Investigations Blog

In February 2021, amidst growing conversations about “learning loss” and “the covid slide,” we wrote a blog, “This Learning is Not Lost” which presented a different perspective. It introduced a series of blogs (1, 2, 3, 4), based on visits to virtual classrooms where: students were engaged by and working deeply on content students were sharing mathematical ideas and building on each other’s ideas teachers were working hard to facilitate lively and meaningful discussions and to support student...

It’s been a challenging year for teachers and students. They have been asked to pivot, sometimes from one week to the next, often with little warning, to new classroom structures and learning situations. In virtual settings or in classrooms with social distancing, teachers find that many of the moves they rely on—something as simple as kneeling next to a student to discuss their work—are not possible, and so they search for another way. At the same time, the headlines scream at them about...

Like many, we have been thinking hard about the complexities of remote instruction. One of the things we’re interested in is what the remote teaching and learning of mathematics looks like in different settings. Many people are asking this question, and developing their own answers to it. Below are several examples from practicing teachers and coaches, that provide images of what the work of math teaching and learning remotely can look like in the elementary grades. Janaki Nagarajan is a...

Many people are or will be teaching online, for some or all of their school day, at some point this year. Like everyone else, we have been thinking hard about remote instruction. How do we hold on to what we value in the teaching and learning of mathematics, in an online environment? What needs to shift? Below are blogs that we have found interesting and useful as we think through these and other questions. Recommendations & Strategies David Wees reviewed what the research on online...

As teachers and students start – or get ready to start – the school year, people have been thinking about what’s important to focus on after the chaos and challenges of the emergency remote teaching and learning of last spring. How can teachers and students enter the school year in a way that best supports students’ continued learning and their development of a strong sense of mathematical identity and agency? How can teachers best find out about their students’ thinking and...