Abstract
In this chapter, we describe a methodology for conducting educational design research to support system-wide instructional improvement in mathematics and draw on one of the few design studies that does this as an illustrative case. Design studies conducted at the level of an educational system are interventionist in nature, and can address both the complexity of educational settings and the problems that educational system leaders, school leaders, and teachers encounter as they work to improve the quality of classroom instruction, school instructional leadership, and ultimately, students’ mathematics learning. This chapter describes the theoretical background for this approach, in which the issue of what it takes to support instructional improvement on a large scale is framed as an explicit focus of empirical investigation.
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Acknowledgments
The analysis reported in this article was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. ESI 0554535 and DRL 1119122. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. The empirical cases that we present in this article are based on research conducted in collaboration with Thomas Smith (co-PI), Dan Berebitsky, Glenn Colby, Annie Garrison, Lynsey Gibbons, Karin Katterfeld, Adrian Larbi-Cherif, Christine Larson, Chuck Munter, Brooks Rosenquist, Rebecca Schmidt, and Jonee Wilson.
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Henrick, E., Cobb, P., Jackson, K. (2015). Educational Design Research to Support System-Wide Instructional Improvement. In: Bikner-Ahsbahs, A., Knipping, C., Presmeg, N. (eds) Approaches to Qualitative Research in Mathematics Education. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9181-6_18
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