforming, the hegemonic-normative practices it
sought to contest. In addition, it may remain bound by
the presumption that…such dialogue is itself a
manifestation of a classed, gendered and ‘raced’ form of
cultural capital (2009, p.169).
Taylor & Robinson, (2009). Student voice: Theorising power and participation. Pedagogy,
Culture and Society, 17(2), 161 -175.

18. PROBLEMS WITH STUDENT VOICE WORK
The idea of “giving” students voice, especially when it
refers to students of color, only serves to reify the
dynamic of paternalism that renders Black and Brown
students voiceless until some salvific external force gifts
them with the privilege to speak. Rather than
acknowledge the systemic violences that attempt to
silence the rich voices, cultures, and histories that
students bring into classrooms, this orientation positions
students, and by extension, the communities of students,
as eternally in need of institutional sanctioning.
Jamila Lyiscott, Postdoctoral Fellow, Teachers College, Columbia University 18

19. BELONGING?
• Academics not their strength in general
• Math has never made sense
• It did before Algebra, sense of self worth declined
• Demoralized by a standardized test
• Negative messages from home
• “We’re not math people”
• Combatting stereotypes of math ability
Adapted from Blogpost by Ilana Horne, Ph.D.5/20/16 19

20. ON REFLECTION
Meaning-making process
Systematic, rigorous, disciplined way of
thinking
Needs to happen in community, interaction
with others
Requires attitudes that value personal and
intellectual growth of all
Rogers, C. (2002) Defining Reflection, Teachers College Record 20

21.

22. PRACTICES THAT
INHIBIT BELONGING
• Emphasizing competition
• Assuming there is “one kind of smartness”
• Devaluing their individuality
• Correcting the inconsequential
• Utilizing only one method of assessment
• Using Cold-Calling as a discipline strategy
S o m e f r o m h t t p s : / / t e a c h i n g m a t h c u l t u r e . w o r d p r e s s . c o m / 2 0 1 6 / 0 5 / 2 0 / w h o - b e l o n g s - i n - o u r - m a t h -
c l a s s r o o m s / 22

23. PRACTICES THAT
FOSTER BELONGING
• Focusing on student ideas & valuing all perspectives
• Describing mathematics with “dynamic subjectivity”
• Letting students create connections
• Helping students create their own mathematical
identity
• Authorship of Ideas/Solutions
• Sharing the Authority of Mathematics
23

24.

25. WHAT DO STUDENTS SAY?
…I’ve been given the opportunity to express myself…my
identity has changed as a person. I feel like this course
is kind of like that. I could be on the side where, I like to
solve it this way and someone else could be on the side
where they like to solve it that way, and the fact that we
both get to express our opinions and even if one of us is
wrong and one of us is right, or even if both of us is right.
It’s changed my identity and given me kind of like a voice
in math. Whereas I didn’t really have one before. It was
a silent voice.
25

26. IMPLICIT BIAS
1. “the portion of the mind that houses
hidden biases”
2. Gain awareness ->adapt behavior to
outsmart the “machine”
3. Treating people differently to the extent
that there are advantages and
disadvantages that they experience.
Blindspot, Banaji & Greenwald, 2014 26

27. WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW
Your brain operates on two different levels
Rational Intuitive
Deliberate Automatic
Thinking Slow Thinking Fast
Conscious Unconscious
Explicit Implicit
27

28.

29. IMAGES IN THE MEDIA
Google Image Search
“Teacher Yelling at Student”
“Teacher Angry at Student”
“Teacher disciplining student”
Images where anger is actually
shown – majority of images is
White adult and Student of Color
29

30. IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLICIT BIAS
FOR THE CLASSROOM
1. Explicit attitudes & implicit associations are only mildly correlated.
(Cameron 2012)
2. Measure of implicit racial bias can explain teacher, administrator or
parent perpetuate inequalities in even very diverse schools.
(Diamond & Lewis , 2015)
3. Teachers who are high in implicit bias are actually more able to have
successful interracial interactions than less biased peers, but only
when able and willing to devote cognitive resources to regulating
their behavior. (Mendes & Koslov, 2013)
30

31. WHY WORK TOWARDS THIS?
“Inclusive teaching adds to effective teaching - a framework for
understanding why teaching is effective, along with an
intentionality of producing more equitable outcomes for
students. A faculty member may teach effectively without
consciously considering inclusiveness, but by being more
intentional about the desired outcomes of learning and
designing every aspect of the learning to address students’
needs, they could help to create even better results.”
Darryl Yong, Ph.D.
31

32. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. Go to the Project Implicit website & take a test
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
2. Follow Darryl Yong & Ilana Horne: profteacher.com or
TeachingMathCulture.wordpress.com
3. Attend NAIS POCC http://pocc.nais.org/Pages/default.aspx
4. Attend White Privilege Conference
http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/
5. Attend a http://www.bordercrossers.org/ workshop about classroom
equity.
32

33. FOLLOW ME
BLOG
carmelschettino.org
TWITTER
@SchettinoPBL
FACEBOOK
Carmel Schettino, Ph.D.
SLIDESHARE
www.slideshare.net/carmelschettino
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PBL, TAKE MY COURSE AT THE ANJA S. GREER
CONFERENCE FOR MATH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AT EXETER, NH
JUNE 25-30, 2017 33

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