Research

My research explores teacher cognition and the process of learning to teach, with an emphasis on changes in novice and experienced teachers' knowledge and beliefs about teaching, learning, subject matter, and their classroom practices. I am particularly interested in factors that facilitate and hinder teachers' learning of reform-based practices, and in policies and practices that can support teacher change.

The Effects of Standards-Based Assessment on Schools
and Classrooms
This five-year project (1996-2001), conducted with Dr. Shelby Wolf, funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), investigated the instructional and assessment practices of exemplary teachers and schools in two states with mandated state-wide assessment programs. The project was conducted in conjunction with a parallel survey-based project directed by Dr. Brian Stecher at RAND. Our publications included analyses of case studies of exemplary practice in the states of Kentucky and Washington, as well as the role of professional development in educational reform.

In my current CRESST project, co-directed with Dr. Brian Stecher, we are developing and validating measures of classroom practices designed to reveal the impact of accountability policies and reform initiatives on classroom curriculum and instruction. Our focus is on intermediate measures that probe more deeply than surveys and are less labor-intensive than naturalistic case studies. (For additional information about CRESST, please see www.cse.ucla.edu )

Learning to Teach Secondary Mathematics (LTSM)
This five-year project (1997-2002), with Drs. Dominic Peressini and Lew Romagnano, funded by the National Science Foundation, Division of Research, Evaluation, and Communication (REC), explored the process of learning to teach secondary mathematics. We conducted case studies of six beginning secondary mathematics teachers who participated in one of two reform-based teacher education programs, in order to understand the process of learning to teach reform-based secondary mathematics, and the personal and contextual factors that influence this process. We collected data for our case study participants during their final years of teacher preparation and first two years of teaching, and are now in the analysis and dissemination phases of the project. (For additional information, please see education.colorado.edu/research/ltsm)

Supporting the Transition from Arithmetic to Algebraic Reasoning (STAAR)
This five-year research program is a collaborative project that includes researchers at the University of Colorado, University of Wisconsin, and Carnegie Mellon University.  It is funded through the Interagency Educational Research Initiative (IERI), co-sponsored by NSF, OERI, and NICHD. Our program of research, centered on the transition to abstract algebraic reasoning, addresses (a) the study of middle school algebra as a content domain, (b) student thinking, learning, and development, (c) the design of learning environments, (d) teacher knowledge, beliefs, and practices, and (e) teacher learning and collaborative professional development. The University of Colorado research team, co-directed by Drs. Hilda Borko and Jeff Frykholm, is designing a professional development program for middle school mathematics teachers and studying the program’s impact on teachers’ professional community and their knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices related to algebra teaching. (For additional information, see algebra.colorado.edu.)