Funded Projects

PLLI FY99 IERI Projects

PLLI is responsible for three IERI projects shown below. For further information on the implementation of these projects, contact the federal project officer, Joe_Teresa@ed.gov

Developing Measures of Instructional Improvement
Deborah L. Ball
University of Michigan
($4,105,152 - 48 months)

      This project will develop theoretical frameworks for the study of instructional improvement and instruments and analytic schemes based on those frameworks. The project will incorporate a large (150 schools and 20,000 students) longitudinal study (4 years) of instructional improvement in high-poverty elementary schools using theoretical models built along a design experiment utilizing leading whole school interventions (America's Choice, Community for Learning, and Success for All). The research study should yield designs that directly measure the important features of interventions, of the environments in which they are enacted, and of the instructional processes and practices that lead to improving student performance. Thus, the results of this project will move the field beyond the current "case study" approach to whole school reform by developing new research designs that directly measure selected activities within the instructional process.

      This project will study how prior knowledge and beliefs influence the development of effective pedagogy for mathematics teachers. The study will use extensive interviews to understand existing beliefs and will compare the observation of videos of effective teaching between experienced teachers and novices. Information regarding the attention that a viewer gives to scenes in the videos will be captured using eye-tracking technology. The research results can be used to define curricula that integrate content knowledge and pedagogy effectively in the preparation of teachers of elementary school mathematics.

The Early Development of Mathematical Cognition in Socioeconomic and Cultural Contexts
Prentice Starkey
University of California - Berkeley
($1,586,709 - 36 months)

      The project is a cross cultural study comparing the development of informal mathematical cognition in 3- to 6-year-old Chinese, Japanese, and American children, and how these cultures support children's early mathematical development in multiple learning environments. The cultural studies will include the home environment, the customs of child rearing and care, and the knowledge and belief systems of parents, teachers, and other caregivers. An expected outcome will be a mapping between the child's mathematical learning environments and the child's mathematical development. The ultimate goal is to identify pathways to success and pathways that place children at risk for failure in mathematics. This research will provide needed insights into a child's learning processes and the influence of their environments on their learning.

This page last modified February 16, 2000 (kdj)