Christine Qiu
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Amanda Brown
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Educational Studies / Education
Program:
Authors: Christine Qui, Soobin Jeon, Amanda Brown, Sophia Do
Session: Session 1: 9:00 am – 9:50 am
Poster: 23
Abstract
Mathematics is commonly considered a difficult subject for students. Part of the reason is that teaching mathematics itself is sometimes also considered a difficult task. This is a problem that the GRIP Lab, short for Grasping the Rationality of Instructional Practice, aims to tackle. In the project called Themat V, the GRIP Lab scripts StoryCircles, which models possible scenarios in high school math classrooms using cartoon characters in a comic-style storyboard, and presents them to actual high school mathematics teachers in Zoom meetings. Anotemos, and Lesson Depict are softwares that were developed to assist in this process as tools to leave comments on storyboards and to change what is depicted in the storyboards. Composing groups construct these scenarios, which are then presented to the commentary groups. To include a wider perspective and cultural views, participants are recruited from both across the United States of America and internationally such as from India, Bulgaria, South Africa, and the Philippines. The practitioners are encouraged to critique the cartoon teacher’s behavior and suggest alternatives or continuations. They are frequently asked to explain their way of thinking, or rationale. Their responses are collected by the GRIP Lab and analyzed. The goal is to find rationality behind each mathematic teacher’s decision based on their profession and not personality. It is hoped that the data collected could eventually be used to develop a model to improve mathematics teaching.
