Kevin Miller

American elementary mathematics classrooms have been characterized as having a low level of mathematical discourse and a dearth of opportunities for students to explain mathematics. International comparisons suggest there is a great deal of room for improvement in these dimensions and that student competence would likely be improved could we do so. The research team aims to develop effective methods to help teachers monitor and improve classroom discussion in mathematics.

A hallmark of expert teachers is their ability to monitor the complex, chaotic environment of a classroom and attend to key features relevant to assessing student understanding. This phenomenon, termed "situation awareness," is central to the performance of many complex activities. We know very little about how teachers manage their attention while teaching, and even less about how this ability develops. This project will develop basic models of situation awareness in teaching and use them t...