Funded by the National Science Foundation, DMC leaders are collaborating with University of Delaware School of Education researchers to support a new research project entitled Translating & Understanding Professional Learning project (TUPL). The three-year project will engage eighty teachers of mathematics in Grades 4-7.

The Principal Investigator for the TUPL project is University of Delaware Professor Dr. James Hiebert . Co-PIs for the project include UD School of Education researchers Dr. Erica Litke and Dr. Lynsey Gibbons and DMC project leaders Dr. Jamila Riser and Dr. Valerie Maxwell. Across the three years, participants will be engage in mathematically intense planning to teach and reflections conversations, analyze video with a focus on leveraging students’ learning opportunities, and elevate the role of claim making and student voice within the context of lessons from their high quality instructional materials. Video-based professional development has strong theoretical support, and evidence shows that teachers who are skilled at analyzing video of teaching often teach more effectively (Kersting et. al, 2010, 2012, 2015).

The TUPL project aims to answer two research questions:  (1) What are the relationships between teacher learning, classroom teaching, and student learning; how do hypothesized mediating variables affect these relationships; and, how do these relationships change as teachers become more competent at analyzing teaching? (2) How do teachers describe the obstacles and supports they believe affect their learning and teaching? By connecting teacher learning with teaching change with deeper student learning, examining the impact of mediating factors, and describing the effect of obstacles and supports experienced by teachers, this implementation theory will help other educators shape professional development programs to maximize the translation of teacher learning into student learning.