Project Activities
The researchers will conduct three sequential studies using mixed methods. They will carry out cognitive interviews with students, design a set of candidate practice items that support the use of different models and emphasize real world context, deploy the newly designed practice items in partner schools to gather information on their intended use them for feedback, and complete an experiment using ASSISTments/E-TRIALS to investigate effects of the enhanced practice items on students' performance.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The research activities will take place in rural, suburban, and urban schools in Idaho.
Sample
The sample will include approximately 60 grade 6 students in study 1, 3000 in study 2, and 2100 in study 3. The research team will prioritize variation representative of statewide distributions of overall prior student mathematics achievement, curriculum use, geography, and socioeconomic profiles.
The factors of interest for this research are practice items for proportional reasoning that integrate an emphasis on real world context, use a variety of models (for example, tables, tape diagrams, double number lines, graphs, and equations), or both.
Research design and methods
In study 1, the research team will conduct cognitive interviews to identify ways to incorporate connections to real world contexts and different types of models for use in practice items that support procedural and conceptual knowledge of proportional reasoning. The findings from this study will be used to develop practice items that incorporate context and models. In study 2, the research team will deploy a set of candidate practice items using ASSISTments/E-TRIALS to evaluate the items' psychometric properties. They will use the results to refine the set of practice items for use in study 3. In study 3, the research team will use ASSISTments/E-TRIALS to conduct an experiment with four conditions (practice items with contextual features, model features, both, and a control condition) to investigate the effects of enhanced context and models on students' learning of proportional reasoning. In each condition, students will received randomly ordered items that address the ratio and proportion standards. Following the practice, students will complete assessments of their proportional reasoning knowledge.
Control condition
The control condition will consist of existing practice items within the ASSISTments platform.
Key measures
ASSISTments will automatically score student performance on practice items. Outcome measures include additional items within the digital learning platform aligned to the target standards and an external measure: the Grade 6 Smarter Balanced Interim Focused Block Assessment for Ratios and Proportional Relationships.
Data analytic strategy
In study 1, the research team will code students' responses during the cognitive interviews to understand students' strategy use. In study 2, they will use item response theory to yield estimates of item difficulty, including potential differential item functioning by student groups. In study 3, they will use two-way analysis of variance to test hypothesized main and interaction effects of digital practice with enhanced contexts and/or models, with post hoc comparisons and descriptive analyses across demographic variables to triangulate findings.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
This project will result in preliminary evidence that will inform the design of practice items for learning about proportional reasoning. The project will also result in a final dataset to be shared, peer-reviewed publications and presentations, and additional dissemination products that reach education stakeholders such as practitioners and policymakers.
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Additional project information
This project is part of the Digital Learning Platforms to Enable Efficient Education Research Network (Digital Learning Platforms Network), which aims to leverage existing, widely used digital learning platforms for rigorous education research.
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Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
