Abstract
The purpose of the study was to uncover teachers’ emerging beliefs and perceptions about developmentally oriented instruction as they participated in professional development workshops and applied the strategies learned with students in after-school clubs. Twenty experienced, urban teachers volunteered to attend monthly workshops where they engaged in math games, simulations, and problem-solving activities based on the Common Core and modeled by college faculty. Teachers used the activities to offer 90-min weekly math clubs for sixth-and seventh-grade students at their schools. Twelve pre-service teachers enrolled in a college course on adolescent development acted as volunteers at the clubs. Data were collected through (a) questionnaires and rating scales, (b) informal group interviews, and (c) weekly electronic journals. Data collected revealed changes in teachers’ beliefs about and perceptions of effective instruction as they applied gamebased activities in the after-school club settings. Eighty percent of the teachers reported high levels of student engagement and greater sustained interest in problem-solving, and connected their observations to beliefs about game-based learning as an effective and age-appropriate instructional strategy. Pre-service teacher volunteers reported similar observations: The majority of club members were actively engaged in solving complex problems during game-like activities, particularly when volunteers used scaffolding strategies to support students’ participation.
Highlights
Middle school educators believe that young adolescents learn in ways that are developmentally different from older adolescents, and that the middle years are among the most significant periods of cognitive, socio-emotional, and biological growth (Association for Middle Level Education, 2012)
During the first year of Gear Up, the majority of teachers who participated in game-based learning at the professional development workshops believed that their own math knowledge and skills improved
They reported that the use of games and activities in their math clubs increased students’ understanding and enjoyment of math, as well as their ability to focus and stay engaged even when activities were hard for them
Summary
Middle school educators believe that young adolescents learn in ways that are developmentally different from older adolescents, and that the middle years are among the most significant periods of cognitive, socio-emotional, and biological growth (Association for Middle Level Education, 2012). For teachers of middle-grade students, understanding the importance of active learning strategies and knowing how and when to implement them is essential. We will describe middle-grade teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about effective, age-appropriate math instruction gathered across one year of professional development workshops. Each workshop actively engaged teachers in games, simulations, and problem-solving activities to “learn” the math concepts and skills from the sixth-and seventh-grade Common Core standards. Results from multiple data sources showed that professional development workshops, as described here, followed by implementation of strategies with students influenced teachers’ beliefs about effective instruction. They engage in planning, initiating, shifting, prioritizing, and sequencing to master the objectives of the game, often without realizing that these same executive skills are important to college and career readiness. In today’s world, educators believe that successful math-related careers require the executive skills that are practiced in games (Kaufman, 2010)
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