Papers and Presentations
As the project continues, we will post papers and presentations here.
New Article for Teachers!
Teaching secondary mathematics lessons for joy and wonder
Published in the Mathematics Teaching (MT) Journal. Written by Kayla Scheitlin, Meghan Riling, and Leslie Dietiker. Read for free: https://www.atm.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Journals/MT288/05.pdf
NCTM Teacher Conference Presentation
We shared Mathematical Story Lesson Design at NCTM 2023 in Washington DC!
Dr. Leslie Dietiker shared strategies for designing advanced mathematics content in ways that spark curiosity, builds suspense, and encourages engagement with mathematical ideas. Time: 8am on Friday October 27, 2023. Over 50 people attended! If you joined us that day, thank you very much!
Here are the slides: 2023 NCTM DC Teacher Lesson Design slides
Article on the Effects of Mathematical Stories is Published in JER
The article "The Aesthetic Effects of a New Lesson Design Approach: Mathematical Stories" is being published in Journal of Educational Research. This mixed methods approach reports on the ways that MCLEs (Mathematically Captivating Learning Experiences, designed with the mathematical story framework) are experienced by students - as well as how those experiences differ from the ways the same students experienced non-MCLE lessons in the same class. This is being published via open-access, so it will be posted here when available. Come back soon!
Article on Characteristics of Interesting Math Lessons is Published!
We are excited to announce that the article "Narrative characteristics of captivating secondary mathematics lessons" has been published in the journal Educational Studies of Mathematics. You can access and read this article for free at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-022-10184-y or as a PDF here https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10649-022-10184-y.pdf.
Mathematical Plot Coding Described in Presentation for Michigan State’s Colloquium
The coding process to analyze a mathematical story was presented by Dr. Dietiker in November, 2023. You can watch the presentation at https://prime.natsci.msu.edu/community/math-ed-colloquium/.
New Understanding of Relevance from Students’ Perspectives
Aamina Adil, Kihoon Luke Lee, and Leslie Dietiker shared a new analysis of the student interview data:
When mathematics educators work towards making mathematics more relevant, they often think about including more real-world applications into mathematics lessons. But what happens when a lesson is devoid of real-world contexts? In what ways can students find it relevant? This study explores how high school students perceived relevance when they were asked to describe their experience during decontextualized mathematics lessons. Students highlighted how they found certain characteristics of the lessons to be useful in their learning and how they perceived relevance through different feelings experienced in the lessons. This, in turn, broadens our perspective of what relevance means to students.
This paper was presented in Nashville, TN at PME-NA 44 in November, 2022. Read more at the link below.
Impact of Teacher and Students on Written Mathematical Stories
To better understand how written curriculum shifts as it is enacted, Amanda Huffman, Leslie Dietiker, and Andrew Richman explored the similarities and differences between the mathematical plots of an enacted lesson with clear student and teacher contributions. This paper was presented in Nashville, TN at PME-NA 44 in November, 2022. Read more at the link below.
Learn about MCLE Planning
Erin Barno and Leslie Dietiker presented an analysis of teacher co-design sessions for how the group collectively generated aesthetic designs of lessons. This paper was presented in Nashville, TN at PME-NA 44 in November, 2022. Read more at the link below.
PME-NA 43 – “That’s Crazy”: An Exploration of Student Exclamations in High School Mathematics Lessons
Brief research report by Sarina Simon, Rashmi Singh, and Leslie Dietiker
In this study, we explore the relationships between the types of student exclamations in an enacted lesson (e.g., “Wow!”) and the varying dramatic tensions created by the unfolding content. By analyzing student exclamations in six specially-designed high school mathematics lessons, we explore how the dynamic tension between revelations of mathematical ideas at the moment and what is yet to be known connects with the aesthetic pull to react by the student. As students work through novel problems with limited information, their joys and frustrations are expressed in the form of exclamations.
PME-NA 43 – Impact of Lesson Design on Mathematical Questions
Brief research report by Rashmi Singh, Hector I. Nieves, Erin Barno, and Leslie Dietiker
How does the design of lessons impact the types of questions teachers and students ask during enacted high school mathematics lessons? In this study, we present data suggesting that lessons designed with the mathematical story framework in order to elicit a specific aesthetic response (“MCLEs”) have a positive influence on the types of teacher and student questions asked during the lesson. Our findings suggest that when teachers plan and enact lessons with the mathematical story framework, teachers and students are more likely to ask questions that explore mathematical relationships and focus on meaning making. In addition, teachers are less likely to ask short recall or procedural questions in MCLEs. These findings point to the role of lesson design in the quality of questions asked by teachers and students.