In addition to inquiryHub projects, team members collaborate on a wide variety of research investigations.

Below and to the right are examples of work being conducted in association with iHub team members.

Early Stage Research on Automatically Identifying Instructional Moves in Mathematics

With support from an NSF EAGER award (#1600325), members of the Inquiry Hub research team are working alongside researchers in computational linguistics to explore the use of automated tools to aid in the development of pre-service mathematics teachers. The TalkBack cyberlearning tool will process the transcripts of small-group practice teaching sessions with the goal of providing pre-service teachers with automated feedback about their skill in facilitating high-quality mathematical discourse. Two conceptual mockups of the TalkBack system are shown here:

TalkBack summary analysis of teachers Talk Moves

TalkBack analysis of a video of a teaching session

The NSF EAGER award is providing the initial funding to focus on the development of the TalkBack technology. As that technology develops, the team will seek out new funding so that they may shift their research to the teacher learning that happens in a practice-based teaching environment supported by the TalkBack system.

Project team members come from CU-Boulder's (UCB) Institute of Cognitive Science, the School of Education, the Institute for Learning (IFL), and Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). The current team includes:

  • Tamara Sumner, Principal Investigator, UCB, Cognitive Science and Computer Science
  • Wayne Ward, UCB, Research Professor, Institute of Cognitive Science
  • Jennifer Jacobs, UCB, Research Associate, Institute of Cognitive Science
  • Victoria Bill, IFL, University of Pittsburgh
  • William R. Penuel, UCB, Learning Sciences, School of Education
  • Michael Matassa, UCB, Master Teacher, School of Education
  • Carolyn Hoste, BVSD, Mathematics Teacher